QUICK & EASY D.I.Y. NAME CARDS FOR HOLIDAY DINNER PARTIES
The rosemary & wood block make great party favors.
In my family, I’m the one in charge of making name cards (some people call them “name plates”) for dinner parties. This year, I went with some super easy, quick ideas. These are great for Thanksgiving, winter holidays or even New Year’s Eve parties.
An ornament makes a great party favor & decor
To make the name card you see above you simply take a piece of white card stock, and punch two holes (smaller the hole punch hole, the better) in the end, then weave a twig of rosemary* through the holes. You can also make two straight cuts if you do not have a hole puncher to slide the rosemary stem through. Remove the green spiky “leaves” at the bottom of the rosemary twig to make it easier to thread through the paper holes. We used Avery foldable cards to make these on Avery.com. If you want to add a personal touch for Thanksgiving, you can write a message inside for your guest, sharing with them all the reasons you are thankful for them. If I was using this for New Year’s, I might ask everyone to write one New Year’s resolution inside—it would be fun to keep them and see whose resolutions came true by the next year.
[*if you don’t have rosemary, you can try lavender, thyme, or a dried flower]
Below is how I plan to use these name cards to make a New Year’s brunch for family and friends. If you are not sure how to set a proper place setting (I seem to always forget), you can check out diagrams on the Buzzfeed post How To Set A Proper Table. And, stay tuned for the recipe to the gluten-free almond banana bread you see in this photo!
A perfect brunch table setting for New Year’s Day
These cards also look good standing upright if you don’t want to tuck them into napkins. And, if you’d like to add a fun message instead of a name, you are sure to put a smile on your guests’ faces.
Write an inspiring message to your guests.
Here’s another idea, using an old wine cork screw. Just ask an adult to use a straight-edge to make a slice in a piece of cork, horizontally. Then slide in a name card. I hand wrote the one below for my grandmother, then glued the name plate to some nice scrap Japanese paper I found. If you don’t want the corkscrew to wobble at all, you have to glue a small button under the corkscrew.
Old corks make for great name card holders
Special thanks to Su of fitzsu.com for loaning us all the dinnerware in the above photos. Napkins from World Market. Washable Silver & White paper popcorn sac from Urbana Sacs. Card stock and templates from Avery.com. Japanese paper from Paper Source.
Special thanks to interior designer Tracy Sonka Stultz of Sonka-Stultz designs for her expertise on table settings. Make sure to check out the fabulous DIY Hot Cocoa Bar she helped us with, too.
Photos above by my uncle, Peter Lin of Coventry Automatik.
Wanna see more name card/party favor ideas? Click on the photo below to see our previous How-To posts.
I painted these with my friend Mayan last year