Make these delightful DIY personalized place card holders to elevate your party table

A party table set with plates and napkins in cheerful, bright shades of orange, yellow, pink, blue and green; next to the plate is a DIY personalized photo place holder that's been painted in bright colors and has a small Instax photo pasted inside the frame; a blue Instax camera sits at the center of the table between a bowl of mandarin oranges and a transparent yellow glass cake stand with a cake piled high with meringue frosting and a mandarin orange on top.

If you’re the sort of person to throw a dinner party, chances are you’re all about the details. And if you’re all about the details, we think you’ll love these two DIY personalized place card holder ideas.  

They’re easy, fun and can be made with a few simple craft supplies. They can also be decorated in many different ways—even if you don’t consider yourself the “artsy type.” 

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We love these personalized place card holders for a few reasons:

 

1.     There’s nothing more welcoming than something that signals to a guest, “Right here…this is your spot. This is where you belong.”

2.     It shows guests that among all the other details, you thought about them individually, not just as part of a group.

3.     Both designs make a fun takeaway for your guests—a memento of the evening’s fun for them to keep!

A party table is set with brightly colored plates, napkins and decor; each place setting is accompanied by a DIY photo frame personalized place card; at the center of the table is a transparent yellow glass cake stand holding a cake piled high with white meringue frosting and topped with a whole mandarin orange, still in its peel with the leaf attached; a bowl of more mandarins and a bright blue Instax camera sit on the table nearby.

Idea #1: DIY Photo Frame Personalized Place Card  

Hello, can you say adorable? These personalized place card holders give you a great excuse to actually print out all those cute pictures you’ve taken with your loved ones over the years. Plus, it’s so fun and sweet to have your guests find their spot at the table by looking through your special moments together!

Supplies needed to make a DIY photo frame personalized place card include Crayola Model Magic, card stock, a pencil, scissors, hot glue and glue sticks, acrylic paint, paint brushes, and photos of your party guests.

What you’ll need:

•  Crayola® Model Magic
•  Card stock
•  Pencil
•  Scissors
•  Hot glue gun & glue sticks
•  Acrylic craft paint and paint brushes
•  Photos of party guests

A woman's hands cut a rectangle with wavy sides out of a piece of white card stock with a pair of scissors.

To start, create some shapes as a guide for the Model Magic frames. Place the photo of your guest on the card stock, then draw your frame shape, leaving enough room around the photo for a bit of a mat. Draw your shape and then cut it out with the scissors. We liked this wavy shape and also did some organic ovals and rounded squares.

A woman's hands roll out a piece of white Model Magic air-drying modeling clay into a long rope; nearby we see shapes that have been made out of ropes like these, like an oval and a rectangle with wavy sides.

To make your frame, start by rolling pieces of the Model Magic into a long rope, about 3/4 inch thick.

A woman's hands shapes the rope of Model Magic that she's made to go around the piece of card stock she cut out earlier.

Shape your Model Magic frame using the piece of card stock you cut earlier as a guide. Connect the ends of the rope by gently rolling them together. Let the Model Magic dry for 24 hours.

A woman's hands paint the air-dried modeling clay that has been shaped into a rectangle with wavy sides; she is painting the top portion of the rectangle a bright yellow color; nearby is an oval that's been painted with blue scallops.

After the frames are dry, paint with craft paint. We picked a color palette similar to the Hallmark Celebrate! plates featured in the party table setting above.

A woman applies hot glue to the back of her painted clay photo frame with a hot glue gun; beneath her hands on the brown kraft paper work surface is a photo frame backing made of card stock that she cut out previously; a stack of photos of her party guests lays nearby, ready for her to use.

After the paint is dry, use the hot glue to attach the frame to the card stock backing.

A woman presses a photo into her DIY personalized photo place card with one hand while holding a hot glue gun in the other; additional finished photo frame place cards lay nearby.

Next, use hot glue to attach the photos to the frames.

Five finished DIY photo frame personalized place cards sit on a pink checked cloth; the frames are a variety of shapes, including an oval, rectangles with wavy sides and rectangles with rounded corners; each frame is painted in its own unique way with bright colors like blue, yellow, pink and orange, and displays a picture of the same woman—the party host—at different points in her life with different friends.

Congrats—your photo frames are done! They are great little personalized gifts for your party guests. You could even attach a magnet to the back to make the gift more useful!

 

 

A party table set with plates and napkins in cheerful, bright shades of orange, yellow, pink, blue and green; next to the plate is a DIY personalized photo place holder that's been painted in bright colors and has a small Instax photo pasted inside the frame; a blue Instax camera sits at the center of the table between a bowl of mandarin oranges and a transparent yellow glass cake stand with a cake piled high with meringue frosting and a mandarin orange on top.
A party table is set with paper plates, napkins and utensils in shades of blue, ivory and gold; at the center of the table are gold candlesticks with white tapered candles in them; on top of each plate is a DIY mosaic place card holder with a handpainted place card.

Idea #2: DIY Mosaic Personalized Place Card Holder  

You can spin this idea SO many ways. While we used seashells and glass beads to create our mosaic place card holder—say, to celebrate a friend’s upcoming solo trip to a seaside paradise—you could decorate using pretty much any small, decorative items. Wildflowers, leaves and seeds to celebrate spring, perhaps! Or tiny holiday decorations for a Christmas dinner party. The possibilities are endless, so long as the embellishments are on the itty-bitty side.

Supplies you'll need for the DIY mosaic personalized place card holder include Crayola Model Magic, a mix of small trinkets such as shells, beads, pearls, etc., a bone folder or popsicle stick, card stock for place cards, blue gouache paint, and paint brushes.

What you’ll need:

•  Crayola® Model Magic
•  Mix of little trinkets such as craft shells, beads, pearls, etc.
•  Bone folder or other tool to create a place card slot, like a popsicle stick
•  Place cards (we used cut-down watercolor paper)
•  Blue gouache paint
•  Paint brushes

A woman's hands are seen shaping large pieces of white Crayola Model magic into mounds; pieces that she's already shaped sit nearby, next to a dish full of shells, beads and pearls.

First, shape the Model Magic into half-circle mounds. Then, press the sides, rounded top edge, and bottom onto a flat surface to help smooth them out.

A woman's hands use a bone folder to create a slit in the top of the shaped Model Magic, where the place card will sit once the modeling clay has dried.

Use the bone folder to create a slot in the top to hold your place cards.

A woman's hands press trinkets into the sides of the place card holders made of Model Magic.

Next, press your trinkets into the front of your name card holder. Let the Model Magic dry for 24 hours with the trinkets pressed in. You can then glue them into the holder if you’d like, but we found they stayed in once the Model Magic was dry.

A woman's hands paint the name

Next, paint guest names onto the place cards.

Finished DIY mosaic place card holders sit on a bright blue background; the place card holders are semi-circle shaped and feature a variety of small trinkets like shells, beads and pearls pressed into their sides, and handpainted place cards bearing the names Vienna, Frances and Yara placed in them.

Voila! Done. The perfect little addition to personalize your dinner party.

 

 

A party table set with plates, napkins and utensils in shades of blue, ivory and gold sit on top of a linen table cloth; on top of a square plate with a blue floral design sits a DIY mosaic place card holder with a handpainted place card that reads,

Whatever you’re celebrating, we know these DIY personalized place card holders will be a fabulous addition to your dinner party table. And your guests? They’re gonna LOVE them.

 

 

Want some more party inspiration? Oh, you know we have tons: