Free Printable Thanksgiving Paper Placemat Template



There's no more iconic image for Thanksgiving than the turkey (much to the turkey's chagrin). So what better form for a paper placemat for this special holiday than a turkey in all his glory?

I actually whipped up this little guy to use for last year's Thanksgiving dinner. That means the design has been road tested. What I found is that you have to use the right adhesive. If you don't (as I didn't), you'll have fake turkey feathers everywhere. I'll go into the correct adhesive to use in the instructions below.



BTW, this design matches a variety of other free Thanksgiving printables, including 3D pumpkin placecards (they can also be used as decorations), invitations and a cute wineglass lampshade.

You may need a program to unzip this file. If you do, you can download 7-Zip for free.

Download the Placemat Template


If you have problems downloading, unzipping or printing this file, please refer to numbers 2-4 in this printables FAQ. You'll probably find the answer you need on that page.

Instructions

1. To make the placemats, you'll need two 12" x 12" scrapbook sheets. I used a version that was almost like card stock and had a texture, but you don't necessarily have to. You'll want both sheets the same color for each turkey, because one is for the body and the other is for the head.

As shown to the left, you'll need a bowl or plate that measures about 11" or so. (The version in the photographs was created with a bowl that was 11-1/4".) Carefully trace around the bowl with a pencil and then cut the circle with scissors.

2. Print both templates and cut out the patterns for the turkey's head. Trace around this on the scrapbook paper and then cut around it.

3. Cut out the waddle, beak, feathers and feet.

4. Glue the waddle and beak to the head, following the photo, using scrapbook dry adhesive. I highly recommend using this type of adhesive, because scrapbook paper may not stick well with a glue stick and regular glue might warp. Place a peel-and-stick googly eye in place.

5. I recommend gluing the head on first and attaching the tail feathers before adding the feet. To position the feathers, lay the cut-out circle right-side up and insert the cut feathers so there's about 1/2" of each underneath the circle. You can use the small feathers at the top and the bottom or just at the top. Or you and use all one size.

The photo at the top of the page shows the small feathers at the top and bottom (although it's hard to tell, because they weren't glued down when I shot the photo and they were still a bit wonky.)

The photo below shows the placemat with three small feathers at the top. I put a little space between the feathers, but you can overlap them if you want. 


Once the feathers are positioned to your liking, pull them out one at a time and add permanent glue dots similar to these, reposition it and stick it in place.

6. When all the feathers are in place, attach the feet, using the photo above as a guide for placement.

7. Have a happy Thanksgiving!


Credits: Thanks to PixelScrapper.com for the paisley overlay used in this Thanksgiving placemat. Overall template design copyright 2012 by Carla Chadwick.

Terms: This art is for personal use only. Please see our easy-to-follow terms if you would like to link to this page. You may use the images in this post to link to us.

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5 comments:

  1. This is so cute! My grandchildren will make one to make their Thanksgiving dinner special! Thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  2. THIS IS AN AWESOME DESIGN

    ReplyDelete

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