Thanksgiving is quite possibly the fanciest dinner you'll host all year. It's a great time to dust off your fine china and personalize your table with place cards and decorative bouquets. In this tutorial you'll learn how to create mini pumpkin bouquets and gold shimmery pumpkin place cards, and how to put it all together for a stunning table. Your guests will love the festive touch -- and because these little projects are a cinch to make, you'll have plenty of time to work on that roast turkey and pumpkin pie.
Credit: Liz Stanley
Supplies
Several small pumpkins (one per every 2-3 guests should be plenty)
Autumn flower bouquet
Knife
One mini pumpkin for each guest
Gold spray paint
Labels (I just used basic address labels I cut down to size)
Scissors
Computer and printer
Coordinating napkins, tablecloth, dinner plates, etc.
Credit: Liz Stanley
We'll start with the pumpkin bouquets. You'll want several for the table, at least one for every 2-3 people. You want the pumpkins to be small so that it will be easy for guests to see over them and have nice eye contact at your Thanksgiving table. (Nothing is worse than a huge flower arrangement blocking everyone's vision.)
Take your small pumpkin and with a knife, cut an even square around the top.
Credit: Liz Stanley
Remove the top. It will be more difficult to cut than a normal pumpkin. These smaller pumpkins are gourds and are much more dense and can be a little more difficult to cut through. Make sure you use a knife with decent teeth.
Credit: Liz Stanley
Scrap out the inside as best you can and add water about two thirds of the way up. Don't worry about it being too clean -- you aren't adding a candle inside like when you make jack-o-lanterns for Halloween.
Credit: Liz Stanley
Pick up a pretty autumn bouquet from your local florist or grocery store.
Credit: Liz Stanley
Cut down several different flowers and foliage of varying lengths.
Credit: Liz Stanley
Create a small bouquet that fits inside the pumpkin. Isn't it cute?
Credit: Liz Stanley
Moving onto the place cards. Take the small pumpkins, one for each guest, and spray paint them gold with some super shimmery gold spray from the hardware store. Make sure you're doing this on some cardboard, outside or in a well ventilated area like a garage. Allow an hour or two to dry completely before handling.
Credit: Liz Stanley
Print the names of each guest onto some sticker-backed labels. You'll probably want to print a couple of different size fonts to choose from.
Credit: Liz Stanley
Cut the label into a thin strip and remove the wax backing
Credit: Liz Stanley
Wrap around the top of the shimmery mini pumpkin
Place the mini pumpkins on top of each napkin which lies folded on top of the dinner and salad plates. Arrange the pumpkin bouquets, evenly spaced, down the center of the table.
Need one more thing on your table? Try this cool branch craft from ShelterPop. And don't forget to check out the rest of Holidash's Thanksgiving decorating ideas.
Liz Stanley is a Jersey girl who relocated to San Francisco. You can see more of her beautiful crafts at her blog, Say YES to Hoboken! She contributed this piece to Holidash via Seed; for more information on becoming an AOL contributor, go to Seed.com.
