One afternoon while we were painting, I had the great idea that we would make placemats for everyone who was going to be at Mom's for Thanksgiving. The next day I picked up some watercolor paper and hit the jackpot in the Hobby Lobby clearance aisle and got four sets of Thanksgiving scrapbook stickers for $.99 each. It doesn't get much better than that!
Phee happily went to town painting the pages. She loves to paint and it was still kind of new to her at that point last year. After the pages dried, I peeled off stickers and handed them to her so that she could decorate each placemat. The results were adorable. I laminated them and we were all set for holiday dinner at mom's house, plus everyone had some Phee artwork that they could take home and reuse!
This is such a great way to get kids involved in any holiday. When I was a kid, we used to help my Meemaw make place cards for everyone. It was so much fun to dig through the old place cards she had and create new ones. It's fun for kids and adults alike to have the kids involved in the holidays. Plus, if you have them working on a project the day before or on the big day itself, you give yourself a little more quiet time to finish holiday preparations. The kids will be proud of their contribution to the table and those memories are priceless.
- heavy card stock or watercolor paper (watercolor paper if you're going to use paint)
- holiday themed stickers
- other flat embellishments
- Have kids decorate the placemat pages with paint, markers or colored pencils.
- Add stickers and other embellishments.
- Laminate each page so it's protected from food splatters and spills.
- Set the table with the brand new placemats!
Another alternative is to print a holiday coloring page or black and white clip art on each page before the kids start coloring. Or, if you have a lot of kids working, a short guest list or you're very ambitious, you could print each guest's name on a page before starting.
A fun, creative project for artist and recipient alike!
