Thanksgiving is only a week away -- time to get those menus together and decorate that pretty
Thanksgiving dinner table. And we all know who usually gets the raw end of the deal at Thanksgiving -- the KIDS! While the adults are laughing it up at the "big people" table, the kids are relegated to some lonely, small, old beat up card table in a dark corner somewhere WAY away from the everyone else. Poor little things!
How are we ever going to instill that "attitude of gratitude" in them if we don't make Thanksgiving fun? Well, now we can!! I'm on a mission to change the dreaded "kids table" and make it something really special -- a place even the adults would like to sit!
How about this? Cute, don't you think? With a
FREE Thanksgiving Kids' Table printable set, you can whip up a table like this for the kids this Thanksgiving in no time at all. And this week, I'll be showing you how. Today, we'll work on the centerpiece -- a little twist on the Mayflower. (Keep this one handy for a pirate party, too!)
First, the materials. Here's what you'll need to gather up. And, by the way, I didn't even go to the store before doing this table. I looked around, used what I had and just made it work. You can do the same -- be creative!
Materials:
-- 1 or 2 woven placemats from the Dollar Tree
-- Hot glue and hot glue gun
-- scissors
-- 3 small diameter dowel rods
-- 3 large ship sails from Shindig's FREE Thanksgiving Printables set
-- hole punch
-- small pieces of styrofoam or florist foam
-- small containers like terra cotta pots, pails, or boxes
-- shredded paper gift bag filler
Step 1: Making the ship base. Take a placemat and cut your 2 ship pieces from it across its length. Make the ends approximately 2 inches higher than the middle, which should be about 5 1/2" in the center, 7 1/2" high on the ends. (Ignore that pink box.... that was my first idea for what to anchor the sails on -- I changed my mind later.... I do that sometimes.)
Step 2: Glue ship pieces together. Take one ship piece and add hot glue all the way down one of it's sides. Now take your other ship piece and put it on top of the ship piece with glue. Press the pieces together to secure. (Only use the hot glue on the sides of the ship pieces)
Repeat on the other side of the ship pieces.
Step 3: Securing your ship sails. Now that your ship is glued on each side, open the ship pieces and place any small containers like pots, pails or boxes inside as shown above. Now cut a small piece of styofoam or florist foam to place inside of the pots. These will be anchors for your ship sail dowels. (If you don't have styrofoam or florist foam, playdough or clay make work as anchors, too.)
Cut 3 dowels to 20" in length. Next, print and cut 3 large ship sails from the FREE Thanksgiving kids' table set. Punch a hole in each in the center of the top and the bottom and thread a small dowel through. Insert the dowel into your styrofoam, and repeat for the other 2 ship sails.
Step 4: Making it pretty. It's coming together now...... you're almost done! One last little step..... take some shredded gift bag filler (I used yellow) and cover up all of the messy looking stuff on the inside of your boat. That's it -- wasn't that easy??
And this is what you get! Aren't you proud of yourself?
Stay tuned for tomorrow's tutorial on how to make the small ship cupcake or muffin wraps and sails. And I'll also tell you how to make that cute little pinecone turkey crayon holder.
Have a great day today!
Take your printed 2" logo sheet and punch out one of logos to make a favor tag
Now cut off the top of the jewelry bag ziploc -- you won't need the closure part. Fill your bag with Skittles -- not too full though. We don't want sugar-crazed kids at Thanksgiving!
After tying off the bag, cut your raffia to get it even. And then attach your favor tag by punching a hole in it with a hole punch and stringing a piece of raffia through and tying it to the favor bag.
Isn't it cute? And so easy!! Yay, mom!!
