{diy} Hand-painted Map Placemats

Does your table get as messy as mine?

Before we moved into our house I remember picturing a table filled with great food, drinks here and there, children and people piled around it.  A little decoration, a lot real life.  

I still picture that.  I see it daily!  To have a real life table I must be realistic that things will get spilled,

delicious food will leave sticky spots sometimes, and life will leave it's mark.  So, easy placemats that can be thrown away and made again (or not) are necessary! 

 I'm not sure what gave me the idea for these......perhaps I saw it on the web or in a magazine somewhere.  Sometimes the line between an idea I've saved in my mind and saw in real life gets blurred between something I dreamed up.  (does that ever happen to you? Please tell me I'm not the only one who thought she created a FAB DIY and then saw the same idea on Pinterest)

I was lucky enough to find an old Arkansas atlas at the library's bookstore for $.50 one day.  So creating these was super, super easy.  I just tore single pages out of the atlas and trimmed around the edges a bit (which isn't even necessary).  I then used Modgepodge to glue an old book page in the middle of each placemat.

Last, I stenciled words on the middle of each book page with craft paint.  Words like sip, eat, yum, and mmmmmm. 

 They look cute and colorful,

and now life can freely resume around my table.