Weekend Mini-Make: DIY rope placemats

I'm back with another Weekend Mini-Make today: a quick craft you can complete over the weekend for less than a tenner. And even better than that, all my mini-makes are designed to be something beginners can try their hand at, whilst also being a relaxing, well-being boost. As I've mentioned before, I regularly turn to DIY and crafting when times get hard, so for me, having a creative outlet has become a vital part of my everyday life. I hope that these simple, cheap crafting ideas will inspire others to have a go, and see if it can make big changes in their life too.

This week I'm turning a ball of rope into boho-style place mats using a glue gun and fabric paint. I've seen a few of these style mats around at the moment, and they can get quite pricey, especially if you've got a 6/8 seat table! So I thought I'd have a go at making some myself.

You will need: 
A ball of rope - I found mine on eBay for £6, and used the rest to create last weeks rope storage basket
Glue gun
A small scrap piece of fabric
Fabric paint
Scissors

Total spend: £6.00

After a little search I found a length of 20m of rope on eBay for £6, however any rope you might have laying about would be perfect for this craft. The first thing I did was find a scrap piece of fabric to use as a backing - ignore the material leftover from some bunting I made years ago, you won't see it when the mat is all finished!

I then attached the end of the rope to the middle of the fabric using a glue gun, and started to wind the rope around in a circle, applying glue to the edges of the rope in order to stick the next piece to. Once you've got a circle around 30cm diameter cut the rope and stuck the end down. Its a good idea to trim the edge of the rope end here at a slant to avoid it sticking out too much, or the ends fraying.

They would totally look great plain, but for impact I decided I wanted to paint a design onto them. I went for on a geometric boho-style pattern, using frog tape to mark out where to paint. This took a little while and was a bit fiddly, however its worth putting the effort in here to make sure you get your pattern completely symmetrical.

I then painted my pattern on using black fabric paint. Once the paint is all dry, remove the frog tape and you should be left with a boho-style placemat! 

And that's about it! There's loads of different ways you could decorate these, so let your imagination run wild!

Hope you enjoyed this quick and simple DIY - let me know if you make one, I'd love to see! And I'll be back next Friday with another quick craft perfect for completing over the weekend.

Thanks for reading,
Sam Xx