Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays to celebrate. Spending quality time with family and friends reminds us all of what and whom we are thankful for. Creating individualized place cards for your guests is a fun way to add a personalized touch to the Thanksgiving table. I will often use scrap booking supplies and the computer to generate my ideas for place cards. Along with the name of the person, I often use clip art and/or a photo taken from previous gatherings in the year to create my design. I often start with gathering the photos and then apply a theme. In this particular name card to the right I added a cut out pop up photo in the fold for interest and went with a simple cornucopia theme above the name for each guest.
Every other year my brother and I celebrate Thanksgiving with our in laws, therefore my family gets together for a special pre-cursor to Thanksgiving in October. On these years, I try to combine Halloween and Thanksgiving into my place card design. In the above three photos, I used circular Autumn themed clip art on the doors and a Halloween design on the inside with the person's name attached. Pulling up on the name reveals a photo of that family member. I tried to match the Halloween character on the inside of the doors with the personality of the family member to keep it fun and interesting.
Sometimes due to time constraints, I keep my place cards simple. The next two photos are examples of simple designs mounted to heavy card stock.I found a wonderful paper napkin with a leaf motif and folded it in an interesting way to make it special for dinner and a backdrop for the name tag. I used a hole punch in the napkin, added olive ribbon and the printed name tag glued to heavy card stock for support to create a simple but elegant place card. To contrast the simplicity of the place card, my table was dressed with faux leaf garland, small pumpkins and gourds in clear hurricane vases. The design created a colorful centerpiece for the table. Adding candles in silver candlestick holders and gold chargers under the china gave the table design the punch that it needed for a memorable Thanksgiving. The "we are thankful for" place card is the second simple design mounted on burgundy card stock. Again the simple place card was offset by seven burgundy candles of varying height placed on unused cd's. I used the faux leaf garland from a previous year wrapped around the bottom of each candle. I hot glued little pumpkins to the leaves as well and found wonderful fabric for $1.00 a yard to make napkins and a table runner. You can sew the raw edges if you have a sewing machine or you could use the "no sew" method that comes on a roll. 
For a more elaborate name card, I used scrap booking techniques to create a 3-D layered place card. The base is made from an orange foam sheet. A smaller rectangle was cut from leaf patterned scrapbook paper mounted on dark brown card stock for contrast. On top of that, I applied a narrow horizontal band of shiny gold card stock with a smaller strip of textured paper to resemble the skin of a football. The letters are stickers in glittery silver. I embellished the rest of the place card with scrapbook 3-D appliques found at my local craft store. I hand cut orange leaves out of the rest of the orange foam for an extra touch. I think the end result is a beautiful addition to any table setting. The possibilities are endless with this design. Lastly, my family has a Thanksgiving tradition after football, dinner, and dessert. We all gather around the table and play Bingo. This may seem unusual to some but its a wonderful way for all of us to get away from the ipods, television, and cell phones. No matter what your age, everyone can play Bingo. We always have a great time laughing and being together. In addition to the place cards, I create a Bingo sheet for everyone to follow along. My Mother enjoys putting little prizes together from the dollar store or getting silver dollars for the kids. Whatever your family traditions are...adding personalized place cards will add a special touch for all of your guests and let them know they are loved...Happy Autumn
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