Fill-in-the-Silhouette Holiday Table Setting

October 12, 2013

Last year’s Everyone’s Sitting at the Kiddie Table Setting was a surefire hit for our Thanksgiving feast. We placed craft paper down on the table, drew on some fancy frames, and had everyone fill in the frames with their own masterpiece. This year, the kids wanted to “one-up” themselves by coming up with an equally engaging, hands-on holiday table for their visiting grandparents and for the local beloveds. Inspired, also, by the awesome Silhouette Self-Portrait Cards we made to send to family and friends last advent, we decided to bring a fill-in-the-silhouette aesthetic to this year’s Thanksgiving Table. Tracing just the outlines of some animal silhouettes on our craft paper table covering, we left a cup of markers and crayons out on the table for everyone to fill in before we had our buffet style meal.

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Materials
1 roll of brown craft/package wrapping paper
Scissors & Tape
Thick Black Marker (We used a wedge-tipped sharpie)
Computer/Printer/Plain Printer Paper
Markers or Crayons for your Guests

Method
Line your table with 1-2 lengths of craft paper.
If you need more than one length of paper, overlap the sheets slightly.
Tape down the craft paper at the edges of the table and “invisibly” within the overlap.
Print silhouettes like the ones below or google “x silhouette” with x = the figure of your choice.
[See below for our downloads.]
OR, to make silhouettes of your actual family members, follow our DIY Silhouettes tutorial.
Cut out the main outline of the silhouettes
Place silhouettes on the table where you would like each person to sit.
Using the silhouette as a guide, draw an outline of the image on your craft paper with a black marker.
[We actually did a slightly larger image for most of our silhouettes by drawing about an inch out in all directions from the guide.]
Go over your line drawing with the marker to make a thicker line if desired.
Write the guest’s name in your best cursive handwriting next to each image if desired.

NOTE: If you just want “decor” and don’t want to colour in the silhouettes, or if you want to use chalk on TOP of them, ANOTHER OPTION would be to simply tape or glue down the black silhouette you cut out and write the name of the person next to the silhouette in black marker.
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