Corn Collage

Fall means harvest time, and that means fresh corn on the cob! Share in the harvest with your kids this year by making this cute and festive corn collage to display.

What you'll need:

• Yellow and green construction paper
• Popped corn
• Scissors
• Jumbo craft sticks
• White craft glue
• Pattern
• Lime green puffy or 3-D squeeze paint (optional)

How to make it:

1. Cut out the pattern, cut the corn cob out separately from the leaves. Trace onto construction paper. You can get up to 7 corn cobs from one sheet of yellow construction paper and 3 sets of leaves from a green sheet of construction paper.
2. Cut the corn cobs and leaves from the construction paper.
3. Glue the yellow cob onto the green leaves.
4. Put a layer of glue on to the yellow corn cob. Cover the glue with popped corn. Let dry. You can stop here if you wanted the simple version of this craft.
5. Repeat the above steps to make a second corn, making sure that you will be able to glue them together back to back when you are finished. Line up the leaves to make sure.
6. Use puffy paint to draw green outlines up and down the leaves. Let dry completely.
7. Glue a craft stick to the back of one of the completed corn cobs. Sandwich the craft stick between two corn cobs, lining up the leaves before gluing together.
8. When dry, you can insert the craft sticks into some floral foam or Styrofoam and display on your holiday table.

Tips:

• Puffy paint usually takes a long time to dry. If you plan to use this step, be sure to allow for several hours of drying time.
• If you would like to make the simple version of this craft a little sturdier, you can either use card stock instead of construction paper, or cut pattern from a piece of cardboards and glue corn collage to it.
• Break pieces of popcorn up and glue the flat side to the paper, popped side facing outward.

Thanksgiving Place Cards

Give your dinner guests a holiday surprise with these cut Thanksgiving place cards that are a great way to decorate your Thanksgiving table!

What you'll need:

• Paper napkin in fall colors or orange construction paper
• Small paper clips
• Apple, any color
• Almond, with or without the shell
• Peanut in the shell
• One Lifesaver candy
• Two small wiggle eyes
• Yellow construction paper
• Hot glue gun
• White craft glue
• Marker

How to make it:

1. Hold the almond point down and use white craft glue to attach eyes on rounded part. Let glue dry.
2. Use hot glue gun to glue the ring-shaped hard candy to front of apple. Don't use white craft glue as it will cause the candy to start to liquefy and run down the apple (glue the ring-shaped hard candy on the apple's shoulders).  
3. With hot glue gun, glue almond to ring-shaped hard candy (covering the hole, point down) and let dry. 
4. Glue peanut below almond for turkey wattle.   
5. Unfold napkin so it is approximately 6" x 11", then fold accordion style. If you don't have a napkin, you can use a 6" x 11" piece of construction paper.
6. Pull ends of folded napkin together to make a fan. Secure with paper clip at bottom. Sit napkin behind the apple.
7. Bend the end of the paper clip and insert into apple.
8. Cut a piece of yellow construction paper into a rectangle to make a place card. Write your guest’s name on the place card.
9. Use a paper clip to hold place card or glue a toothpick to the back of the card and insert into the top of the apple.

Family Tree Leaf Pins

Who’s coming to your holiday dinner this year? Get everyone straight with these adorable and festive name tags! Make a bunch of blank ones and add names as family members arrive.

What you'll need:

• Silk leaves
• White card stock or construction paper
• Pinking shears or other decorative scissors
• Black marker
• Pin backs
• White craft glue
• Other silk embellishments, such as berries, flowers, wheat, etc (optional)

How to make it:

1. Glue 3 leaves together, layering them on top of each other, allowing a little of each to show from underneath the other. Repeat this for however many name tags you would like to make.
2. This is an optional step, however, you may add fall flowers to some of the leaves, or berries, wheat, acorns, or any other silk embellishments you choose. Girls will enjoy the flowers whiles tags for boys work well with wheat and acorns.
3. Using the pinking shears, cut out rectangles and squares for the name tags. Use your leaf arrangements as a guide for how big they will need to be. Leave enough room to write names on them.
4. Glue the leaf arrangements to the front of the paper name tags, overlapping the paper so that there is excess leaf at the top (in the back).
5. Glue the pin directly to the back of the leaf arrangement, above the paper. This will allow family members to continue using their name tag as a lapel pin by simply removing the paper name tag when they leave.

