How to Make a Personalized Photo Mouse Pad
Photos are a great way to personalize household items such as coffee mugs, tee shirts, and even mouse pads. Although a mousepad personalized with a photograph might seem too complicated to make at home, it is actually pretty simple.
The basic idea is to put a photo on a tee-shirt using iron-on transfers, and then cover a rubber pad with that photo.
Personalized mouse pads make great gifts for family, friends, or coworkers.
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Things You'll Need
- iron on transfers for tee shirts
- color printer
- tee shirt
- rubber cement
- rubber pad material, about 1/8" to 1/4" thick
Instructions
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Load your printer's paper cartridge with an iron-on transfer sheet that is specially made to work with color printers.
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2
Select your favorite photo and crop it so that its final dimensions will be about 8" by 10", which are the typical dimensions for a mouse pad.
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Print the photo onto the iron-on transfer. You may want to run a test page first if you haven't used the color cartridge in a while
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Follow the package directions for applying the photo to the tee shirt. Since you are going to cut up the tee shirt to glue on the rubber pad, use an old junky shirt to make the photo transfer.
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After you iron the personalized image onto the shirt, carefully cut out the rectangle with the photo.
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Cut the rubber padding to match the size of the fabric. Brush the top with a thin layer of rubber cement and let it dry.
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On the back side of the fabric, brush with a thin layer of rubber cement and let it dry. Then, put the fabric over the rubber pad, smoothing it with your hands.
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Use several heavy books to weight it down so that the surface becomes smooth and flat. And now you have a personalized mouse pad.
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In addition to using photos, you can transfer other images. For a back-to-school gift, you can make a mouse pad personalized with math formulas, or the periodic table.
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