Canadian Thanksgiving is just around the corner! Thanksgiving is about family, food and of course, a pretty table! I love the idea of simple, thoughtful decorations, and if you put some time and effort into a pretty place setting including something creative for the place card holders and chargers, you are set!
Photo courtesy of Tanya Goehring at Post Photography
I loved this idea at the Vitala Foods Longtable Dinner that Laurel and I were invited to (see it here) to celebrate the launch of their blog. They used seriously large apples and made vintage-y looking name tags and tied them on with twine!! A piece of burlap stamped with their blog logo ROOTS, and a menu in the same vintage type font was placed underneath. Rustic and simple….I love this look!
So, I’m am NOT a DIY’er, but I was thinking of how I could incorporate some of these ideas into my Thanksgiving table. I’ll be honest, I really hate (I know that’s a strong word!) crafting. In fact, all day yesterday, I was dreading going home to get my craft on….but I did have a bit of a brain wave and this is a super simple idea…cork rounds or squares with words stenciled on them like “Thankful”, “Blessed”, “Gather”, “Together”, or “Feast”.
Here’s what I used…
- for rounds – cork hot pot stands from Dollarama ( 2 for $1.25)
- for square chargers – cork tiles from Dollarama (2 for $2)
- letter stencils
- thick Sharpie
- hemp twine
- shipping labels from Staples
- painting tape
- quirky gourds
- metallic gold paint – I used Martha Stewart Multi-Surface Metallic Acrylic Craft Paint in “Gold” from Michaels
So, it’s VERY easy!! Put the line of tape where you are going to stencil the word.
Use a sharpie. Don’t color it in perfectly…I like the rustic look.
Wash and dry gourds. I quickly added a bit of metallic gold paint with a sponge brush to the top part of the gourd, highlighting the “bumps”. Use shipping labels for place cards and tie them to the gourds with the hemp twine. That’s it!!
