Fall and Thanksgiving Place Cards

As promised, I’m back with my final Fall and/or Thanksgiving table adornment.  

I started with a fringed linen tablecloth and napkins, followed it up with needle felted acorn napkin rings, and then with my centerpiece.  This final installment, my fall and Thanksgiving Place Cards is a result of my recent foray into calligraphy and general doodle-ing.  

I purchased two of Lindsey Bugbees’s instructional calligraphy kits recently and have just begun learning calligraphy.  I’m still a little rough, but I feel her instructionals have been very helpful.  All I need to do is devote more time to practice, which just hasn’t been in the cards of late.  

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All this to say, bear in mind I’m a newbie at this skill and don’t judge Lindsey’s instructional kits by my beginner calligraphy skills.  But, I am enjoying learning this new skill as it’s been on my ‘crafting bucket list’ for some time now.  It feels good to learn a new thing.  

What I Used for my Acorn Fall and Thanksgiving Place Cards:

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• Good paper that won’t bleed.  I found that the higher the brightness (96-98) and weight (34-36#) the less likely your ink or paint will bleed.  Lindsey recommends Hammermill Laser Print, 32 lb
• Micron Pens.  These pens come with very precise nibs and the ink is waterproof when dry.
• Watercolors.  I purchased the Micron Pens set and then added a few extra colors.  The colors I used for my Acorn Placecards were Cadmium Yellow Hue, Cadmium Red Deep Hue, Burnt Umber Burnt Sienna and Cadmium Red Pale Hue.
• Ruler
• Pencil
• Good Eraser

Here’s how I made my Acorn Fall and Thanksgiving Place Cards:

• I used my ruler and lightly drew a 2″ by 3″ rectangle on my paper

  

• I sketched out what I wanted my main drawing of acorns and oak leaves to be and where in pencil
• I drew a wavy outline in pencil and when I was happy  I used my Micron .05 pen to trace over the wavy outline, as well as the acorns and oak leaves.

  

• I erased all my pencil marks
• I used colors indicated above to very lightly fill in my design.  I added some very thin red to to my yellow oak leaves to show the changing colors of the leaves

  

• I’d be lying if I told you I accomplished what I wanted the first go-round.  Just keep at it until you get what you want.
• I then scanned my place card (using the highest resolution) into PhotoShop Elements 13, created a new 8.5″ by 11″ document and pasted 4 of the place cards into the new document.  Using PSE13 I was able to brighten the colors a bit and erase any errant pencil marks.  

• Here’s a step by step in PSE13

• First get your scanned image into PSE, using the highest resolution your scanner has.  Open that scanned image into PSE13 Editor while in EXPERT mode.
• Under File, pull up New and then Blank File

  

  I made my New File 8.5″ by 11″ with a Resolution of 300Pixels/Inch and named in Fall Placecards.

• Then I opened up the scan that I drew and resized it to 2.2″ by 3.3″ with 300 Resolution.  You can see that I have 2 documents open across the top, “PlaceCards”, which is the new 8.5″ by 11″ document and “Fall Place Card Scan” which is the scan of my original drawing.  

• Then I used the shortcuts CTRL A which selects the image and then CTRL C which copies the image selected.  You can tell it’s captured when you see the ants marching along the perimeter (I read that part about the marching ants somewhere and it has stuck with me!)

  

• Then tap on the big 8.5″ by 11″ document where you want to paste your scan and hit CTRL V to paste it.  I just hit CTRL V 4 times to put 4 of them on the page and then move them around.

• I found that 4 fit on one page best as it allowed space for them to be folded in half.
•  Once that’s done, you print your sheet on card stock using your best print settings, cut them out, fold them in half and write the name on them and you’re ready to go!!

I am sure there is other software out there that will let you scan a document and manipulate the image, but all I know is PhotoShop Elements.  In addition to the Acorn Place cards, I did this one which is just a bunch of leaves and acorns.  If your schedule doesn’t allow for you to start this project now, I’ve attached PDFs for both sets of place cards for your use.  

Set of 4 Fall Leaves and Acorns Place Cards

Set of 4 Fall Acorn Placecards

I know Thanksgiving is a month away, but it’s good to get started on your projects.  So many of Thanksgiving-ish things can be worked into your fall decorating now anyway.  

If you still need more fall decor ideas, check out my fall ‘open house’ with natural decor for more inspiration!

Thanks for making my day by SHARING!!