DIY - PUMPKIN PATCH PLACE HOLDERS

The Party et Cie Team will take any excuse for a party.  We admit it: we here in Canada feel a little bit of a “party void” when our American friends are partaking in Thanksgiving celebrations at the end of November and we have … well, just the chills.  With this in mind, we have decided to throw a Friendsgiving dinner party in tandem with American festivities.  We love celebrating friendship with big and little friends alike, and again, we will take any reason for revelry. 

With so much focus on good food and even better wine, decorating the "littles" table may fall to the wayside.  We’ve come up with these easy, adorable and fun Pumpkin Patch place holders.  These will definitely bring the kids running to their places at the table, and it makes for a fun parting gift and sweet after dinner treat.  Of course, you can refill the patch with more pumpkins before their departure, because we know how.. ahem..  treats can go missing at parties!

Materials:

*3” x 4” wooden boxes (one per little guest) 

*Mini wooden fences (one per little guest) 

*Wooden ovals

*Wooden popsicle sticks 

*Crayola Model Magic air dry clay in brown

*Assorted craft mosses (we used reindeer moss and Spanish moss)

*Faux ivy vines

*Mellocreme Pumpkin candies

*Glue Gun

*Black marker

*Scissors

 **All our materials, with the exception of the candies, were sourced at a local craft store.

Instructions:

Using your glue gun, glue a mini fence piece to the inside of the wooden box on the lengthy side.  Once the glue cools, fill the base of the wooden box with the brown Crayola Model Magic clay. Make sure to push the clay into the corners.  It should be fairly level, although it does not need to be smooth.  Let air dry until hard.

Break off small pieces of the assorted mosses and using small dots of glue, place mosses randomly around the brown base. Place candy pumpkins around the “patch.” 

Cut off small branches and a few leaves of the faux ivy vines and place in and around the candy pumpkins.  Write the names of your guests on the wooden ovals, and then glue a wooden popsicle stick to the back.  We chose to cut our popsicle sticks to adjust for height.  Place the popsicle sticks into the “patch” at the back near the fence.  Secure with a spot of glue. 

Place these adorable pumpkin patches at the children’s Thanksgiving or Friendsgiving table place setting and watch them run excitedly to their place setting! 

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