Thankful (Dry Erase) Place Mats

Happy November 1! Halloween was a blast but I'm excited to move on to Thanksgiving. I just love this holiday and especially all of the meaning behind it. Being thankful is so important, especially teaching this to our children. With that thought in mind, I came up with this fun craft, mostly for my children.

My kids love to draw, and unfortunately, sometimes it's on surfaces that are NOT meant to be drawn on. So, I thought it would be fun to make a place mat for them to use this entire month, that they could draw on to their hearts content!

These Thankful Dry Erase Place Mats are so fun. My kids have already been using them and loving them. They would be great year-round but especially perfect for this month. We will be using them all month long and teaching many lessons during dinner and while their waiting for dinner :-)

If you want to make your own place mats, here's the easy steps:

Supplies:

-Place Mats
-Plastic (you can buy it in big sheets at Walmart)
-Vinyl and cutting machine

I bought my place mats at Target. I wanted something light in color so you would be able to see all of my kids drawing and writing well. I think a light green or orange would be perfect too. You could also make your own place mat to use.

First, I cut my vinyl. I found a fun, kind of kid-ish font. Important step: Make sure you flip your image so it's reversed. You want the vinyl to stick to the plastic, not the fabric, so it will stick really good, and I wanted the vinyl to be sewn on the inside so my kids couldn't' pick it off. So you want the sticky part to be face up. To get this, you have to flip the image before printing. So use, whatever cutter, I used my silhouette to cut out my vinyl.

Next measure your place mat and figure out the area you want covered in plastic. My place mat had a seam bordering it's edge so I used this and just put the plastic in the middle. Cut your plastic so it's 1 large piece covering the area desired. I used a rotary cutter to cut the plastic. It was easier.

Now transfer your vinyl onto your plastic. Face down it should be reversed. Flip over the plastic and it should read perfectly.

Now place your plastic onto your place mat. You can pin it in place but I'd use only a few pins so it won't make a bunch of holes in the plastic. Now, using a coordinating fabric, sew along each side of the plastic.

That's it! Now, just make sure they use dry erase pens to color and you're all set!!

Have Fun!!

Linking Up to:
Cherished Bliss
Running With Glitter
Sugar & Spice