Placemat Crafts

I am always on the look-out for unique crafting materials so when I came across two packages of vintage placemats at a thrift store I knew it was a major score!

Here are just a few of them:

Some of them are your standard restaurant placemats with floral borders, but many are actually pretty cool! As you can see from the picture above, there are ones showing different kinds of seashells, flowers, and leaves, one showing patterns of bird migration, one depicting the solar system and another with about 20 optical illusions! And the graphics are awesome!

So I started brainstorming inventive ways to use them. So far I have thought of two (I think pretty awesome) ways...

First 

A Placemat Tray!!

This placemat features recipes for some common cocktails. Perfect for a tray!

I used a wooden tray from Michaels that I sprayed black, and then Mod Podged the placemat onto the bottom! 

Second

Placemat Notebooks!!

Back Covers!

I used super cheap composition notebooks from target for this project, total cost: $4! I simply Mod Podged the placemats onto the front and back covers and secured them on the inside of the covers like so: 

More Pics :)

I used a placemat with an Asian-inspired scene for this mini composition notebook. This is going to be a birthday gift for my Mom :)

Another mini notebook done with a leaf identification placemat!  

Full-sized Comp. Notebook with a North American Birds placemat

I made this one for my boyfriend using a Florida map placemat!

I still have a ton of these placemats left, so I'm sure I will find some other ways to use them soon! 

Thanks for stopping by!

-Liz :)