There is so much excitement around decorating for the holidays that it is easy to get carried away with spending a lot of money on each 'theme'. Because of financial obstacles, we often find our imagination gets a bit stagnated. How you can create an inexpensive tablescape for Thanksgiving is to use the endless source of decorating objects that you can find right outside and some you might already have 'in house'. A handmade centerpiece can be more of a talking point than telling your guests you bought it at the store.
Everyone associates a turkey with Thanksgiving. How about making a quirky paper mache turkey?
Paper mache can be very messy but that is the fun part of crafts. This is a great way to use up those newspapers that have been sitting around. The mixture for paper mache is flour, water, and if you want you can add a bit of ordinary craft glue. Depending on the size you want your turkey to be, cup of flour and 2 cups of water should work fine or if you want a bit thicker paste, 1 cup of flour and 2 cups of water. When this is mixed until smooth and you are ready to use the paste, add a few tablespoons of glue to the mix.
Crumple up a few pages of the newspaper to make the 'body' of the turkey. Again, you can make it as large or as small as you want. When you have your ideal size, run a couple of strips of masking tape around the paper ball to hold it in place. Tear or cut the newspaper into 2-3 inch wide strips, they don't have to be perfect strips. Dip them in the paste and wrap them around the newspaper ball so that it is covered. Use a paint brush to smooth the paper down. Let it dry thoroughly.
To make the head, make a similar smaller ball of newspaper and wrap it with the mache. You will need a 'beak'. When wet, paper mache can be tweaked in places to add texture to the turkey. To make a beak, you would do this by loosely wrapping a strip of paper around what is to be the head, and while it is wet, pull a small section of the paper away from the rest and twist it around gently to make a small point. Or you can always make up your own version of a beak and glue it on with the other decorations.
Because you have used paper as the internal foundation, when it comes time to secure the head to the body, in the past I have used a good sized twig. This also serves to make the turkey neck - which you can tie a ribbon around afterwards to make a nice bow to dress up the turkey. Puncture the paper head and body with a knife, slide the twig or Popsicle stick into the openings making sure to then glue around those areas so that the twig will be secured. You can also use branches for the legs and some turkeys have been given arms too. Yes, this will make the turkey look rather comical but that is the fun part. You might need to grab a piece of red felt for the gobbler or choose to go without.
The only supply you might have to buy is paint, glue, and a few feathers from the craft store. But this is where it gets difficult, as once in a craft shop, you will see hundreds of items to use for the turkey. Willpower is of the utmost importance here. You can use some spare buttons for the eyes. If you have children, check in their craft drawer for items such as paint and glue. This might save you some money. Because the paper mache is textured, using crayons on top of the paint will bring out that texture. Instead of spending money on feathers, you can use freshly fallen Autumn leaves for the tail. You can also use scrap pieces of fabric, or fur, tissue paper. Nearly anything can be glued to the turkey after it has been painted and it will still be recognizable as a turkey, it does not always have to be laden with the traditional feathers. Ribbons, painted pebbles, costume boas - really let yourself have fun with this project.
When you have finished, set it on a large square piece of cardboard. Fill in the rest of the cardboard area with pine cones, pine needles, acorns, ivy, leaves, and curly branches. If you have extra gourds or corn cobs, throw those on there too. You can paint the acorns orange and draw faces on them to make miniature pumpkins.
Or if you have a spare basket, set the turkey in that and fill in with raffia and then add the pine cones, acorns, branches, scented candles, ivy, leaves, etc. You can even paint a few large round rocks white or beige and throw them in there as eggs.
Once you get the hang of using paper mache, you'll be able to use it to make decorations for the other holidays too. It is a wonderful craft to teach children how to do as well. They can then use it for any further projects. And so can you!