Summer Kickoff Series – Dinner Party Placemats

Ahhh! Honored to be the first post in the Summer Kickoff Series! I used to do a lot of entertaining before I went full-time with the wedding biz. My summers are soooo packed and jammed now that I rarely have time to socialize. So wistfully, I want to share an idea for some cute, personalized placemats! They are sure to start a conversation and your guests will feel soooo special.

You’ll need Brown Bag Kraft, Pop-Tone and Origami paper, some cool punches and plenty of patience.

Grab some brown bag kraft paper and start measuring 2″ from each edge. The pop tone paper will go here… Put it to the side.

Now its time to start working on the decoration for the placemat. Can’t be too much if your guest’s plate will actually sit here.

Adding florals is always fun for summer… I punched multiple floral shapes and then slightly shifted each one and layered them on top of one another. I also turned the petals up a little to give a better illusion of petals.

I printed out mock names for the place mats.

Flip the name sheets over and add graphite pencil. Thicker leads will make this easier… 3B, 4B artist grade pencils are perfect for this. If you only have a regular pencil, be sure to be generous as you are going to turn it back over to trace the letters so a light transfer will appear on the place mat.

I ended up adding Origami paper to this place mat in the form of a stencil border and also a final layer to the floral. LOVE how it turned out. Great look for your tables, especially with a nice, muted centerpiece.

This is so much fun because you can do as many as you need. I wanted to do a more masculine idea for your male guests. Kraft on kraft stencil border and only a few petals vs. a layered floral.

Please enjoy the plethora of posts that will be coming your way in the next couple of weeks and have GREAT summers! -ct

CutCardStock products used in this project:

                

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Christy Toney Design Team Member – Winter/Spring 2014 Term