How to Make Memorable Thanksgiving Place Card Holders

Make Thanksgiving memorable with place card holders that will have your guests talking. Your guests will appreciate the extra-special touch of handmade place card holders and cards when they sit down to the Thanksgiving dinner table.

Instructions

1. Cut a slit in an apple or a miniature pumpkin, and slip in the card.

2. Hot-glue the place card onto a pinecone. Spray-paint the cone copper or gold if you wish.

3. Set the place card in a small potted plant, or hot-glue it onto the pot, for guests to take home. Terra-cotta pots are the perfect color for Thanksgiving, but if you have black or green plastic pots, slip each of them into a small brown paper sack with its top rolled down and festooned with ribbon.

4. Using a paint pen, write each guest's name on a leaf at his or her place. If a large real leaf isn't available, cut leaves from red, orange, brown and/or yellow construction paper and write names on them with a fine-point brown marker.

5. Plant a bulb in a terra-cotta pot for each guest to take home. Write the person's name on the terra-cotta pot.

6. Glue an oak leaf and a couple of small acorns onto a plain card (spray-painted metallic gold or copper if desired). Or draw the oak leaf and acorn on a plain place card using a fine-tip brown marker.

Tips & Warnings

• Plants such as chrysanthemums, pansies and ornamental kale, and herbs such as sage, are widely available at garden centers.

• Narcissus bulbs are reliable bloomers in pots; generally, they should be planted at a depth about two to three times the bulb's height.