Fun and Funky Placemats for Every Day

So, I'm apologizing for not getting this done and up last week like I promised, but I've been under the weather and life goes on anyway.  But, here we go.  

You'll need whatever size of cardstock you'd like for the backround (I've found that it makes a heavier duty placemat, although you could just use construction paper too.  You could use a larger size for larger mat, my kiddo's are still small, so we just used standard size.), contact paper (I found a roll where the width is just a bit longer than a sheet of paper/cardstock at Walmart for about 5 bucks), and markers/crayons/tissue paper/glue/paint....really whatever sort of medium you want to play with (well, maybe not playdough.....just stuff that will lay flat, unless you're not planning on using your piece of art as a placemat, lol), oh and a pair of scissors.

 

Let the munchkins go to town decorating their papers how ever they'd like.

and, yes, my 2 year old can't draw hearts and flowers yet, she had some mommy help.

 Rue decided she wanted a "hodge podge" of things, while the boy was drawing where all of his

meal things should go....he even went as far as to get the fork and butter knife out

to make sure he "drew" them the right way.

Rue wanted to add some tissue paper, so we spread a bit of glue and she put a thin layer

of tissue squares on top.

 

Now we're ready for the contact paper

Peel the corner of the paper off of the contact paper and then just one side and lay the contact paper over the top of your creation, and gently press down, smoothing any bubbles out as you go.

I did find out that if you start in the center and smooth outward then the bubbles go away much

better, but the boy wanted to help, so we just went with it.

Then flip and repeat.   

 

Then cut around the edges with your scissors to make a seal so that water and mess

can't get in to ruin your design (and the contact paper makes for easy clean up)

Ta da!  You're finished, and have some cool lookin' mats to protect your table from

food mess, and they're so inexpensive and fun to make you 

could make one for every meal, lol.

  

Thanks for stopping by and hanging out with me for a bit, I hope that you and your kids will have

tons of fun making some place mats that you both will love.

If you want, leave me a link in the comments section, so I can see your 

artsy mats in action.