Place Card Holders to Make

Distinctive place cards add extra flair to your dining table, and you can make your own place card holders to suit any occasion or tabletop design. With a few baubles and some glue, you can transform ordinary objects into designer originals. Crafty embellishments are not necessary for some place card designs; just shape a few wires to create attractive accents for every place setting.

Wire Place Card Holders

Shape craft wire into decorative place card holders for your dining table. One of the simplest wire place card holders to make is a spiral holder. Cut a 14-inch strip of 20-gauge craft wire; longer wires make larger spiral holders, so adjust the length to your preference. Roll one end of the wire into a tight spiral to the halfway point of the length of wire. Bend the wire at the end of the spiral at a 90-degree angle. The large spiral is the base of the place card holder. Roll the remaining end of the wire into a loose spiral, leaving at least 2 inches of straight wire separating the two spirals. Fit the place card between two wires in the top spiral.

Embellished Place Card Holders

Decorate small mirror frames with rhinestones, old jewelry, seashells or flat-backed glass marbles to make place card holders for special occasions. Look for small picture frames at dollar stores to embellish with elements that fit the event. Remove the glass and the backing before painting the frame to suit your table. Glue the elements onto the front of the frame using clear, viscous jeweler's glue. For example, cover the front of the frame with crystal rhinestones to make place cards for a wedding reception or cover the frames with seashells to make place cards for a beach-themed party. After the glue dries, insert the glass, a place card and the backing into the frame.

Fork Place Card Holders

Bend the tines of an old metal fork to make a decorative place card holder for your table. Bend the two center tines backward and the two end tines forward to make the fork stand upright on the table. Select forks with decorative handles from yard sales and thrift stores; mix and match the forks to accent an eclectic table setting. Attach the place cards to the fork handle using removable glue dots.

Holiday Place Card Holders

Create festive place card holders to adorn your holiday table from pinecones and small gourds. Decorate pinecones to resemble a Christmas tree using spray paint, glitter glue and seed beads. Spray paint the pinecone white, silver, green or gold, then brush on a complementary color of glitter glue to the tips. Drop colorful seed beads onto the wet glue to add spots of contrasting color. Prop the place card in-between two rows of pinecone needles, or attach the card with a ribbon strand.

It's even easier to make Thanksgiving place card holders using small, seasonal gourds. Write the name of each guest directly onto a gourd using a paint pen or a permanent marker, or tie a place card around a gourd's stem using decorative holiday ribbon.