Rex Placemat

You'll Need

• Rex Placemat Template
• Scissors (Cutting intended for grown-ups only)
• Pencil
• Scrapbook paper (two shades of green and tan for Rex and whatever colors you like for the placemat)
• Glue stick
• Black marker
• Hole punch
• White-out correction pen or white craft paint and a small paintbrush
• Self-adhesive laminating sheets (sold at office supply stores)

Instructions

1. Print out the template and cut out the pieces. Trace the head, jaw hinge, hind legs, forelegs, and body onto the first shade of green paper, the inner mouth onto the second shade of green, and the underbelly onto tan paper. Cut out the tracings.

2. Glue the inner mouth onto the head, as shown.

   
3. Glue the jaw hinge in place atop the end of the inner mouth. Next, help your child pencil on eyes, nostrils, jaw lines, and teeth, as shown. Then he can trace the lines with marker and color in the teeth and eyes with the correction pen or white paint.

   
4. On the hind legs, draw knee lines and wrinkles, and outline claws for your child to color in.

   
5. Glue the head onto the body, overlapping the pieces by 1/4 to 1/2 inch (the side edges of the two pieces should line up perfectly).

6. Glue on the underbelly. Then glue the far hind leg and one of the forelegs to the back of the body and the near hind leg and the other foreleg to the front.

   
7. For the placemat, choose a large sheet of scrapbook paper and glue Rex to it. If you don't have paper that's big enough, you can glue paper strips to the ends of a smaller sheet.

8. Seal the placemat between laminating sheets -- or have it laminated at your local photocopy shop -- and it's ready to use.
   
   Article provided by Spoonful.com