How To Host a Football Homecoming Mum Making Party

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and The Coca-Cola Company. All opinions are mine alone. #NotSoFastMom #CollectiveBias

Football is a big tradition in Texas.  Most teenage girls cannot wait until they reach high school and are able to sport their own football homecoming mum.  As they say, everything is bigger in Texas.  Same applies for our football spirit.  We are loud and proud of our home teams, especially in high school.

My friends and I like to get together and make our teens their homecoming mums and garters (for boys).  It gives us adults a chance to get into the spirit and have some crafting fun.  Below I share tips for how to host a football homecoming mum making party and step-by-step photos on making your own homecoming mum.

Since our party was a crafting party to get ready for game day, we kept the appetizers somewhat light.  Instead of messy options that would get in the way of crafting, we provided finger foods that could be consumed easily.

I love that Coca-Cola offers football themed boxes at Walmart.  They go perfect with your football party table setting.

You don’t even have to remove the cans from the box and your party table still looks good.

I left the full box on my table and added several cans to our ice bucket.

DIY Football Popcorn Bags

To make a quick snack that is easy to grab and go, I decorated these paper sacks to hold popcorn.  I used an online template for the shape of the football helmet and cut it out of scrapbook paper.  Then I glued it on gray cardstock which was layered on black chalkboard style paper.  The total craft took only a few minutes and rounded out the party decor.

Plus, who doesn’t love snacking on popcorn while crafting or watching a game?

I left the second half of our party table for the craft supplies.

Football Homecoming Mum Supplies

• Mum Flower
• Mum Cardboard Circle Backing – 3 pack
• Ribbons in various width – school colors
• Beads
• Bells
• Letter Stickers
• Plastic Spirit Items
• Stapler
• Hot Glue Gun & Glue Sticks

Football Homecoming Mum Tutorial

First, you want to make your mum flower backing.  You can create the outer ribbons in any pattern you wish.  You can use a single ribbon or get fancy with overlapping ribbons like shown.  Since my daughter’s school colors are black, red and silver we overlapped silver with both black and red.

You will need two different size widths if you plan to overlap.  Measure the length of your ribbon by lining it up against the cardboard back, allowing enough to hang off to show past where your flower will line up.

Cut your ribbons each the same length and staple in the style you like.  Then start stapling them to your mum base.

Next you need to hot glue your mum flower in place.  Instead of using a plain white flower, I used glitter spray to add some shimmer to the flower petals.

Set your mum flower to the side and start working on your ribbons.  The average mum is three-feet in length but you can measure the appropriate length for your daughter by holding the first ribbon to her chest and cutting at desired length.

Next up, create the loop ribbons for the names for the mum.  If two high school students go to homecoming together then you will add both of their names to the mum.  Since my daughter went solo we added her name and the word homecoming down the front.

You will want to allow a full roll of ribbon for your loops.  I used a little less than three yards.  Loop the ribbon and staple upwards to hold each loop in place as shown in the image above.  Remember to fold down the start of the next loop before stapling.

Add your glitter letter stickers to each loop.

Refreshment Time

Not So Fast Mom! Making a football homecoming mum can be tedious work and take a long time.  Remember to stand up, stretch out your back and have a snack.

Everyone enjoyed a red velvet mini cupcake and refreshing Coke Zero.  I was able to make the party theme come together by gluing spirit cutouts to toothpicks.  The footballs are my favorite, although the cheerleaders turned out pretty cute!

Decorative straws in the school colors made our drinks feel fancy.

Back to crafting!

In order to pin the homecoming mum for wearing you will need a loop of ribbon on the back.  I also use it to hang the mum while attaching the full length ribbons.  It makes it easy to hang and make sure I line up each ribbon evenly.

I tried to evenly space out the ribbons to prevent having all red together or all black.  Staple the ribbons one at a time until you have the foundation complete.  Finally hang your name ribbons in the front.

Once all ribbons are in place it is time to hot glue the football homecoming spirit trinkets to ribbons.  You can tie your bells on to the ends or add curling ribbons to hold into place.

Now glue your main pieces to your homecoming mum flower.  Some people prefer one large item like a teddy bear but we couldn’t find the bronco in a larger size.  Instead we added the smaller bronco and freshman star with a couple of other items to even it out.

And now it’s time to head to the football homecoming game and show your Texas pride by sporting your beautiful homecoming mum.

To prepare for watching the game in this hot Texas heat we can’t forget the refreshments!

While shopping at Walmart for our party supplies and food, I picked up a case of Powerade for the game.

The 12 pack of Powerade 12 oz bottles is the ideal size for watching the game.  The Mountain Berry Blast flavor is our go-to!  We toss these in a cooler and take with us to the game.  Don’t forget your spirit items!

Plenty to share with our son’s teammates and my daughter’s friends.

Not only is my middle daughter now a freshman in high school but my son is playing his first year of football as the starting quarterback.  It’s an exciting time for fall football in our home!

Whether you’re celebrating at home or cheering on your athlete from the sidelines, make the most of your game days with tips from NotSoFastMom.com.