Make Thanksgiving warm and welcoming to friends and family this year with beautiful do it yourself decorations. Use what you have, grab a few glass cylinders at a yard sale, and pull items from your yard.  A few flowers from the local grocery can also add to your look. Here are a few ideas.

Candlesticks with a Twist:
Put an assortment of thick candlesticks of varying heights in the middle of your table, but instead of candles, place small pumpkins of varied sizes on them. Surround the candlesticks with colored leaves from your yard or have your kids make them from colored paper.

Harvest Mantle:
Have a mantle in your home? Use five to seven beautiful mixed metal candlesticks off center, placing fall colored candles in the candlestick. Find some cute vintage Thanksgiving decorations to mix among the candle holders. Use fresh greens from your yard among the candlestick and décor.

Leaf Tags: 
When you have a large group coming for dinner, it is always good to assign seats. Assigned seats is also a way to mix it up, time for the teens to spend some quality time with the grandparents instead of their devices. Make leaf-shaped name tags out of construction paper, or tissue paper. Glue on real twigs to give them a realistic touch.

Thankful Wreath:
Buy a store-bought wreath, then add your own special touches, like pheasant feathers, acorns, and pinecones. Or add silk mums in reds, oranges, and browns.

Cozy Glow:
Wrap clear glass candle holders with dried corn stocks. Tie the stocks to the containers with twine, then add bits of fresh greens, small buds from fall flowers, and berries.  

Cornucopia:
Fill a woven cornucopia with small pumpkins and gourds. Add fall leaves or fresh greens, along with votives.

 Thankful Tree:
    Give everyone at your party a paper leaf (in different colors) and a pen to write what they are thankful for on the leaf. Then tape all of the leaves to a tree branch that you have placed in a vintage container filled with sand. This becomes your centerpiece. When the evening is over, put the leaves into a scrapbook.

     Natural Display:
      Clean out a medium sized pumpkin through a hole in the top, then place a container inside. A used yogurt tub slides easily into the hole. Fill it with water, then top the container with fresh flowers, dried grasses, and branches with berries.

      Do the Vintage Thing:
        Use your grandmother’s silver pitcher, an assortment of vintage square cheese graters, or old canning jars. Add flowers, grasses and berries to the pitcher. Put a votive under each of the old cheese graters, raise them on block of wood, sprinkle with flowers.  Old canning jars can be tied with twine, painted on the inside with gold or white paint, and used for candles, flowers, and greens.

        There are a number of places to get great ideas, Southern Living, Martha Stewart Living, Pinterest, and many stories on the internet. Remember with DIY, the best thing to do is to keep it simple, especially if you have not done a DIY project before.

        What makes DIY special is that there is nothing like homemade, because homemade comes from the heart.