How to Make Custom Designed Placemats

Interesting placemats can really dress up a bare dinner table and give it style and personality. Wouldn't it be fun if you could create your own customized placemats for different theme dinners or for a special party? The good news is you can. Why buy boring pre-made placemats when it's so fun and easy to make your own? Here's how.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Method One.
   
   You can create a customized placemat out of any type of paper item. All you have to do is cut your papers to the appropriate size and take them to the copy shop to be laminated in plastic. Once they're laminated, you have water proof placemats that can be quickly cleaned with the wipe of a sponge. The fun part is choosing the paper items to be laminated. Some ideas are old sheet music, vintage menus, illustrations from old books, handmade paper, post cards, even pieces of fabric. Remember you can always scan items into your computer and print them out to get multiple copies to make enough placemats to serve an entire party. Having a dinner for the bride and groom? Why not scan photos of the happy couple into the computer, arrange them in a photo editing software, print them out, and have them laminated. Won't they be surprised when they sit down to eat and find their photos staring back at them!

2. Method Two.
   
   For this project, you'll need to buy white placemats made of vinyl. These can be found at most stores that carry kitchen supplies. You'll also need a roll of clear contact paper and a glue stick. Find photos relating to whatever theme you'd like for your dinner table. Once you have the photos, arrange them in a pleasing manner on the vinyl placemats. When you're pleased with the arrangement, use your glue stick to glue them to the vinyl. Cut out contact paper to cover each placemat leaving the outer edge of the vinyl longer by about a quarter inch all the way around to allow good contact with the vinyl. Apply the contact paper and you have your own custom designed placemats for all occasions. The possibilities for customizing your mats are endless. You can create dog or cat themed placemats, placemats with family photos, comic strip placemats, and so much more. You can even place flat natural objects such as leaves and flowers between the contact paper and the vinyl for a natural look.

3. Have fun experimenting with different papers to create customized placemats for all occasions.