My sons Preschool is having a Pre-Thanksgiving dinner and I volunteered to help coordinate. When it came time to divvy up jobs, I immediately raised my hand for the craftier portion: Centerpieces!
I found this idea on Parents.com and loved that the kids would be able to write what they are thankful for. It will be fun for the parents to read their child’s “leaf.”
This next idea is a modification of a chalkboard turkey place card I found on Pinterest via I Can Teach My Child. I loved the idea of having little chalkboard turkeys for the kids to draw and scribble on at the table. If they hadn’t already written what they were thankful for on the centerpiece above, this would be a perfect way to do it.
How to make a Chalkboard Turkey:
I used:
– 6.5″ plywood circles (.79 each at Michaels) or you could cut circles from foam core or cardboard but I liked that these were pre-cut and sturdier.
– 1 piece of brown stiffened felt (.99 at Michaels), 1 piece orange and red felt (.20 each)
– Chalkboard paint (or spray paint)
– googly eyes
– multi-colored goose feathers
Paint the plywood circles with 2-3 coats of chalkboard paint. I let the paint dry overnight. Cut little circles out of the brown stiffened felt. Create face using orange and red felt and googly eyes. I used a hot glue gun to glue everything together. Glue feathers on the backside. I used approx. 6 feathers for each turkey.
For the adult tables I made these pumpkin flower arrangements with the school’s logo painted on one side. My mom had the pumpkins left over from halloween and I thought they would make good centerpieces if I hollowed them out and added flowers. Unfortunately my floristry skills aren’t so good. I could have used my sister-in-laws help with this (she used to work as a florist), but I think they turned out ok.
I recently came across this tutorial for painting perfect letters and thought, if I perfect letters can be painted on wood, then why not try on pumpkin. I printed out the logo on a sheet of paper and taped it on the pumpkin. Using a ball point pen, I traced the logo (don’t be afraid to press hard while tracing). This will make an indent of the logo in the pumpkin. Using paint pens, I painted over the indents. It would have turned out even better if I had used the skinny tip paint pens.
I can’t wait to see how everything looks on the dinner tables!
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Hi! I was thinking of doing the chalkboard turkeys for a large group, and wanted to get an idea of the time needed to do a lot of them. Did you use primer on the wood circles first? What method did you use for coating the wood circles with chalkboard paint (spray paint, "regular" paint brush, or foam brush)? Thank you!
I love this centerpiece, Sara! I am doing a last minute Thanksgiving round-up of Thanksgiving crafts. Is it okay if I include this and link back to your blog?
Sarah I love these turkeys! Great projects! I gave this post a shout out so hopefully more people will stop by and see it!
http://goo.gl/MvHJqo
Marilyn
I love this idea!! I was just about to throw away my pumpkins because we never got to carving them for Halloween!!
Great post , thanks for sharing
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