Thanksgiving Napkin Ring Tags {How-To}

In my quest to give my Thanksgiving decor a little TLC, I thought maybe I’d pay a bit more attention to my table. With two little ones, cloth napkins and napkin rings aren’t our usual style, but I love that these could easily be put on candy sticks and used to label all the yummy fare served on Turkey Day.

Yes, mine are made with the Silhouette CAMEO, but this how-to also includes suggestions for making these without any cutting system.

Enjoy,

Nikki, In Stitches

PS…I found a simple and quick (perfect for beginning sewers!) cloth napkin how-to from Blissfully Content here. For those of you that have been holding on to those vintage sheets you found at last summer’s yard sales…this is the perfect project for them!

Materials:

• Silhouette Cutting System
• Adhesive-backed cardstock
• Silhouette sketch pen. (I used a metallic grey in this project!)
• Cotton fabric
• Double Sided Fusible Interfacing (Don’t have this? Don’t worry! I’ve got tips for making the tags without it in the directions!)
• Iron
• Ribbon
• Scissors

Directions:

• Design your tag in the Silhouette Studio Design software.

A few notes to go along with this step:

1. The frame/label shape should look familiar! (I used it in my “Boo!” stickers on my Halloween candy tubes!) It is a basic shape purchased from the Silhouette online store for only $0.99 (it’s called “artisan label set” and can be found here!)
2. Notice that the frame is nested around the “Happy Thanksgiving” sentiment three times. We’ll end up cutting two of these frames from cardstock (the innermost frame and the outermost frame), and one from fabric (the center frame).
3. The font for the “Happy Thanksgiving” is Brock Script. It’s a free font that I downloaded from UrbanFonts.com. And the flourish underneath is actually a character in the Respective Swashes font, again one that I downloaded for free, this time from FontSpace.com.

• Replace the cutting blade with the Silhouette Sketch Pen. Open the “Cut Style” window. Ungroup your design. Select your text and click “Cut Edge.” Select each of your frames, and select “No Cut.” (Remember, all you want the Silhouette to do on this first pass is sketch your sentiment!) 

• Click “Send to Silhouette.” Be sure to adjust your media type to “Silhouette sketch pen” and be sure to select that, rather than the cutting blade, before clicking cut. Important! DO NOT unload the cutting mat from your Silhouette after it has finished sketching! You want it in the exact same place when you send it through again to cut the innermost frame!

• Replace the sketch pen with the cutting blade. Open the “Cut Style” window. Select your text and click “No Cut.” Select the innermost frame, and click “Cut.”

• Click “Send to Silhouette.” Be sure to adjust your media type to “textured cardstock.” The cutting blade will automatically be selected. Click “Cut.

• Again, click the “Cut Style” window. This time select only the outermost label shape to be cut. Load a fresh piece of cardstock into the CAMEO, click “Send to Silhouette” and cut!

• One last time! Click the “Cut Style” window and this time select only the middle frame to be cut.

• Click “Send to Silhouette.” (Remember! This one will be cut from fabric! Be sure to prep your fabric according to the directions provided with the interfacing. Iron the interfacing to the wrong side of your fabric. Cut your fabric to match the size of the interfacing. Remove the back protective layer from the interfacing before placing your fabric on the cutting mat.)  And one last time, adjust your media settings to “fabric cotton print” and click cut.

• Iron the fabric frame to the center of the largest frame you cut from your cardstock. (The interfacing will adhere them together!

• Peel off the backing of a small frame (with your “Happy Thanksgiving” sentiment sketched in the center) and stick it to the center of the fabric label.

• Cut a short length of ribbon, approximately twice the width of your folded napkin.

• Stick it to the back of your largest label to create a ring. (I just replaced the backing from the cardstock onto the back of the label, right over top the ribbon, to keep the tag from sticking to my napkin!)

As promised, what to do if you’re missing some of these supplies, or even if you don’t have a cutting system!

Have a Silhouette but no sketch pens? You could easily use the “print and cut” feature to print the sentiment from your home printer before cutting. Look in this post for my how-to!

Have a Silhouette but no interfacing? Or you don’t have a cutting system that will cut fabric? Iron your fabric to double sided fusible. (The added weight of the fusible will give you a cleaner cut with your scissors.) Trace your desired shape onto freezer paper. Iron the freezer paper to the right side of your fabric. Cut on your drawn lines. Peel away the freezer paper! Remove any protective layers that may still be on your fusible. Iron to your large frame exactly as instructed above!

No cutting system? You can buy pre-cut designs of all shapes and sizes! I did a quick search on Etsy for “blank die cut tags” and found more than I could count. You can also visit your local scrapbooking shop. Many have a cutting system that you can “rent” for the afternoon!

How to get your sentiment on those pre-cuts? Stamps! You can certainly find a “Happy Thanksgiving” stamp at your local craft store, but if you’d like to customize your tag, say for your dessert table and make them into labels for all the goodies there, I suggest you get clear individual letter stamps and mount them to an acrylic block.