Thanksgiving Tabletop Flourish

By Kate Riley November 16, 2009

With so many great submissions, we’re kicking off Guest Blogger Week early!  Today, I’m featuring a new and talented blogger named Janel Kaden Doran and her blog Dinks.

Janel shows us how she crafts some extra special touches during the season for her Thanksgiving table, and not a moment too soon since the big day is upon us !

Enjoy these simple and easy tricks for dressing up your seasonal tabletop, including Golden Twig Place Card Holders, Purple Flame Place Card Holders, a multiple use Starburst Bow, and a Giving Thanks Simple Place Card Holder.

square collage 

Golden Twig Place Cards

 janel gold twig on plate 
Supplies: Scissors, pressed paper, gold metallic spray paint, pen, twigs (about four inches long) gold glitter, three large leafy greens from the yard, and hot glue.

Steps:  1) Begin with clean twigs found around the neighborhood or yard. Spray paint them gold, flipping once or twice to get full coverage.  2) Trace a leaf of choice on the paper, cut it out to reveal your paper leaf.  3) Write name on leaf, then dab a drop of hot glue on bottom on leaf on front side and quickly adhere to stick, with the stick being in front on the leaf.

leaf steps 
For your centerpiece, spray paint oversized leaves from your yard gold, and while your paint is still wet, sprinkle with sparkles on top.  When dry, dust off the excess glitter and plop into a vase to coordinate with your twig place card holders. 

golden leaves

 

Purple Flame Candle Holder Place Cards 

purple flame crop

Supplies: Scissors, thin wire, small fall leaves, purple marker/sharpie, wire cutters, votive candle holders (glass & clear,) tags, and silk ribbon in a neutral color.

Steps: 1) Begin with the votive candle holder and placement of leaf. Wrap the wire around it, and securely twist the ends together.  2) Twist the wire end to the front, and wrap silk ribbon around the votive, following the wires placement. 3) Tie ribbon around front of leaf.  3) Write name on tags before attaching them to the votives.  Snip off string attached to tag, and use wire to secure into place in center of votive. Where the ribbon is tied. 

purple steps

For added drama, take a small amount of gummy adhesive and place on top of crystal candle holders. Place votive place-cards on top of candle holder, pressing firmly down to secure and prevent sliding.

Isn’t this a gorgeous idea, and fabulous use of jewel tone colors ?  Notice the casual draping of beads across the table.  Love it !

purple flame final

 

Starburst Bow – Multiple Uses

janel starburst final crop

Steps:  Begin by cutting two pieces of yarn, one 2.5 feet and the other 3 to 5 inches.  Take the longer piece and wrap around an open hand (trying to keep each wrap even sizes.) 2) Create your circle of yarn, and tie the center securely with the 3 inch long piece. The extra length of this piece will be used to tie onto gifts, bottles or napkins.  4) Use a small piece of wire to wrap a bead to sit in front of bow. Leave a little wire on the backside.  5) Use the scissors to snip open the loops on each side. 6) Cut a leaf shape from the hand-made paper. Secure in the back with the extra wire to be used as the gift tag. 

starburst steps

Use these to dress up your vino on your table or sideboard for Thanksgiving, and pull the whole look together buy making some complimentary napkin holders to coordinate.  Use mini punched leaves to make personalized wine glass tags. These make great gift toppers too !

 janel starburst bow

 

Giving Thanks Simple Place Card Holder

SimpleThx3

Supplies: Scissors, yellow construction paper, tan hand-made paper, leaf hole punch, gold/bronze wire, silk orange ribbon, crayons, chunky yarn, pen, scotch tape, glass beads.

simple thx supplies

Steps:  1) Begin by cutting the yellow construction paper into 4″x 4″ squared. Loosely roll each one and secure with tape. 2) Cut the hand-made paper into 2.5″ x 4″ rectangles.  Roll them around the yellow rolls and secure with tape. 3) Take about a 6″-7″ strand of the silk ribbon and secure tie around the roll. 4) Snip out leaves with the yellow construction paper and the leaf hole punch. 5) Take a 3″ length of the wire and poke it through one of the leaves.
6) Roll one end of the wire around a pen to get a coiled effect (be careful not to crush the leaf, then stuff one end of the wire through the ribbon around the roll. 7) Cut yellow paper into a 3″ x .5″ piece to roll around the crayon. 8) Write names before securing to crayon. 10) Roll over crayon and secure with tape or glue. 

SimpleThx Step1

Giving Thanks idea:  At the beginning or end of dinner, have each guest unravel their “roll” and write with their crayon one thing they are thankful for on the yellow paper. Begin a “Thankfulness Minute” as each person continues to pass the yellow notes to the right until the circle is complete. 

SimpleThx on table

If you’re interested in some simple printable place card holders, take a look at these designs.  

harvest placecards

Janel offers you this PDF file for her harvest collection place cards right here

Thank you so much Janel for sharing your creative ideas with us.  Show her some love by leaving a complimentary comment, and check out Janel’s cute blog right here.  Look for more guest posts coming soon !

22 comments

  1. I especially love the idea of the Thankfulness Place Card – that’s so funny, it’s what I posted about today, too! Love these great ideas from Janel, what a great way to kick of Guest Blogger week!

  2. These are adorable! I love the simplicity but beauty of the stick card, I think that I will be using this one! Thanks :)

  3. Such great, pretty ideas! Thanks for sharing . . . I esp. want to try out the twig place card holders at Thanksgiving this year!

    <3

  4. Hi Kate – thank you for the introduction to Dinks. I can’t wait to check it out. What beautiful Thanksgiving inspiration. I am all about the details. :)

    I’m trying to catch up…so off to read up. I don’t know where the time goes!
    Have a GREAT week!
    R

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