Terrific Tuesday with Amy from H is for Handmade

Hello my new friends! My name is Amy and I love to make pretty things! After working in the fashion and design industry for well over a decade, I decided to trade in the need and pressures to climb the corporate ladder for diaper changes and lullabies! Being a mother and a wife has been by far the most rewarding assignment I have ever taken on! Art is all around us in this world and making time to learn it, appreciate it and create it has been fundamental in our home. I started H is for Handmade as not only a creative outlet for nurturing my skills and passions, but also to hopefully inspire and ignite creativity in others, as well. I believe that no matter your age, producing handmade items can help cultivate a sense of confidence and pride in oneself - 2 essential traits in any person's life!

Several years ago (according to the article, March 2006, to be exact!) I clipped this idea out of a Better Homes and Gardens magazine for a kids DIY placemat. I didn't even have a child back then but knew that someday I wanted to sit down make this craft with a tiny little person beside me! It's not only a great tool to teach your children the proper way to set a table, but it's easy to clean and saves your table from getting messy!

I love that my little guy is now old enough to do things like this! He gets so eager to dive into an art project! It makes my heart smile!

Materials that you will need:

poster board
4 sheets of paper
scissors
glue
laminating machine

Cut your poster board down to desired size. I read that a standard placemat size is 18"x14" but I made his a little smaller so that it could fit into a drawer in the kitchen.

I gave him a piece of paper to practice tracing his circles on. He pays so much attention to detail and was so careful! He was cracking me up!

After all his practice, it was time for the real thing!

We then traced each of the shapes for the glass, dish and napkin on separate pieces of paper and cut them out. I hand drew the utensils - sorry I don't have a template!

Mr. Little Jeans put glue on all the shapes and we placed them onto the poster board.

After we were done, we drove to a local store called Utah-Idaho Supply to get it laminated. It is a supply house for educational instructors to buy resources for their students and classrooms. It is such an amazing store and the price to get it laminated was less than $3.00! I highly recommend going to a store like this rather than a copy or office supply store because it will save you so much money!