Alright so this is a silly little thing and has been around for years and years and years.  We make these cards at least once a year for various coaches and it always amazes me how surprised people are to see these and receive these.  I get asked all the time how we made it and how people haven’t seen these before, so I thought I’d share some of our candy bar cards with you!

We seriously make these for almost every Coach as it is a sweet gesture that isn’t too expensive and ultimately what Coaches want is just recognition and appreciation for all the time and energy they pour into our kids.  This is a great way to tell them how much you appreciate them.

Sometimes we include a gift with the card, sometimes a collective gift card from the team and sometimes just the card.  One constant though is that it truly never ceases to amaze me how much fun it is for the kids to give these cards and how big of a kick the coaches get to receive them.  I thought this year my 10 (almost 11) year old might be too old to make one of these but nope!  I wish I could share the sweet pictures I took of the team presenting this to a very beloved Coach and his reaction was priceless.  I have tons of photos of my daughter’s soccer team over the past 15 months but the ones we will really treasure are the smiles from the girls when they won their first big tournament and the pure joy and affection at the last game presenting this silly little card we made.

This isn’t just an idea for Coaches- it is fun for birthdays, graduation, Father’s Day… the idea is the same just customize the words to suit the person you are celebrating.

Now I can tell you that this is pretty inexpensive and very quick to make- you could be done in less than 20 minutes flat.  I usually budget about $15 per card depending on where you shop and how many candy items you purchase.

So to get started, you want to come up with a rough draft for your card.

I just start thinking of sayings- randomly and string them together.  You can also Google or search pinterest for lots of other ideas.

Some classics we use a lot for coaches specifically:

• “We didn’t always Skor”  or “We really Skor’ ed with you as our Coach.”
• “We know we are Goobers” or “Sometimes we acted like Goobers”  (I prefer Goobers to Airheads but you can substitute that in)
• “Our games were real Whoppers”  “Some plays were total Whoppers”
• “Sometimes we have Butterfingers” (softball, football, baseball or basketball)
• “Be-twix-ed you and me” or “we learned lots of Twix” (great for soccer)
• “You always go the Extra mile” or “Extra fun season” etc..
• “The season started off Rocky” or “It was a rocky road but..”
• “We had mounds of fun”
• “We didn’t always hit like Baby Ruth”  (softball or baseball)
• “We definitely CHEWs you as our Coach” (use Hi-Chew candy)
• “Sometimes we fell to pieces” or “We just love you to pieces”  (Reeses Pieces candy)

I try to keep it at just a few sentences- especially since the larger boxes of candy take up a lot of space.

Once I figure out what I want to say, the hunt begins for the candy.  I usually find the best selection at drugstores or at larger gas stations.  Once you find all your candy, you want to pick up a poster board.  I prefer the foam boards that are pretty reasonable at the Dollar Stores or Walmart.  I recently started using these “Best Ever” bars I found at CVS in the candy sections.  Snickers has been coming up with some fun words on packaging lately too.

Next you can just start writing out your thoughts but if you mess up… well you can always flip it over and try again.  I have learned to do a rough outline of my card to be sure everything fits and looks good.

I like to use a ruler and very lightly and gently measure a line every 2 inches to keep the writing straight on the poster board.

Next using a pencil, I draft out the words and fit the candy in as I go to be sure it all fits and the spacing is ok.  If it all fits, I go back over the pencil marks with a good, thick marker.  I have used Sharpies before and just traced over my words or if I have a little more time, I actually erase the words as I go and rewrite in marker.

You can have fun with this if you have nice handwriting- I don’t so I sometimes use different colored markers or little graphics to spruce it up a bit.  One year we bought white posterboard and drew little red laces on the side/middle to look like a huge softball and then wrote the card out over the laces.  That looked great.

I do erase the pencil lines I drew once I have the final words outlined in marker.  The very last step is taking a hot glue gun and securing all your candy to the card.  If I have the time, I might also trim plain paper to cover up words.  Like I should have covered up the “Peppered” on my Beef Jerky package.  Or you might cover up “tamales” to use Hot Tamales on a card and so on.

And here is the finished product:

I always seem to wait until the last minute to make these so this one was a big rush- I finished it in just a few minutes and didn’t measure out lines or anything.  My daughter did take the time to draw out each of her teammates which the kids got a huge kick out of, otherwise we sign the team name or the player’s names.

Fun, cheap, cheerful and a sweet way to thank someone special in your life.