Holiday Table Seating Cards

This Thanksgiving, totally in the ATC mode, I decided to make name cards for each guest at our table...one night, trying to fall asleep, I thought of the many buckeyes we'd collected just a month or so ago. I thought of spray paint, and holiday greetings...

I ended up spray painting the buckeyes gold. I'd actually spray-painted them a week or so earlier, in anticipation of another project (see bird's nest arrangment, coming soon). So I had plenty on hand. I'd also painted some small pine cones, the kind that are two inches or less in length.

A quick Google image search pulled up various clip art sites with holiday borders. Using Photoshop, I forced the dimensions to fit ATC card size.

I then went to a site that listed hymns for every occassion and picked out a few verses that seemed appropriate to each guest. I printed the cards out on one large sheet, and cut them into 2.5 x 3.5 inch rectangles.

Then, I picked out buckeyes that had one flat side; they stand up better that way. I put a dab of glue on the top of the buckeye and placed the pinecone on top.

I had also had some green leaves that were leftover from a flower arrangment. They seemed to never wither or die. I had sprayed them gold as well. I cut one leaf off for each name card and after the pine cone was secure, glued the leaf to the buckeye as well. The leaf was used to give interest to the back side of the seating cards, what people would see from the other side of the table. So, I put the right side of the leaf facing the pine cone.

Next, I glued the printed cards to the front of the buckeye, about 1/8 inch from the table's surface. I also put a dab of glue in the middle of the leaf and adhered the card to the leaf as well.

Below is a photo of the back of the cards. They looked really pretty on the table. The next time, I will also print something on the back, and likely use my own drawings. Also, I will use shorter verses and a larger font, as our table consisted of 2 80-somethings, 1 60-something and 2 50-somethings. We were all looking for our reading glasses to see the darn things. But they did look good on the table!