How to Make a Fall Photo Placemat

Fall photo placemats celebrate the changing seasons and also make useful items for your table. These placemats can be used immediately upon completion, and young children will enjoy setting the table with mats they made themselves or awarding a special placemat to an honored grandparent or other favorite guest.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Construction paper
• Fall picture
• Colored fall leaves
• Contact paper
• Scissors
• Glitter glue
• Markers
• Glue stick

1. 
   This picture of leaf pile play will be a good reminder of a good time you and your child had together.

   Select a photo for every placemat. You can use plain fall foliage pictures, but the mats will be more fun to make if they have pictures of you, your child or your family having fall fun.

2. Collect pretty fall leaves from outside. If you cannot find any you like, cut some out of the colored construction paper. Use fall colors like brown, orange, red and yellow. If you are using real leaves, make sure that they are relatively clean and flat, but not crumbly.

3. Glue the photo and the leaves to a piece of construction paper. Use a lot of glue to make sure everything stays flat. You may wish to use the leaves to frame the picture, or you might arrange everything randomly in a fall collage.

4. Use the glitter glue and the markers to decorate your placemat. You might outline the leaves in glitter or write funny sayings on the placemat. You can even write your name so everyone knows that mat is yours.

5. Cover the placemat with contact paper on both sides. This will protect it from food and spills. You will be able to wipe it off after meals just like you would a table or a vinyl placemat or tablecloth. Now you are ready to sit down and enjoy eating off of your artwork.