Don’t get me wrong, I love cake. It’s just that sometimes I wonder why they get all the love. Frosting, toppers, edible flowers, candles, rainbow insides…….it’s all so pretty! With the holidays fast approaching, I thought I’d see if I could ‘celebrate’ the humble pie, and dress it up a little. Here are instructions to make a heartfelt Thanksgiving pie topper.

Materials: 4 x 8 inch piece of heavyweight dark gray paper, 2 x 8 inch piece of heavyweight light gray paper, sage green and gray ribbon, 2 wooden skewers, pencil, ruler, white glue, scissors, Alphabet Pasta, print-outs or color copies of bird illustrations (with 1 x 2 inch birds), mini-clamps.

Step 1. Begin with your gray paper – draw an upside-down rainbow shape, starting from the top lefthand corner, to the center of the bottom side (marked with a ruler), back up to the top righthand side of the rectangle. Do this on both the dark gray and the light gray paper. You will have one deep rainbow and one shallow rainbow. Cut out a 1 inch strip following your pencil line, with both colored papers.

Step 2. Spill out a pile of alphabet pasta into a saucer or tray. Search for your letters and set them aside to glue. I chose to write “Have a Grateful Heart” based on a quote by Seneca who said, “Nothing is more honorable than a grateful heart,” and “Be conscious of your treasures” derived from Thortnon Wilder who said, “We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.”  Really, you could write whatever moves you.  Place little dots of white glue on the paper and carefully put your letters into place. You may have to use a pencil tip to nudge them into the right position. Let dry.

Step 3. Cut out two bird illustrations. Make sure they are facing each other.  I used an old bird guide book I had, but Vintage Printable has a great selection of birds. You may have to resize your images to get the right sized birds.

Step 4.  Cut two 8-inch lengths of each ribbon, so you have four pieces of ribbon total. Cut your skewers to be roughly 8 inches also.

Step 5. Layer your bird, letter swags, folded ribbons and skewer, in that order. Place glue in between every layer, and clip them together to dry. Be sure to angle your skewers slightly inwards. I left mine to dry overnight, although I don’t think they actually need that much time.

Step 6. Bake, or buy, a pie! Insert your topper into your pie and enjoy!

P.S. With some leftover alphabet pasta, I made some quick place cards for the table. I see lots of potential with these pasta letters, and there are a about a million in each little box. I’m thinking about gift tags, cards, on top of presents – – what do you think they would be good for?