Heat Fused Grocery Bag Placemat

Don't throw away your plastic grocery bags! Learn all about heat fusing with these recycled crafts ideas from Tiffany Threadgould, and you can turn regular plastic bags into kitschy placemats for your kitchen table.

Materials:

• 3 plastic bags
• A ruler
• A pen
• A pair of scissors
• 2 sheets of kraft paper
• An iron

Video:

Instructions:

1. Measure and cut ¼ inch off the bottom of each plastic bag.
    
2. Turn the bags inside out and stack them on top of each other. Place the stack of bags on one large piece of wax or parchment paper and cover the stack with another large piece of wax or parchment paper. Place this entire stack on the ironing board.
    
3. Set your iron to medium heat (the rayon or polyester setting). Do a test: iron one corner of your stack of bags to make sure they don’t burn. If they do, turn the iron down. Once you have the correct setting, slowly run the iron over the top of your paper, always keeping the iron moving. Run the iron over the bags several times, but never touch the hot iron directly to the plastic. This technique fuses the plastic bags together so they become a solid piece of plastic. Turn off your iron and set it aside.
    
4. Take the fused plastic bags out from the layers of wax or parchment paper. Using a ruler, mark and cut out a rectangle on the fused plastic that is 17 inches x 11 inches. Wipe off any marker you can still see. Round the corners with your scissors. Make as many placemats as you’d like. Then, serve on these ReMade placemats at your next meal.