An Easy Thanksgiving Craft

Thanksgiving is just around the corner and many of us will have some extra time at home with our kids. Have you been looking for an easy Thanksgiving craft to try? This placemat craft is easy, inexpensive and would be just the thing for Thanksgiving.

This Thanksgiving hand crafted placemat is an appropriate Thanksgiving craft for ages six thru Adult. The great thing about this Thanksgiving placemat is that the main motif is crafted entirely by using your fingers. All of the design is made from tearing shapes out of the paper.

For this easy Thanksgiving themed crafted placemat, you will need the following supplies:

Assorted colors of construction paper

Tan or Brown Parcel Wrap Paper

One sheet of construction paper or lightweight poster board, 12 inches by 18 inches

(One for each Thanksgiving Placemat)

A package of 8 Crayons

Glue Stick

Scissors

One roll clear self-adhesive shelf paper (such as ®Contact Brand)

(Optional supplies include paper punch, skein of yarn or assorted types of decorative trims, hot glue gun)

To begin this fun Thanksgiving Placemat craft, you first tear out a large cornucopia shaped form from the brown/tan paper. This should be glued off-center with the "point" of the horn shaped basket pointing up in one corner. This assures that you will have plenty of room for all of the fruits and vegetables that spill out of the basket in the design.

Next, take a brown crayon and draw in your basket lines to make it look like it is woven. Refer to the photograph. Once that is done, you can let your imagination run wild on your fruits and vegetables. Start in the back, where the opening for the basket would be, and glue down all of your fruits and vegetable that are torn out of paper.

Continue gluing in the fruits and vegetable in layers, overlapping them so it looks like they are spilling out of the basket. Don't forget to make sure that you repeat colors or certain fruits/vegetable to add an interest in your design using repetition. Also, don't forget to add some leaves here and there to add interest.

Once the design is finished, let dry. Then using the clear self-adhesive shelf paper, cover your Thanksgiving Placemat you have just made on the front and back. Use your scissors to trim the clear adhesive paper to fit exactly around all four sides. This will make it resistant to spills.

These look nice as is, but if you want to take it further, you could paper punch holes all around the edges and tie on yarn trim for an extra touch. Or, you could hot glue a decorative trim, such as "rick-rack" all around the edges for a finishing touch.

All in all, making one of these easy Thanksgiving themed crafted placemats is a fun activity that could be enjoyed by young and old alike. Happy Crafting!