How to Make Unique Thanksgiving Place Cards

Are you interested in learning how to make unique Thanksgiving Place Cards that double as a small gift for your holiday celebration? This article shows you how you can make a place card that can double as a small gift.

If you are new to this blog: Welcome! My name is Anna and I share information on collecting antique/vintage items, refurbishing furniture and making small crafts/projects. The purpose of this blog is to show you how to use creativity and antiques to make your home beautiful. In addition to information here on the blog, you can also follow me on the following social media accounts Instagram, Facebook or Pinterest.

Handcrafted Society

Welcome to the Handcrafted Society! This is a group of talented bloggers who come together monthly to collectively craft creations using a shared medium or theme. This month’s theme was “glitter, foil or metal leafing”. So, each blogger created a project that incorporated these items.

The projects by the Handcrafted Society are fun and inspiring because we see the varied perspectives and interpretations of the theme by each participant. These women are amazingly creative in making projects for each month’s theme. Towards the conclusion of this post, you’ll find images and links to the projects for each blogger. I hope you enjoy browsing through all the ideas these ladies have created. Simply click on the image or blog name to view their full post.

Back Story

Whenever I am hosting a sit down meal for a holiday, I try to make it memorable. My primary goal is to make people feel welcome and appreciated. Thanksgiving is right around the corner so I wanted to share an idea with you for making your guests feel welcome. Instead of using traditional place cards, we are using small birdhouses to create individual place settings. As an added bonus, at the end of the meal, your guests can take their birdhouse home and use it as a Christmas ornament. It’s a great way to bridge two major holidays – Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Unique Thanksgiving Place Cards

I made 6 of these little birdhouses in space of a Sunday afternoon. If you have all the supplies on hand, this project is easy to complete. When painting the birdhouses, I opted for colors reflecting the season, warm brown, mustard, gold, tan and a creamy white. You can customize your birdhouses to reflect your style or theme.

Supplies

The first thing we need to do is gather our supplies. However below I have provided links to online sources where available. Please note, some items are optional, I added them for your convenience and interest but they are not required. I purchased the little birdhouses from Dollar Tree, however, I have seen them at other craft stores such as Michaels and Hobby Lobby.

• Small wooden birdhouses (I purchased mine from Dollar Tree)
• Metallic Craft Paint (You can use regular craft paint but I found the metallic paint provided better coverage)
• Small craft paint brushes
• Fine glitter ( optional – I used the color champagne)
• Elmer’s Glue
• Nelko label maker (optional)

Paint Birdhouses

Paint the birdhouses using the colors you selected. Depending upon the type of paint you use, it may require more than one coat. For this project I used Deco Art metallic paint which provided great coverage. These acrylic paints are water based making clean up a breeze.

Take your time painting each birdhouse to ensure you don’t miss any spots. Let them dry completely before moving on to the next step.

Apply Glitter

Glitter can be a bit controversial. People tend to love it or hate it. Obviously, I love it. Applying glitter to your birdhouses is optional. Pour a generous amount of glitter into a wide shallow dish. I used Elmer’s rubber cement glue and brushed it on the roof of each house. Then, I dipped the roof into the glitter.

Although I used rubber cement, you can use any type of glue for the glitter. Mod Podge and Elmer’s school glue work just as well.

Add Name Tag

If you have nice handwriting, write out each person’s name on a small label sticker. I opted to print out the names of guests using my Nelko label maker. It’s around $20, it’s wireless, and can be charged using a USB cord. To create the labels, you simply download the Nelko app to your phone. I find this little label maker comes in handy for a variety of uses. (office labels, organizing, food panty labels, gardening labels etc).

Use Birdhouses on your Table

The last step is to put the birdhouses on your table. I opted to set them in the center of each plate. Below are some photos of the final result.

You can see the variety of colors used to paint the birdhouses.

The label maker creates clear and easy to read name tags. Of course, these labels can be easily removed without damaging the birdhouses.

Handcrafted Society

As mentioned above, I am participating in the Handcrafted Society with other bloggers who also created projects with the theme of “glitter, foil or metal leafing”. You can see what they made below! If you want to learn more about any of the projects, simply click on the image.

In Closing

Thank you for stopping by the blog today! I hope you found some inspiration to fuel your creativity. Please take the time to visit the other posts by ladies who made projects with the theme of “glitter, foil or metal leaf”. They are some amazingly talented women who have great ideas and tips to share.