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