A great gift giving idea is personalized table placemats. These are very easy to create and the person you are giving them to will enjoy displaying them on the table and showing them off when guests come to visit. You can create a personalized placemat for everyone in your family or you can personalize them for everyone in the family of the person you are going to give them to as gifts.

Before beginning this project you will need to purchase fabric placemats for everyone you are creating the personalized placemats for, different colored fabric pens or permanent markers, and a package of stencils that contains letters as well as different shapes and designs. For this project you do not have to use only solid colored fabric placemats. You can use placemats that have patterns or designs on them as well as using solid colored placemats.

Once you have purchased all of the materials you will need for this project you will need a large work area such as a dining room table. Remove the placemats from their package and lay them flat on the work area. Smooth out all of the wrinkles, creases, or folds. You might have to use an iron to do this. Using the letter stencils, write someone’s name in the center of the placemat. Once you have outlined the person’s name you can use the different colored fabric pens or permanent markers to color each letter of the name a different color creating a rainbow effect.

After the names have been written on the placemat you can use the various stencil shapes and designs to create a border around the name. You could choose to create a star border with different sizes of stars or a heart border, and then fill in the shapes with different colors. For a child’s placemat you could even create a border made out of ABC blocks or teddy bears.

Once you are finished with the placemats you will need to clean up your work area and put away all of the unused materials. The nice thing about this project is that you can use the placemats immediately after making them as there is no paint used that needs to dry before using. If you want to protect your fabric placemat from fading or staining you can purchase an adhesive laminate covering to place over both sides of your placemat. A laminate covering will also create a sturdier placemat that won’t wrinkle or tear.

Creating a personalized placemat is an easy craft that everyone in the family can enjoy doing together. You can create them with seasonal themes and holiday themes as well as personalizing them, and they make wonderful gifts.

Jonathan Pitts

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