Re-Purposing a Bamboo Place Mat (Part 2)

If you missed my first post on re-purposing the bamboo place mats that I found at Target for only $2.50, you can catch up here. Isn't this wall hanging cute?

It took me a few nights to come up with my next project but once it came to me I was able to whip it out in no time. Idea #2: Utensil Holder.

I recently did some rearranging in my kitchen so I think my mind was naturally drawn to that room. I spent some time just looking around and trying to picture what I could do with the next place mat when my eyes settled on our utensil holder. I thought about a post I recently saw over at Homework that included wrapping a bamboo place mat around a vase and thought I could do something similar in creating a utensil holder. After trying a few different containers, I remembered an old rectangular shaped tin that used to hold tea. I had been hanging onto it convinced that I could use it for something and what do you know...this was that something!

Let me break it down for you:
- Materials were simple. A bamboo place mat, scissors, ribbon, tin (you could use almost any shaped container but the rectangle worked great), and hot glue gun.

- I first tested this out using the place mat in it's entirety but it was way too tall to be functional so I cut it down a bit so that it extended about an inch over the top of the tin.

- I then began attaching the place mat to the tin by hot gluing one side of the tin and then placing it on the mat and rolling it. I continued gluing and rolling until the entire tin was covered. This process was quick and seemed to hold well.

- You could easily end right here and have a perfectly functional and fun utensil holder. But I decided to add a little more color by tying on some red ribbon. First I glued a strip on the back, then I wrapped it around to the front and tied a knot. From here I wrapped the pieces around each side and glued them in place on the back.

 I am thinking about making a piece to hang off the ribbon...maybe a circle that says STIR on it. I don't know, I'll have to play around with that a little. Anyway, here's the finished project as it sits in my kitchen. This morning my three year old son walked into the kitchen and said, "Mommy, what is that present doing on the counter?" I guess it does kind of look like a present!

I hope you all are finding this series interesting. I still have two place mats left as well as the scraps from this trimmed place mat and I am really enjoying coming up with new uses for them. You never know what you'll see next!