The use of place card holders on your party table not only allows the guests to be seated in new conversational groups, but is an elegant touch as well. Allow your guests to take their holders home with them because this craft is so easy you will keep making them for all seasons. This particular project has a spring flower motif that will work well with showers, weddings or tea parties. Simply change the embellishments and you can adapt the idea to any occasion.
Instructions
1. Use an air-drying modeling clay to form your place card holders. Take a tablespoon or so of clay and mold it into a 2-inch long oval, about #xBD; inch high. This will be the base of your small holder. You can make it larger if you wish. It will depend upon how large your sculpted flowers are. Put the base in a plastic sandwich bag so it doesn't start to dry out before you are ready to use it.
2. Make a daisy by taking small pinches of clay, rolling them into ovals and flattening them so that they look like petals. Make about five of these and then squeeze the bases together to form a flower. Roll tiny balls for the centers if you wish.
3. Make a rose. Take a small pinch of clay and roll it into a tube. Take another small pinch and flatten it out. Push the flat piece onto the base of the tube and shape it so that it becomes the first petal in your rose. Make several more petals using slightly larger pinches for each petal. Work around the tube and then around the first petals so that in the end the sculpture looks like an open rose.
4. Make leaves. Flatten a pinch of modeling clay and either form it into a leaf with your fingers, or use a craft knife to cut out a leaf shape. Lightly carve veins in the leaf.
5. Assemble the sculpture after you have formed several flowers and leaves by pushing the bases of the flowers into the oval of sculpting clay you made. If you need to elevate some of the flowers, insert a toothpick and cut it at the proper height for your arrangement.
6. Take a 3-inch length of wire and wind 1#xBD; inches of it twice around a pencil, but leave the rest straight. Remove it from the pencil and use your pliers to flatten and separate the circles you have created so that they are slightly offset from each other. They will easily hold business size place cards inserted between the two circles. Drop a bit of white glue onto the wire and place the straight end into the sculpture. Allow the entire sculpture to air dry for about 3 days.
7. Use acrylic craft paints to color your flowers and leaves. You can use a fine-haired craft brush to add details. The paint will dry quickly and then you can use a pearalized acrylic spray to finish the delicate look of the sculpture.
Tips Warnings
For fall events, sculpt oak and maple leaves. Form balls of clay into acorns. For winter consider making poinsettias or holly leaves and berries. Summer can be molded flip-flops and even real shells embedded in the clay.
The clay will begin to air harden within an hour. If you need to keep it pliable, put it into a sealed plastic bag when you are working with multiple pieces at once. This way they will remain soft enough to manipulate assembly correctly.
Always spray acrylic finish in a well ventilated room to avoid fumes.
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