Monday, December 5, 2011

RE-ceiving Guests: Green & Silver Christmas Table


Normally I do a red, green & gold Christmas table, but this year, I really wanted to do a green & silver one. I've seen that color combination a lot lately and I really like it. However, I didn't want to spend too much on a look that I might decide is "out" next year.  I saw some silver chargers for $1 at Wal-Mart & got some.  But, I still needed plates. My formal china is pink & gold mostly & my everyday is either blue & white toile or off-white ironstone.  I thought I needed a crisp white for the look I wanted so I decided to pull out my glass plates.   Alone they were too plain & after some debating, I decided I would basically modge-podge some holiday tissue paper on the plates to go with the decor.   I found pretty silver & white tissue paper for $2 (it would have been enough for 8 plates) and used it above.  The table cloth came from a daybed cover in my old house. The daybed is now outside, so I decided to repurpose the cover as a tablecloth.
If you remember my guest room in my previous post, RE-modeling: My First Home then you may recall the daybed I had in there.  Yesterday's bed cover in my old house becomes a Christmas table cloth in my new house this year.
The greenery was free. When we bought our tree, they had a pile of tree shavings for free and we grabbed a bunch.   I know Home Depot, Lowe's & most private, smaller tree lots I've been to, have had this set up. Whatever people take means less clean up for the folks at the tree lot.  I like to take quite a bit and I spread the greenery all over the house. The green & silver ribbon are old. I bought the green ribbon for a project and had it left over. The silver ribbon is left over from a wrapped gift.


The silver candlesticks I happen to have.  I also had silver tapered candles. I didn't have silver candles for the other candlesticks holders.  I considered wrapping beige candles with doilies painted silver but decided it would be easier to undo a beeswax candle I made from a kit, cut it in half and then undid some of it to wrap around a smaller candle to make a third one.   With that I had enough candles for the holders.

The crystal ball ornaments are from Michael's. I got them about 8 years ago. The brooch is costume jewelry I got for my daughter to play dress up.  I decided to pin the ribbon with it, to add something different to the centerpiece.  I think it is nice to do something just a little off/different for a centerpiece.  It sparks conversation.
Not needed, but I like all my Christmas centerpieces to have something Christian to them, so I added a Waterford Cross ornament we had.  I threaded the green ribbon around it and tied it to the center candle.  I figured the crystal would add more sparkle and work with the rest of the centerpiece.
White napkins held in silver angel napkin holders rest on the glass plates I altered with Christmas tissue paper.  Since the chargers were $1, the tablecloth was repurposed from my old daybed cover & the plates were made holiday table ready with tissue paper, for $1 and some change per setting, I got a whole new look to my Christmas table this year.
I used spray adhesive. I have Elmers and 3M brand. I don't have a preference.  By the way, if you don't own any spray adhesive, I recommend buying some for general household use.  It creates a smooth layer of adhesive and is a lot easier and neater to deal with than glue or modge podge.  Don't get me wrong, I own glue & modge podge, too, and they have their uses, but sometimes a quick adhesive spray works just fine, like here, where glue would have globbed and I would have had to spread it out and gotten my hands dirty.
 
After I sprayed the adhesive, I applied the shiny side of the tissue paper so it would show thru the glass and placed it gently on the plate.  I then smoothed out the tissue paper, rubbing the paper a bit to get out wrinkles and air pockets. There will be some wrinkles, but they are not noticeable so I wouldn't worry about it.   With the paper firmly in place, cut off the excess with some scissors.   I bought my glass plates many years ago at Garden Ridge pottery, but most Dollar Stores carry them.  They are handy because they fit so many different themes.  And if you adhere decorative tissue paper or use decorative paint on them, you can customize them for your event which can be really nice.  Lastly, I should  mention if you use adhesive to put tissue paper on the glass plate as I did,  then you should know the paper will come off when you wash the plates.  Since tissue paper is so cheap, I think $2-$3 for a new table look is a good deal.
If you want to see more Christmas projects I've done this year in our new house, you can now see them HERE
And if you want to see more of what our old house looked like, you can see it HERE.

