burlap votive holders

This is the last of 3 posts from the recent “Garlands & Gatherings” event to raise funds in support of Hope Haven of Cass County.

This final tablescape for the Christmas-themed fundraiser was casual with a lot of natural elements to celebrate the season. This table for 6* would work well for any holiday event from Christmas dinner and other seasonal parties to rehearsal dinners and December adult birthdays.
(Click on any photo, then click again to enhance/enlarge it.)

Classic tartan is back this year in a big, big way (thank you, Ralph Lauren, King of Classic!), and it plays a big part in making this table stand out. I started with a hunter green full-length tablecloth from LinenTablecloth.com. Dark green, like black and some purples, has a nasty little habit of absorbing everything on it, so I used a pair of tartan flannel ribbons as a dual runner to add color, texture and pattern to awaken the eye. (TIP: Layering fabrics in winter adds to the look of “warmth” for your tablescape.) Wood slice chargers (craft wood from Michael’s and Hobby Lobby that, with a coupon, cost about $9 each compared to $25 at places like Z Gallerie) anchor the place settings, topped with a bright holly red dinner plate. Hunter green napkins are embellished with a length of tartan ribbon and tucked beneath the plate.

Menus were created on my home computer using hunter green, red and cream cardstock. To carry on the natural theme (and hide the staple used to keep the layers together! 😉 ), I hot glued a cinnamon stick to the top.

The centerpiece started with a sad little beat up candleholder I found on clearance at Pier 1 after Christmas last year. It had greenery, some bay leaf and pine cones with a few woodland animals wired in. In the center I placed a bark-covered vase filled with fresh, fragrant greenery. I jazzed up the base with clusters of brightly-colored berries and a bit more of the fresh greenery, then added antlers for more dimension and light.

The centerpiece is extended down the length of the table with bark-covered vases filled with natural elements like star anise, acorns, cinnamon sticks and buckeyes.
(Other elements you might use: chestnuts, rose hips, coffee beans, sweetgum balls, hypericum berries, cotton boles, bay leaves, pine cones, whole cloves, nuts in the shell, feathers, fake snow, unpopped popcorn, grain. To see a more complete list of accessories for detailing your winter tablescapes, click HERE or on the “Winter” tab above and scroll to the very end of the posts.)

I bought these burlap-wrapped votive holders last year. They’re OK, but they needed a little extra pizzazz. I bundled cinnamon sticks – that kind of look like logs AND repeat the element from the menus – with a length of green raffia and tied them onto the votives. As the heat from a candle burns, the fragrance of cinnamon fills the air!

The final touch was to add wine bottles to the table dressed in fun Christmas sweaters and Santa hats from Tuesday Morning. This bit of whimsy furthers the theme of being out in the cold on a wintry day. (Every time I look at these sweaters, I think of the Johnny Mathis and Andy Williams Christmas specials!)

*The table used for this demonstration is only 30″ wide and therefore tends to crowd the tabletop elements. Your table at home is likely 42+” wide which would provide at least 12 additional inches of space.)

More Christmas tablescapes on this site:
Tartan on the Tee
Confectionery Christmas
Christmas Progressive Dinner
Black, White & Red All Over
Frosty the Snowman
Checkered Christmas
March of the Penguins
Woodland Men’s Tablescape
Contemporary Christmas – Fire & Ice
Pink & Purple Chocolate Christmas
Black Friday Luncheon Tablescape
Winter Dinner
Christmas Through the Red Door
Sugar High
Celebrating the Season
Roman Holiday
Winter Cardinal
Merry & Bright
Kaleidoscope Christmas
Cranberry Christmas
Cranberry Christmas – Squared
Get Me to The Church On Time
Noel Progressive Dinner
Christmas Fiesta
Warm Metal Christmas
Christmas Coffee
Winter Brunch
White Hot
‘Twas the Night Before Christmas Progressive Dinner
Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow!
Tuscan Holiday

I’ll be back next week with another traditional Christmas tablescape!

I’m linking up this week with:
Christine at Rustic & Refined for Table It!
Susan at Between Naps on the Porch for Tablescape Thursday

INSPIRATION: Fleece fabric found at Hobby Lobby

We’re getting so close to Christmas, and I just had to get this masculine tablescape in! This tablescape filled with organic elements is another of the tables created for my Winter 2013 “Art of Tablescaping” class taught through MCC-Longview in Lee’s Summit, MO.
(Click on any photo, then click again to enlarge/enhance it and see up close details.)

