Thanksgiving Place Cards

I love place cards! You can use them to assign seating, or write the names of the food you are serving for buffets or other parties.When you are at any kind of buffet type setting, it is nice not having to guess what kind of food you might be putting on your plate. Place cards can definitely add spice to your tables! Pier One usually has fantastic ones for almost every holiday. This year they had some great fall place cards, but I knew my husband wouldn't be excited if I bought home more "unnecessary" place cards (and I'm trying to have a little more self control) - though they are totally necessary in my book. I was at Michaels a few days after being at Pier One, and I got the idea to make my own Thanksgiving place cards.

Totally cute, and TOTALLY cheap. I think the ones I wanted at Pier One were $12 for four place cards. The ones I made were about 30 cents each.

Here's how you make them:

Choose from the assortment of Holiday picks at your local craft store. (You could do this for any Holiday- they have Christmas ones with gift boxes stacked on top of each other like these pumpkins are.) These were originally 1.99 each, but I got them on clearance.

Take some flat nosed wire cutters and clip off the wire pick.

You'll have a little piece of your pick still sticking out, and it won't let your pumpkins stand straight. Take the top of your cutters and press the pick up into the pumpkin.

I bought 18 assorted pumpkin stacks - still cheaper than the ones at Pier One.

Type up your name cards and tape under your pumpkins. (For my parties, I like to use the same font as I use for the invitations, favors, etc., to keep everything uniform. Only once, in all my parties, has someone noticed - and it was a guy - loved it.) You could also place your name cards above the plate to the left if you are putting your fancy folded napkins on the plate, or place them next to platters with the names of the food.

There you have your own snazzy home made place cards.