Hoyby-Creating and Educating: Dry Erase Activity Placemat

Saturday, March 23, 2013

Dry Erase Activity Placemat

Dry erase activity mat on one side

Placemat on the other

With five nieces and nephews, I am well aware of how a trip to a sit-down restaurant of any sort can easily become a parent's worst nightmare if there is nothing for their child to do. Hence, this project, where I have transformed a placemat into a dry erase activity mat and board. Children can fit their favorite activity book, coloring pages, or the activity menus that some restaurants give out inside of the plastic sleeve and use dry erase markers to complete and then reuse them. And in case none of those items are available to you, it can simply be used as a dry erase doodle mat. Oh, and I didn't even mention the best part of this project...it cost me a total of $5 using products found at my local Dollar Tree!!! Love that place!

Materials:

-plastic folder-$1

-placemat-$1

-ribbon-$1

-children's activity book-$1

-dry erase markers-$1

-Exacto knife

-glue gun/sticks

-scissors

-1/4" elastic-2 pieces, cut into one 1-1/2" piece and one 2" piece

-paper clips

Instructions:

1. Open the plastic folder and separate the clear plastic from the folder pockets by using an Exacto knife to cut along the middle seam (Note: Don't fret if the middle seam looks a little sloppy or uneven, as you will cover it up eventually!). Discard middle pockets

2. Lay the plastic sheet on top of the placemat and cut off edges of plastic to make the same size

3. Using paper clips, align and clip the plastic sheet and placemat together. Fold the pieces of elastic in half and paper clip one to each vertical side of the placemat between the two layers (use picture for reference).

4. Sew layers together along the edge using a zigzag stitch

5. Using a low-temp hot glue gun, glue a piece of ribbon down the center of the plastic seam (Note: Hold the plastic layer away from the placemat so that the layers do not potentially stick together)