Our library is to the left just as you enter the house. It’s kind of dark and moody with lots of wood elements, just the perfect location for a guys’ informal dinner gathering.

This table for 5 starts with a 108″ round white tablecloth from LinenTablecloth.com and is topped with this great piece of fleece fabric found at Hobby Lobby last year. The motif suggests the wilderness and hunting and Christmas all at once. While I didn’t have it at the time I created this tablescape, a third fabric layer of a jute tablecloth between the white and fleece would have worked out really great!

Men kind of like it to the point, so I started with a wood slab charger and topped it with a plain white Corelle dinner plate. You can buy wooden chargers from the Internet or places like Z Gallerie, but this option is less expensive and just as workable: it’s a natural wood slice from the wood crafts department at Michael’s priced at just $10 which becomes just $6 when you arm yourself with a 40% off coupon! That’s quite a bargain compared to the $91.80 for a set of 4 at Z Gallerie!!! I love Z Gallerie, but c’mon!!! I’ve also seen these at places like Hobby Lobby and Jo-Ann’s.

The flatware is Hampton Silvermith’s “Patriot” and the clear glass pilsner is from Tuesday Morning‘s clearance section this past Spring. Now let’s talk about this favor/Christmas gift at each place setting! Guys may or may not take to the notion of a little gift, but if it’s something that doesn’t challenge their manhood in any way, they’ll probably be OK with it. Here I have wrapped in plain brown paper a small Swiss Army pocket knife. That’s a pretty manly gift, right? The package is simply tied with twine with a crudely hewn tamarind tree pencil as a little somethin’-somethin’ extra. (They can throw it in their toolbox and use it for marking measurements!) I bought these pencils at TJ Maxx.

I wanted to bring lots of rustic elements into the centerpiece. I started with 3 bark-wrapped vases, one filled with snow-kissed pine, one with pine cones, and one with fresh green moss that gives off that terrific woodsy scent. I added a pair of antlers, a miniature replica of a crudely crafted sled, and a few burlap-wrapped votive candles.

I have always wanted to do a rustic-looking Christmas tree but never tried until now. I didn’t want my first turn at it to prove a disaster, so I kept it very sparse. (Look out next year, though! I’m goin’ for broke!!!) This 4-ft. tree is adorned only with white lights, burlap (Hobby Lobby), hardware store twine twisted into ribbons, and a few wide-eyed owls peeping out from the branches. The packages beneath the tree have the same wrapping paper as the favors on the table, are all tied up in twine, and dressed up a little with ornaments.

On the secretary next to the tree is an aluminum tub filled with pine cones being visited by a woodland friend who just flew in from Home Goods. 🙂

The top of the old secretary has a tiny forest of trees in vases made of birch bark. A lone burlap-swathed stag (Home Goods) stands among the trees.

A side table holds the pitcher of beer for the guys atop two wood slabs. A burlap wreath created by internationally acclaimed floral designer Kelly Acock of the Monarch Flower Company is the backdrop. I added just for fun this cool Swiss Army-style camping tool that belonged to my late father-in-law, an avid outdoorsman.

Last, a comfortable leather chair to kick back in after dinner.

This tablescape would work great for the “civilized” part of a modern day bachelor party where guys mostly just want to get together to eat, have a few drinks, and good-naturedly mourn the death of bachelorhood. 😉

To see another masculine tablescape on this site:
After the Hunt – Gentlemen’s Winter Retreat

To see other winter/Christmas-related tablescapes on this site:
Christmas Fiesta
Kaleidoscope Christmas – Multi-Color Kids’ Tablescape
Merry & Bright – Multi-Color Christmas
Christmas Through the Red Door
Pink & Purple Chocolate Christmas
Black Friday Luncheon Tablescape
Winter Dinner
Contemporary Christmas: Fire & Ice
Celebrating the Season
Sugar High Payback
Cranberry Christmas
Cranberry Christmas Squared
Checkered Christmas – A Snowman Theme
Get Me To the Church On Time
Christmas Progressive Dinner 2011
Black, White & Red All Over Christmas
Frosty the Snowman
Warm Metal Christmas
Winter Brunch
plus NINE additional posts on a single page under the “WINTER” tab!!!

I’ll be joining Cuisine Kathleen for her weekly blog party “Let’s Dish!” on Wednesday after 6:00 p.m. CST and Susan for “Tablescape Thursday” on Thursday anytime after 9:00 a.m. CST. Join me for lots of great ideas from tablescapers all around the world!