I promised yesterday to give instructions for weaving paper placemats as the craft activity and take-home for your cooking party. You’ll need to create your weaving strips, the weaving base and the contact paper protection for each placemat ahead of time. I suggest you have 1 extra placemat that you can weave as a demonstration for the kids at the party.
You will need:
- various colors of construction paper, 2 sheets per mat
- Mat knife (if available) AND scissors
- ruler
- double sided tape
- pencil
- clear contact paper (enough for both sides of each placemat
Cut as many different colored sheets of construction paper into 1/2″ strips (the long way) as you will have placemats. Each placemat takes 16 strips, and each piece of construction paper cut this way yields 16 strips, BUT you probably want extra for screw-ups and so everybody gets their color choices.
To create the base for weaving in these strips, position each piece of construction paper in landscape format, i.e. the long side is horizontal. Lightly draw your margin guidelines: 1/2″ top and bottom and 1″ on the sides. Within these margins, pencil in your lines top to bottom at 1/2” intervals – you will have 18 lines. This is where the mat knife is easier than the scissors to cut on each line, being careful not to cut into the margin.
Cut your clear contact paper to the exact size of a piece of construction paper- 2 per placemat (one for the back and one for the front).
When demonstrating the weaving for the kids, start at the bottom and bring the first paper strip up from the back of the placemat to start on the left hand side, alternating over and under through all the slits. Attach this first and all strips on the side margins with the double sided tape. The next strip, of a different color than the first, is woven in opposite the first: start it on the top on the placemat and push it through the first slit to the back. Alternate colors or use random colors and weave in all 14 strips to complete the placemat.
Cover the front and back of each finished placemat with the pre-cut contact paper to keep it nice for the kids. You’ll need to do this as getting contact paper placed properly is tricky and probably beyond the kids ability.
Whenever we find an interesting and engaging birthday party crafts activity , we’ll post it for you on our website.
