I’m so excited to share these DIY Place Card Holders with you! There are a lot of crafty ideas out there, but I’ve never seen this one before. As I was creating my Thanksgiving table decor, I wanted to add place card holders. Side note…I had this other great idea, that ended up being a complete fail! The funny thing is, I usually have my best ideas when I encounter a problem. That’s how these table card holders came into being. 
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My original bright idea was to use hickory nuts to hold the place cards. I thought it was genius! I had a ton of hickory nuts in my backyard and what better way to use them? Well, I decided to bake them, just to make sure there were no critters in there. This is where you insert intense music!
I’m not sure why, but it made my house smell funky!? Don’t they hickory smoke just about everything? Anyhow…the outside shell of a few nuts also fell apart, so I put them on my deck to cool. What was left, the squirrels ran away with. LOL! This was a no go. My genius idea was a flop!
I had some paint sticks sitting on my counter for another project and this is where my creativity kicked in. Simple, cheap and easy…this was perfect!
I hope this project helps many homemakers, brides-to-be and event planners who are on a tight budget and limited time constraints! I was able to make six of these for under a dollar and it only takes a few minutes to put these together.
SUPPLIES
- LARGE PAINT STICKS
- GLUE GUN
- SANDING SPONGE
- WHITE CARD STOCK (check your printer manual to see the weight of card stock it can handle)
- AVERY CLEAR FULL SHEET SHIPPING LABELS (OPTIONAL)
- BLACK VINYL (OPTIONAL)
- SILHOUETTE CAMEO (OPTIONAL)
- BAKERS TWINE (OPTIONAL)
CUT YOUR PAINT STICKS
You can make two table card holders from one paint stick. They are sold in a 3 pack, so that gives you 6 table card holders for under a buck!
Measure four lines at 4 3/16 inches. Then, stack the paint sticks in piles of three, with the markings on the top paint stick.
You can cut them with a miter saw. Another option is to use the hand miter box at your local Lowe’s or Home Depot. You would need to purchase the paint sticks and then cut them at the cutting station down the trim aisle.
Use a sanding sponge to smooth out any rough edges.
MAKE A CARD TEMPLATE
I experimented assembling these a few ways and found the best way is to make a template card from heavy card stock.
Then mark a line on the card stock, the depth you want your place card to be. I made mine at 1/4″ but, after trying them out, I would go a little deeper.
LINE UP AND HOT GLUE
Lay your template on top of one paint stick, so the line is even with the top of the wood. See the image above. Then place a small line of hot glue under the bottom of the card. Don’t use too much glue, as it will spread. Place the other piece of wood on top and firmly press them together for a few seconds. Be sure to leave your template in place, as this makes a small slot to put your card in later.
These stuck together really well. So well, in fact, that I had a hard time pulling them apart. So be sure not to over do it with the hot glue, you only need a little.
ENDLESS DESIGN IDEAS
I put together a few ideas for you below, but there are so many design options you could use to incorporate these into your theme. Some ideas are glitter spray paint, chalk paint or chalk board paint, using rubber stamps, stickers and ribbon. I chose to leave mine natural, since it went well with my tablescape. All of the cards below are available for free in my PRINTABLES AND CUT FILES LIBRARY. The instructions to access the library are down below.
ADDING THE WORDS
There are three ways to add the words to you holders. I’ll start with the simplest method and work my way through them.
USE CLEAR SHIPPING LABELS
The “Blessed” holder was made with Clear Avery Full Sheet Shipping Labels. If you have not seen these before, you will love them! I used them for labeling my pantry containers and they end result is beautiful!
Start by downloading the printable from my Library (see instructions below). Then open the PDF or JPEG version of the printable. Load the Avery labels in your inkjet printer. Be sure they are in the right direction for your printer. Then print the file.
Use a pair of scissors to cut around the words, peel the backing, line it up and stick it on. Because the paper is clear, you only see the words, your wood grain shows through. The paper is slightly visible, but honestly, I’m a very detailed person and you can hardly see it. See the image above.
USE RUBBER STAMPS
If you have rubber stamps with ink, this is another good option for adding words or images to your wood. I tried it with black ink and it worked good. I did struggle a little with lining up the stamp, but with practice, you can easily manage it.
USE VINYL
I will say that this option looked the best. But, it requires a cutting machine and vinyl. It is also the most time intensive.
Download the file from my library and open it in your design software. It’s available in Silhouette and JPEG for Cricut users. Load your vinyl into your machine. Check your settings by running a test cut. If everything looks good, cut the words. Then weed out the extra vinyl.
Next cut a strip of transfer paper, the same size as your word. Then peel the backing and stick it to your vinyl.
Press the transfer paper into the image with a bone folder or credit card. Then peel the vinyl backing off, leaving your vinyl image stuck to the transfer paper only.
Center your image on the wood and again press it with a bone folder. Then remove the transfer paper.
You can see that this one looks the best, but it took a lot more time and supplies. I’m not sure it’s worth the trade off, but it does look beautiful.
FREE PRINTABLES
For access to my library of free printables including the above place card holders and place cards, just subscribe at the bottom of this page. You’ll receive a welcome letter and regular updates on my blog posts, along with the password to my FREE PRINTABLES AND CUT FILES LIBRARY.
Do you like learning budget friendly ways to spruce up your home? Follow me on PINTEREST. Did you know that you can hover over the images below, click on the red Pinterest circle, and save this idea for later? Give it a try below and save it to your Table Settings or Crafts Board on Pinterest.
I hope you like these place card holders with paint sticks as much as I do!
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