Thursday, October 6, 2011

thanksgiving napking rings/place-cards...

Canadian thanksgiving is this weekend!  I know you Americans wait about a month longer (but if you want to pig out this weekend, feel free to tell yourselves "the canadians are doing it!")

I've been collecting toilet-paper-rolls for such an occasion as this:  my sister asked me (ok, no, I decided) to make napkin rings that could double for place-cards.

Soooo, thanksgiving is usually held at my mom's.  The food is plentiful, and so delicious, but there is no emphasis placed on seasonal decor.  My sister made place-cards for my mom's 60th birthday party, and I think we were the only ones oohing and aahing over them.  I'm pretty sure my dad said "nice," as he was moving it off his plate and over to the nearest counter.  Ha!  We'll see how these makeshift napkin rings go over :)


It was so easy, my son helped me out (and he's 4!)  We chopped toilet paper rolls in half, and then cut strips of patterned paper in the same width as the roll.  Place one end of half of the double-sided tape (that was placed down the middle of the roll) and wrap it around until you can rest the paper on the tape that is still exposed.  My son did the wrapping, and to keep it super easy, I had him gently rip the paper when he was done.  We left that seam exposed (although on a few of them, too much seam was exposed and I redid them. Such is crafting with kids...)


The longest part of creating the tag was stamping each person's name (with lawn fawn's "sally's abcs".)  But once that was done, I stamped PTI's "background basics: gingham" across the bottom in a burnt orange color, and stamped lawn fawn's "turkey day" stamp off to the side.  He got a quick coloring, and the tag was stapled onto the ring.  I like the look of the staple, but if you didn't, you could always just glue it on...  The tag shape and leaves in the back are both SU punches.


Here are some of them, all assembled.


And, just for fun, on a plate.  With a wine glass, that I didn't take out just for this photo-shoot, and then decide some juice would really hit the spot... My husband came home and asked why there was 1 good wine glass on the drying rack...


To end off, I also created these super-quick notecards that we can all share things we've been thankful for this year.  Kelly-Marie created some on the lawn fawn blog yesterday, and I thought it was a really wonderful idea.  I down-sized some index cards, stamped "so thankful" in the same alphabet set as my place-holders, and the same turkey and gingham too.  No fuss, no muss, but I think they'll be fun to share after a hefty thanksgiving dinner.

Who's about ready to get their turkey on?  *waving hands wildly in the air*

9 comments:

  1. How cute are these? You did a great job with the rings! I think you are ready for turkey....bring it on!

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  2. I like the easy and fun way to share what you're most thankful for.

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  3. Love your napkin rings and notecards. Wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving filled with special memories. Sadly we don't celebrate Thanksgiving in SA.

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  4. These are great, Elena! We'll have thanksgiving at my SIL's this Sunday (& yeah, not much emphasis on decor there, either) at at my mom's on Monday-- can't wait! I've used toilet paper rolls to make pillow boxes for Valentine's before, but I love how you used them for napkin rings (& how you got your son involved, too!) So fun!

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  5. Happy Thanksgiving. All your crafts are so sweet. How nice that your son helped you. I'm sure that they will get a little more love from everyone when he says 'I did it myself'

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  6. my goodness Elena, these are perfect! i love this idea. thanks for sharing your technique too...it's great!

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  7. great idea..these are adorable!

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  8. Such a fun idea!! They look great on the napkins. I love that your son could help out, too!

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  9. I saw this on a Flikr Friday and just had to find out how you made them! Super cute, I'm saving the picture so I can make something myself too! Your writing style is fun, I hear you about the "nice" as people move on...boys...we love them so! lol.

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