Today we are making DIY placemats from kids art. Making placemats is a great art activity for kids of all ages and theses placemat ideas are literally endless. I love that the table is protected and decorated with placemats for children that they helped make.
DIY Placemats Craft for Kids
The latest craze in our house is DIY placemats, using the children’s art to create unique place settings for our table. When the children have a friend coming to tea they like to make a special placemat just for the guest, to welcome them to the meal and for them to take home with them afterwards.
These DIY placemats are very easy to make so young children can definitely get into the art fun.
Here’s how we made the kids placemats…feel free to adapt our placemat ideas to suit your kids and the seasons.
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Supplies Needed for Making DIY Placemats
- Large sheet of construction paper – I like the 12 x 18 inch size
- Art supplies of your child’s choice: paint, paintbrush, markers, crayons, scissors, glue, pencils, colored pencils and stickers
- Lamination machine or a roll of clear contact paper
How to make placemats from your kids’ art
Step 1 – Create the Kids Art
Make your placemat by using art supplies like pens and pencils to draw a design on a piece of cardstock to be applied to a larger piece of paper or start with the larger piece of paper.
Personalizing the Placemat Artwork
My kids like to make a personalized placemat for each person, decorated with drawings of the person, themselves and some of their favorite things. You could also make seasonal placemat sets:
- Easter
- Christmas
- Thanksgiving
- 4th of July
- Valentines Day
- A family member’s birthday
Or match your placemat artwork to what your kids are learning about and make an history fact set of placemats, some placemat times tables or include favorite Bible verses.
Start with Art that Your Child Has Already Made
It’s also a good way to re-use art that your kids have drawn or painted. Don’t worry if it isn’t exactly the right size, we can add it to a larger piece of paper as a frame or mat for the artwork.
Step 2 – Laminate the Placemat Art
Once the design is complete mat it on a piece of 12 x 18 construction paper if needed and send it through the laminating machine with a plastic pouch or laminating sheets or use contact paper on both sides of the placemat paper.
Why laminate? The laminating layer strengthens the placemat and protects it from any spills. By laminating you can reuse the placemat over and over because it allows you to wipe the mats clean after each meal.
Step 3 – Use Your DIY Placemats
The child-made placemats bring such a welcoming touch to mealtimes and have been know to encourage dawdling kids to hurry to the dinner table to see the latest creations!
You can make smaller size mats as coasters or cup holders. Kids can create a set to give as a gift to a grandparent.
DIY Placemat Ideas for Kids
1. Make a Toddler Placemats Full of Dinosaurs
Whether you use your child’s art or create a special art piece with their interests in mind, toddler placemats are fun to customize to your kid!
2. Homemade Placemats with Charm
If your child has a favorite piece of art that may not be the right size, just mat it on a piece of paper that makes the placemat the desired measurements and then laminate. I love that artwork that might be forgotten in a drawer or closet can now be enjoyed everyday.
3. Placemat Crafts with Placemat Design
Older kids might want to craft a placemat that is a traditional placemat design like one with a colorful border like pictured. Kids might want to trace their usual plate, bowl, cup and flatware so they can easily set a table using the placemat template.
DIY placemat craft
You can easily transform kids art into placemats that can be used daily at your family table with these simple steps. Start with new kids art or open up your art drawer and choose some kids art pieces you love.
Materials
- Large sheet of construction paper – 12 x 18 inch size
- Art supplies of your child’s choice: paint, paintbrush, markers, crayons, scissors, glue, pencils, colored pencils and stickers
Tools
- Lamination machine or a roll of clear contact paper
Instructions
- Create your artwork or use a piece of already created kids art.
- If the art is not on a placemat sized paper like 12 x 18, then mat it to the size you desire for your placemat.
- Laminate your placemat art.
- Serve on your newly homemade placemat!
More DIY Placemat Ideas from Kids Activities Blog
- Make this Thanksgiving placemat craft for kids
- Here is a free Thanksgiving placemat printable that your kids can color
- These printable Christmas placemats are fun for the whole family
- Make Thanksgiving paper placemats with this template
- These Thanksgiving placemat coloring pages are so much fun
- Make snowman placemats!
- These placemats for kids to color are so much fun
- These printable Thanksgiving table decorations are festive
- The I am Thankful placemat is a favorite at our table
- These printable activity placemats have Earth Day in mind
Have you made DIY placemats with your child’s artwork in the past? What art are you going to transform into homemade placemats today?
Great, thanks for sharing this blog post.Really thank you! Keep writing.
We made these again for the holidays and it was really fun to see the kids make their own placemats and then customize placemats for grandma and grandpa and other guests that were going to be at our holiday dinner table. This is such a fun way to celebrate kids art with the simple way of how to make a placemat!
What size card stock do you use?
Hi, Kelly! We used 8 1/2 x 11 card stock (standard size). But if you want to use a larger size, give it a try and let us know how it goes!
I would LOVE to have these from my GRANDKIDS! My Mom and Dad would LOVE to have these from their GREAT GRANDKIDS as well. They don’t need anything and/or want anything and I think this is a GREAT idea for people like them and/or me. LOVE THESE IDEAS! MUST do with my Grandkids. I do my own Card making and Poems, but NEVER thought of this! FANTASTIC idea! Thanks for sharing.
I need a laminator! These are cute!
Thanks for sharing on Kids Get Crafty!
Maggy & Alissa
Brilliant idea – never thought about a guest mat – how thoughtful!
We made a placemat to help teach our toddler where his plate, his utensils and most importantly, his cup go! He loves his “placemat”.
Ooh, I can think of so many great placemat ideas! What about a Mother’s Day, Fathers Day, or Cinco De Mayo placemats? Yippee! Thanks for the inspiration!
I think that the fact that kids create they own placemats make them respect even more their table manners. On top, we can appreciate their art! Good idea!
Cute idea! 🙂