WRITTEN BY ELDAROSE


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12 comments:

  1. Beautiful, beautiful table! I love how you have repurposed the daybed cover into a tablecloth.

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  2. Oh my stars girl are you ever creative. First I LOVE your tablescape. I was impressed by the simple beauty. Then when I read what you did to get there I was blown away. You are my type of person. Raising our large family I had to be frugal. And was. But you doing this table for what you did is amazing. I LOVED the tissue paper tutorial. Now that is one clever idea and I plan to use it. SO SO creative. I am so glad I came to your blog from the No Minamalist Here Blog Party. I learned alot and had so much fun. Thankyou for sharing your wonderful tableand ideas.

    Nann.....atnannstable.blogspot.com

    PS I too am a brand new blogger of just a few weeks. I'm going to follow you!

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  3. Marigene,

    Thank you for your sweet comment. It is the second one we have received on the whole blog so it is very exciting to get such nice feedback.

    As for repurposing the bed cover, necessity is the mother of invention, right? I had the table in my mind, but then I was scrambling bc I wanted to have it done to post to a link pty, so I had to pull it together and I realized the bed cover was the color I wanted. I did a similar thing with the rustic mantel I did for my husband's study which I posted about yesterday. I decided on a color palette and a general tone (rustic, formal, informal etc.) and then I do a mental inventory of everything we have in the house that might go with it and shop for stuff to use in my own house. There are exceptions, but most people tend to be attracted to the same stuff over and over again so they probably already bought something they could use and like which cuts down on the "to buy" list. Borrowing is also an awesome option. I am actually working on a tablescape project that I am SO SO excited about. Once the holidays are over, hopefully I will have time to do it.

    Thanks again for the comment. It was very encouraging and very much appreciated!

    BTW, we are following your blog now.

    Eldarose

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  4. Nann,

    Thank you so much for your comment. As I said to Marigene who commented before you, we haven't received many comments yet and so we are very encouraged to get any. It is so nice to know who is visiting and what they are thinking.

    Thank you for your compliment. I am so glad you liked the table and my ideas on how to make it work.

    We are following your blog now. I guess we'll figure out this blogging thing at the same time. So far, I don't even know how to reply to someone's comment so that it is posted directly under their comment. And I sorta wonder if they will get any sort of notice that a reply was posted. I'm guessing not. See? Very new to this blogging thing.

    I just barely figured out how to add blogs to our follow list and the link button thing was a challenge. LOL!

    Anyway, thank you SO MUCH for the generous and complimentary comment. I hope you like our posts.

    BTW, when I visited your blog, the idea for toasted turtle doves salad croutons from white bread was BRILLIANT! and the execution was fantastic. I will have to mention that to Reba because as I mentioned in one of our entries about showers, Reba likes to serve salads generally. Your idea could definitely be incorporated into her normal menu.

    Thanks for the tip.
    Sincerely,
    Eldarose

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  5. That is spectacular and so elegantly simple! Love the softer colors than the normal red and green and the touches of bling are perfect. Well done.

    Happy Holidays!

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  6. Anonymous,

    Wow! Thank you so much for the kind comment. It is so exciting to get encouraging feedback. I'm so glad you liked the table setting. Thank you for visiting our blog.

    Happy Holidays to you too!

    Eldarose

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  7. What a gorgeous, elegant setting! The centerpiece is stunning and what a fantastic idea on the dinner plates!

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  8. DreamGoddess,
    Thank you so much for leaving such nice commentary. We are just starting out so it is very encouraging to get feedback on our posts. I'm so glad you like the holiday china idea.

    Thank you for visiting our blog.
    We are following you now btw.

    Eldarose

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  9. Jo,

    Thank you so much for leaving a comment. It is really encouraging to get feedback on a post. We are just starting out and there is so much to do, to learn and to fix that it is a bit daunting so it is super appreciated to get a warm reception. Thank you for visiting our blog.

    Sincerely, Eldarose

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  10. adhering tissue paper to the plates it such an interesting idea. I will have to try it sometime.

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  11. Leslie,

    It is a pretty easy way to change the look. I got the idea bc paper plates will stick under the glass plates too. It happened at xmas time. During a party, I stacked a decorative paper plate under the glass plate and then noticed it looked like the plate was decorated like the paper plate underneath it esp. in low light for a party. The tissue paper just seemed to offer more variety for this project.

    Eldarose

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