I am a leader of Activity Days in my church for the 8-10 year old girls in my area. They meet at my house twice a month and we learn together and do fun crafts with the major goals of increasing faith, confidence and experiences.
This past week, we made simple place mats by using freezer paper stencils and fabric paint. Idea from this book.
The place mats are from thrift stores from 25-50 cents each. I drew out the design of the stencil, basing it off the idea in the book. Then I cut along my pencil lines through 4-6 layers of freezer paper at once using a box-cutter/exact-o knife. I made 12 stencils, then ironed them to each of the place mats before the girls came.
Since the place mats I purchased all have ridges, we painted lightly and didn't get paint into all the cracks. It gives it a nice look and doesn't use up so much fabric paint.
The girls loved the project and it was fast enough to have them completed and nearly dry within the hour activity time. We also talked about table manners and phone manners. I would call the activity a success! I hope that these place mats will serve as reminders that consideration and manners are the most important part of the place setting.
~ Chelsea ~