Personalised placemats

Our cork backed placemats were showing their age.  I had looked for replacements for ages but was having trouble finding any I liked.  So I decided to make replace the picture on the front and extend the life of the placemats I already had.  The whole project only took a few hours, was remarkably easy and I was able to use things that were already in the shed and did not end up spending any extra money.

What you will need

An old set of cork backed placemats
Sandpaper
Photo paper
Glue (I used self adhesive photo paper and did not need the glue)
Spray or brush on varnish or lacquer (I used the spray on variety as that was what I already had)

Step 1: Sand the old varnish and wet

The first thing I did was to use the sandpaper to break the water proof seal created by varnish on the placemat.  I used a pretty fine grain sand paper but I shouldn't imagine that  the type of sandpaper you use is particularly important.  An electric sander would make the job quicker but I found that each placemat  took about 20 minutes. 

You could use the sandpaper to remove the old image but I did not bother to go that far, I just removed the existing varnish.

Once the varnish is removed then I quickly placed the placemat under running water and then set it aside while I sanded the next placemat.  I DID NOT soak the placemat or place a wet cloth over the top of the placemat as I only wanted to cause the image to lift off and did not want to risk causing the placemat itself to warp from getting too wet.