From the Archives: Picture Placemat

This was, surprisingly, a very simple project. And my daughter loved eating at the table with so many pictures to look at! I included a few of her as a baby so she (and I) could see how she's grown! While I did not enlist my kid's help for this project it is certainly something they might love to do (my pictures had ink that kept coming off, so I opted to go this one alone-also the look on my daughter's face was priceless when she saw it).

Here's How:

Supplies:
1 sheet of 11x14 poster board (found mine at Wal-mart in a pack of four)
Twelve wallet sized photos (I printed mine from home, but you can get them printed that way too.)
Con-tact paper (for cheap laminating).
Die Cut letters for child's name (optional)

-First print and cut your photos to size. I cut the vertically placed ones to fit so it would make a nice square.
-Mount photos around edge of poster board with your favorite non liquid adhesive(liquid makes it bubble, I used the Kuyoko Dot Roller).
-Cut out letters for child's name (you can use stickers, die-cuts, or even just write it on!)
-Mount letters to center of mat using non liquid adhesive.
-Laminate
or
**special note: con-tact paper immediately sticks to photos and if removed will permantly destroy the photo-be sure everything in mounted securly before using the Con-tact paper.

-Cut two sheets of Con-tact paper at a length a few inches greater than 11x14 so there is plenty of overlap.
-Pull back paper backing on contact paper, place sticky side up on table, place poster board picture side up on Contact paper.
- Peel other sheet of Con-tact paper, holding edges, gently lay paper, center first, down on paper. using the handle on a knife, or other flat edge, smooth out any wrinkles or bubbles.
-trim edges of Con-tact paper around the perimeter of poster board, leaving a few cm around the edge to seal everything in.

Viola! A personalized picture placemat!

**This post originally published on 9/16/09, republished 6/26/09