In St. Louis, we've been fortunate to have such warm weather late in the year. The fall leaves are shining in all their red, yellow, orange and gold glory, making for breathtaking views. So, if you're looking for a craft that will complement your Thanksgiving dinner and make a nice gift for your dinner guests, you don't have to look any further than your own backyard.
All you need is some construction paper or scrapbook paper in fall colors, a pencil or pen, a gold gel pen, scissors, dry, flat leaves and some kind of adhesive such as double sided tape or scrapbooking squares. All of these craft items are available at Michael's Crafts stores across St. Louis and St. Charles. When your project is finished, you'll have a beautiful table as well as a personalized keepsake for your dinner guests.
First, take a trek outside to gather various shapes of fall leaves. The color doesn't matter as you won't be using the actual leaves. So, just keep your eye out for pleasing shapes. Once you have your leaves, take a few minutes to fold your construction paper or scrapbook paper in half. Then, cut it in half, making two cards. If they are too wide, you may want to trim a bit off the end where the card opens. For an extra pretty touch, you might want to use a decorative edged scrapbooking scissor that will trim your edge in a scalloped, zig zag or other decorative edge rather than just a straight line.
Using a different, contrasting color of paper from that of your card, trace the shape of your leaves. When finished, cut out the leaf and use your adhesive to stick the leaf to the front of your card. If you'd like, you can embellish your card with stickers, ribbon, use the gold gel pen to draw a border around the card or outline around the leaf.
After practicing what you want to say by writing it out on scrap paper, compose a short note which you will write inside the leaf with your gold gel pen. You should have a note card for each dinner guest, the theme being why you are thankful to have them in your life. Be sure to label each card with your guest's name.
Inside the cards, you can write the same message to everyone, or mix them up a little. Just a quick inside note to say, Thank you for coming to dinner or May God bless you as you have blessed me will complete your card.
Set your personalized cards next to each place setting at the table. Your Thanksgiving dinner guests will be surprised to find a personalized card and touched to read words from your heart that show just how happy you are to not only have them over for dinner, but in your life each and every day. This is a very easy Thanksgiving craft to do, not requiring a lot of artistic ability, but one that will mean a lot to your friends and family.
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