Tips:

• Silk leaves are available in packages at local craft stores. Check the floral department for prepackaged leaves that are flat and easy to work with.
• Hot glue can be used for the project and dries a lot faster than craft glue. However, hot glue can be so use caution.
• For a little extra fun, have family members write a little bit of what they are thankful for on the back of their pin, then everyone can read theirs out loud at dinner.

Corn Cob Napkin Rings

The importance of corn to early Americans makes this fun and easy project especially fitting for Thanksgiving—and an attractive addition to your holiday table.

What you'll need:

• Cardboard toilet paper tubes
• Yellow and orange poster paints
• New pencil with an eraser top
• Scissors or craft knife

How to make it:

1. Cut the toilet paper tubes into two-and-one-half-inch sections using scissors or a craft knife (under adult supervision). You will need one section for each napkin ring that you will make.
2. Pour a small amount of different colored paints—yellow, red, orange, white, and black work well—onto a paper plate.
3. Show your child how to dip the pencil eraser into some paint and practice stamping corn kernel shapes onto paper.
4. Once she has mastered this printing technique, have your child hold the bottom of the ring and print rows of kernels all around the tube. Mix the colors as you wish.
5. Set the tube rings out to dry.
6. Place cloth or paper napkins through the rings and use them to decorate your Thanksgiving table.

Coffee Filter Thanksgiving Bouquet

These easy Thanksgiving bouquet flowers will look gorgeous on your Thanksgiving table. All dressed up in fall colors, your relatives will rave about your artistic abilities!

What you'll need:

• Basket coffee filters
• Paper plate
• Watercolor paints: brown, orange, red, yellow, green
• Chenille stems: brown, orange, green, red

How to make it:

1. Flatten coffee filter onto work surface (place some scratch paper or newspaper underneath).
2. Paint coffee filter with watercolor paint. Thin the paint more in some areas to make the color lighter. Use whatever combination of colors you like. Set coffee filters aside to dry.
3. When filter are dry, cut about 2” off the end of a chenille stem and set both pieces aside.
4. Insert the large piece of chenille into the center of the coffee filter about 2” in. Hold onto the small end and turn the flower upside down so that the long end of the chenille is sticking up.
5. Grasp the center of the coffee filter and gather it around the small end of the chenille.
6. Twist the smaller piece of chenille around the gathered filter to secure the flower in place. Turn the flower back over and fluff the petals as needed.
7. Bend the short end of the chenille into a ball in the center of the flower.

Tips:

• No two coffee filters will look the same. Thin watercolors to make lighter shades and use thicker amounts for bolder shades. 
• You can speed dry the coffee filters by laying them in a sunny window or blow drying them.  
• Make your own designs by experimenting with different cuts and shapes.
• When finished, consider planting your "flowers" in our candy corn luminary container.

Indian Corn Napkin Rings

Make these pretty little napkin rings to display on your holiday table. The fall colors are festive and represent the autumn harvest.

What you'll need:

• Green construction paper
• Scissors
• Tissue paper: yellow, orange and burgundy
• White craft glue
• Pencil with an eraser

How to make it:

1. Cut construction paper vertically in strips about 1.5” wide. Each strip will yield two napkin holders.
2. Cut each strip in half to get 2 napkin holders.
3. Cut tissue paper into 1” squares.
4. Cover a 1” section of the construction paper strip with white craft glue.
5. Twist a square of yellow tissue paper around the pencil eraser and push down onto the glue. Remove pencil, leaving the tissue paper on the construction paper.
6. Repeat step number 5 with tissue paper, alternating orange and burgundy for every 2-3 yellow.
7. Cover entire strip of construction paper, leaving only ½” at the end without tissue paper.
8. Bend into a “ring” and glue together.
9. Let dry completely then carefully insert a napkin.

Tips:

• Save tissue paper from birthday gifts to use in future projects. 
• Buy construction paper in value packs from discount department stores.  
• White school glue is a suitable substitute for white craft glue.

Garland of Leaves

As guests arrive, have them write what they are thankful for on a construction paper leaf. Add them to your family thanks list garland!

What you'll need:

• Construction paper: yellow, orange, red, green and brown
• Black marker
• Scissors
• 48” of green yarn
• Miniature clothespins 
  

How to make it:

1. Cut out simple leaf shapes from construction paper.
2. Have all dinner guests write things they are thankful for on a leaf.
3. Hang a piece of yarn on the wall of from the fireplace mantel.
4. Attach each leaf to the garland using a miniature clothespin.
   

Tips:

• Miniature clothespins are available from your local craft store. 
• If you don’t have clothespins, use paper clips or even tape to hold your leaves on the yarn.  
• If you run out of room, start another!