Thanksgiving Placemat Craft

Kate and I made a cute Thanksgiving place mat, but you could use these directions to make one for any holiday or season!

Here are the materials we used:

1. three pieces 9" x 12" construction paper (any color)
2. self adhesive letter stickers
3. feathers
4. google eyes
5. markers
6. leaf paper punch
7. white school glue or glue stick

We began by talking about Thanksgiving and some of the symbols you see around this holiday. We decided to make red, yellow and orange leaves with a paper punch I found at the local craft store.
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Then we decided to make a turkey out of Kate's hand print, so we traced around her hand with a magic marker. We embellished this with a few feathers and a google eye.

Then Kate decided to glue the multi-colored leaf punch outs onto the place mat.

Finally we used the adhesive letters to spell out the word Thanksgiving across the top of the placemat.
I let the whole thing dry and then used two pieces of clear contact paper cut slightly larger than the 9" x 12" paper.
I peeled the backing from the paper and carefully smoothed the plastic into place, being sure to seal the contact paper edges together around the whole place mat. (This allows for easy clean up after meals.)
We hope you enjoy making your own designs!