DIY Birch Slab Place Cards

I shared with you earlier in the week my plans for a gold and rustic table for Thanksgiving starting with some sweet cork placemats. I wasn’t able to use wood slabs under my chargers, so I decided to incorporate them in another way – as place cards!

I picked up 6 birch coasters from Michaels, and lucky for me, they were marked clearance for $0.99/each (originally $2.99). Whoopee!

Even though I only need 4 tomorrow, I wanted to make a couple extra to use for future parties of 6. I also bought a small container of chalkboard paint. The directions said to apply 2 coats, 1 hour apart, then let cure for 24 hours before seasoning then using.

I take chalkboards very seriously.

Using a small brush, I just free-handed a chalkboard circle-ish shape inside each coaster.

I did the two coats, then the next day I seasoned the chalkboards by rubbing chalk over the whole thing then erasing.

But I wasn’t done yet. I needed to display my tiny chalkboards in the most awesome way…which brings me to my next purchase.

Four tiny Bambis ended up being kind of a splurge at $2.49/ea, but when you need a miniature deer you need a miniature deer. Amiright??

I spray painted them gold using Krylon metallic (which is my fav gold spray paint) and took them from basic to posh miniature deer.

I bought a bag of plain pine cones and painted the edges on some of them with gold paint (Martha Stewart Metallic Yellow Gold 32105 and Gold 32103). It was super simple and really made them pop!