When it’s warm out, there’s nothing more fun than running through the sprinkler with friends. If your children are getting ready for a water-themed outdoor afternoon soon – perhaps on the Fourth of July? – set the perfect table with laminated, patriotic paper patchwork place mats (it’s a pretty alliterative craft, too!) for snack time. Depending on the age of your crafters, you can precut all the supplies and let them make the mats assembly-style.
Materials
- White poster board
- Red and blue cardstock
- Ruler
- Pencil
- Scissors or paper trimmer
- Glue stick
Instructions
| 1. Start out by cutting a piece of poster board down to 11 inches by 14 inches. Next, draw a line every inch the length of the poster board. |
| 2. In the top left corner, mark a square area 5 inches wide by 4 inches tall. This will be the star field. |
| 3. With your red cardstock, cut eight 1-by-7-inch strips. Next, cut two 1-by-9-inch strips, also in red. For the blue cardstock, cut 10 total 1-by-1-inch squares. |
| 4. In the star field, start applying the blue squares with your glue stick. Follow our pattern, shown in this photo. |
| 5. Once the field is complete, it’s time to apply the stripes. Starting at the bottom of the flag, glue down the 7-inch strips. Overlap them just slightly. Do this for four rows. For the last two top rows, glue down the longer 9-inch strips. |
| 6. Let the flag dry before laminating. At an office supply store, such as FedEx, get a hard laminate finish on the placemat. (At the FedEx in Birmingham, the cost to laminate was $3.99). Trim the excess laminate and round the corners if sharp. |
