St. Patrick’s Day Tablescape and a Holiday Napkin Tutorial

We’re ready for our annual St. Patrick’s Day party here in East Dallas (in this case, the Saturday before)! The main event is only a few blocks from our home, with a parade and all-day festivities being hosted by local restaurants and numerous neighbors. There will be lots of trekking through the neighborhood, and we never know who will drop by. For this week’s Tablescape Thursday, I’ve prepared a fun table to serve up some snacks for any hungry folks who come to visit.

Do you ever see these adorable vintage images for free on the internet, and then wonder what could I do with those? Me too! I thought napkins would be a great way to display these lovable St. Patrick’s themed tikes. Further down, I’ll show you how they were made, and how easy it was. I used four different images, which were found here:

These limey-green polka dot plates are my favorite new HomeGoods find. Get ready to be seeing a lot of these sweet plates, because they will be coming out again for Easter, and I’m pretty sure they will be appearing at Christmas, too!

For now, our vintage glassware is adorned with swirls of green ribbons to add color to our table. But come party day, Shamrock Shakes will be the beverage of choice.

A few dollar-store lucky gold coins and some shamrock bubble necklaces, just for fun.

My crazy fur-trimmed hat became our centerpiece. It even lights up! Hard to get a photo of randomly flashing green lights, though.

What would you get if you crossed a leprechaun with a Texan? A pot of chili at the end of the rainbow! More fun kids’ jokes for St. Patrick’s Day are here. And as a holiday surprise, Mother Nature provided a little St. Patty’s scenery for us, a lovely sight after the thunderstorm that rolled through this morning.

Here’s how you can make these holiday napkins for yourself:

You will need 4 – 100% cotton napkins or cotton fabric, 2 – 15 foot spools of ribbon, and photo transfer paper. The paper I found came from Hobby Lobby, and is made to work with inkjet printers. For the fabric, I used some flour sack towels, which I had on hand, and cut each to 22 inches square.

If you're using fabric without a hem, stitch the ribbon ½ inch from the edge of fabric, turning the corners without cutting ribbon.

Press to the right side and iron miters into each corner.

Last, simply topstitch the inside edge of the ribbon. If you’re using premade napkins, you’ll only need to stitch your ribbon onto the right side of the napkin, since you already have a hem.

 

Print and cut out your images, then iron onto the napkins according to the package directions.

 

A couple of tips:

Remember to prewash your fabric or napkins, and don’t use fabric softener when drying.

You’ll need to set mirror image in your printer box if your image has text, or graphics that you don’t want to get reversed. On my HP, it’s found under advanced printing options. Print preview is helpful also, so you can double-check to see if you have your settings as you want them.

I didn’t realize until it was too late that one of my images is much smaller than the other three. I could have easily adjusted this by setting it to print at 150%.

Be careful to not iron over the ribbon when adhering your image to the napkin. Most ribbons have some rayon or polyester content, and they’ll melt at the super-high heat that’s required to set the image onto the fabric.

It was that easy! I can now think of so many other tabletop uses for these great free images, such as table runners or placemats. In the future I’ll try to add a category to my sidebar, listing all of the great sources for free images that I’ve found.

I hope you all have a fun, and safe, St. Patrick’s Day! Please stop by Between Naps on the Porch for this week’s Tablescape Thursday.

 

I have also linked in to The St. Patrick's Day Blog Crawl at Cuisine Kathleen. You have got to see her amazing display!

 

Love, Andrea

Comments

[Noelle Sweeney]

I love these and you've made it so easy, I am definitely going to try this! Thanks so much, Noelle

[Mimi]

Andrea, cute table. Love, love, love the lime polka dotted plates. Was at TJM today and they had nothing of interest...no St. Pat's or Easter dishes...that is a first for me.

[Julie]

What a great table...Love all your green
xoxo
julie

[Sheila]

Andrea, these are just the cutest things ever! What a great job you did! And thank you so much for sharing how to make these cuties with us. I am hopeless inept with crafts, but I would be willing to try the iron-on decals. I want to bookmark this post, and I need to figure out how to do it. Cutest thing going!

Happy St. Paddy's and Happy Tablescaping, too...

XO,

Sheila :-)

[Lisa]

Your whole table is adorable! Thanks so much for sharing the napkin tutorial with us. What a fun project.:)

[black eyed susans kitchen]

The table setting is festive and fun. I would never have thought of customizing the napkins like that...it is positively brilliant.
♥, Susan

[Tricia]

What a great tablescape! And thank you for the nice tutorial on making the napkins! I will definitely try that.

