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A Painted Cork Placemat for Summer BBQs

Did you have a good weekend? It was the long weekend here and we took full advantage of the warm weather. We spent time with princesses and pirates, ate meals outside, and went for a long family bike ride. Chloe is a super speedy two-wheeler and I had one of those moments you dream about as a parent... weaving around the crowds at the park, riding our bikes up and down hills. I still think of her as my baby so when she can physically do things just like me, it feels pretty cool.


I eased into the weekend though by doing a bit of crafting. I've had a package of cork placemats from Ikea stored away and a quiet Friday night was just the time to break out the craft paints and create a painted cork placemat. There's many ways to transfer an image but I still had contact paper leftover from this project so I decided to make my own stencil too.


  1. Cut your contact paper the same size as the largest paper your printer can print on. (My printer can take 11"x17" paper)
  2. Remove the contact paper backing and adhere the contact paper to your printer paper. This will make the contact paper rigid and allow it to feed through your printer.
  3. Using design software, create an image and print it onto the contact paper. The printer ink won't really "penetrate" the contact paper so be aware it can be smudged.
  4. Use an exacto knife to cut out your design.
  5. Remove the contact paper from the printer paper and adhere it to the cork placemat.
  6. Fill in the stencil with craft paint. 
  7. Remove the stencil once the paint is dry. Apply a coat of spray varnish if desired.

Since I'm planning to use these placemats outside for all our barbecues, I decided to go with a farm animal theme. Yes, I have a thing for pigs. Hopefully, they'll get a lot of use this summer!

How was your weekend? Did you get any outdoor projects done?


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