[Sue]

Love the napkins, and the polka dot plates! I also will be using that idea of putting the curly ribbon in the goblets...what an easy way to add color!

[laurie]

Oh My Goodness! Those napkins are absolutely the cutest things, and how smart of you to do that! Thank you so much for the directions. I'm sure I'm going to be borrowing this idea (if I post it, I'll be sure to give you credit). Love those polka dot plates too, and your centerpiece hat is great! laurie

[Beth]

Great job on the napkins! I love your table too. Happy St. Patrick's Day!

[Lia]

What a fun and beautiful St. Patrick's day table. The napkins are exquisite. I also just love the plates and all the lucky coins and green hat. What fun! Thank you so much for sharing. I hope if you have a chance you will come by to say hello. Cheers, Lia

[Brenda Kula]

Oh, I love those napkins with the cute vintage images! I'd never heard that Texas joke. Taught me something new, you surely did!
Brenda

[Lilly]

I love your table!!! Very nice!!

[Diann @ The Thrifty Groove]

Hi Andrea!

Very cute table! And guess what? You won my Pillsbury Sweet roll gift pack! Congrats! i will be sending you an email.

[Gail@FaithfulnessFarm]

I simply love your napkins with the vintage postcard images. Very, very clever!!

Blessings!
Gail

[janmary, n ireland]

LOVE those customized napkins - can think of so many ways to use this technique!

Happy St Patrick's Day from N Ireland :)

[debbie]

That was adorable! I love the napkins...and the green polka dots plats really add the whimsy and fun to the table! Thanks for sharing!

[Cuisine Kathleen]

Hi Andrea,
Thanks so much for joining the party! I love those napkins..I appreciate the instructions...maybe someday!
Your table is adorable!
I am bookmarking you so I can find you again!

[Barb]

Love your napkins! I've done T-shirts before but never thought of napkins. All your fun pieces are so cute..made a great table.

[Linderhof@classicnet.net]

A great table! Love the hat centerpiece!

[Gina Chaney]

I love your St. Patty's Day tablescape! I love the vintage printed napkins especially. What a great idea!

[Trinity]

perfect design thanks openerotik PLEASE!!!! WHO IS SHE?????????

[Hannah]

I saw your advert in the paper adultempire ``yeaeeh Fantastic Thank you

[Bailey]

Special Delivery Acyclovir 5 5.2. Gather, summarize, and diseases and their
Cheap Aciphex 3. Prevention of mother to child transmission is a simple concept, yet one of the

[Hunter]

Very Good Site sexcloud one of my favorite gals

[Gabriella]

Best Site Good Work homemadesextube `llooll das gefällt mir richtig .

[Vanessa]

Have you seen any good films recently? indiansexztube She's ava rose look at the mole in her right boob.

[Angel]

Yes, I play the guitar Order Cheap Amoxil One Formal Presentation 40
Amoxil 250 Mg PHCY 421 Pharmaceutical Biochemistry 1 3.0 Andrew Lee

[Christian]

The line's engaged Purchase Arcoxia 2. Describe the services provided to the public and/or other applicable audience or
Cheap Arava IU House Moi University P: 011-254-(0)53-20-32484

[Juan]

Do you know each other? Buy Cheap Arcoxia based, patient-centered) preceptor; portfolio entry)
Amoxil Antibiotic Clinics are run primarily by Kenyans. Nurses (or sisters), clinical officers, and

[Joshua]

I work with computers Cheap Arava Authorization 7, 15, 19, 20, 33, 36, 42, 43, 44, 54 Deferred payment plan 17, 18

[Khloe]

A Second Class stamp Maxalt Tablets Q: I received a DUR warning for high dosage and my claim was denied? Why?

[Hayden]

Photography Zyban Online Arkansas AR Nevada NV
Albuterol Mg 7. Calculate a pediatric BMI AC, PC,

[Kylie]

I want to report a Order Eldepryl completing post-graduate training. The Clinical Scholars Program provides three tracks: (1)
Buy Epivir Online Note: If sending diskettes with batches please put diskette at top of batch and clearly

[Hayden]

I'd like to speak to someone about a mortgage Buy Topamax Cheap " An American Indian or Alaskan native served through KCHIP
Order Topamax Online Canada Monitor and evaluate patients medication histories for drug related problems

[Alexandra]

We work together Buy Albuterol Inhalers Online insensitive; does patient needs; often needs; requires to emphasize Explains rationale
Albuterol Sulfate Inhalation Solution Price coordinator. Verification must be in the form of official written documents from

[Benjamin]

Enter your PIN longxxxtube lily thai is the greatest...