My dog, Finn, is an extremely messy eater and drinker. He eats mostly dry food and along with the crunch, crunch, slurp, slurp comes the sound of him spitting pieces of food out onto the floor. I don't know why. All the food pieces are the same. It's not like some are steak flavored and, oh so, yummy and some are ginger flavored, which he hates and will bark and snarl at me when I grate fresh ginger for my tea. But whatever the reason, I'm always stepping on pieces of spit-out food. Sometimes, they are just pulverized under my foot, but sometimes they slide underfoot and I end up doing the splits across the kitchen floor. That is not pleasant, as my body is no longer built to perform such acrobatic acts and I often limp for days after doing myself a mischief.
After my last unintended acrobatic feat, I decided to make him a place mat. Not that it will stop him from spitting out food but hopefully, I'll take more notice and avoid any further mishaps.
So here's my tutorial for Finn's Favorite Place Mat.
Materials
29" X 17" piece of canvas
Metal yardstick
Artists Acrylic gesso
Base coat color(I used an ugly green that I had on hand. But once I added the copper glaze, it kind of looks like copper with a green patina.)
Metallic acrylic paint (Folk Art copper, plum, emerald green black, champagne, taupe)
Sea sponge
Assorted brushes
1 1/2" tall Alphabet stencils (You can purchase them or make your own, like I did, out of ordinary card stock)
pencil for tracing
MinWax Polycrylic sealer
Step 1: Cut out a rectangle of canvas measuring 29" X 17" or the size of your choice, making sure to include a 2" border on all 4 sides.
Step 2: Using gesso, cover the surface of the canvas. Allow the gesso to dry according to the directions between coats. I gave each side 2 coats of gesso.
Step 3: Paint the entire surface, with base coat. Let dry.
Step 4: Mix copper metallic paint with a glazing medium. Paint a thin coat over half the canvas at a time and pounce over surface with the sea sponge, to create the textured look surface. Be sure to blot the sponge on paper towels occasionally to remove excess paint and glaze. Repeat with with the other half of the canvas. Let dry and repeat on the other side of canvas.
Step 5: Using metal ruler and pencil, draw a two inch border around all sides of the canvas. With either purchased stencils or hand made stencils trace the saying"EAT, DRINK, AND BE FURRY", along the top and bottom of the place mat. Also trace the paw print in each corner.
Step 6: Using black metallic paint, fill in the letters and paw prints.
Step 7: Using a bowl with a larger circumference that your dog's food and water bowl trace two circles in the center of the mat. Trace a smaller circle inside those circles. Although it's hard to see that's what I did in the picture below.
Step 8: Paint the outer(larger) circle with emerald green and the inner (smaller) circle with plum. Also trace and paint the bone motif on either sides of the circles.
Step 8: After everything is completely dry, coat the front and back of the place mat with the polycrylic sealer. Give each side 2 coats and let dry the recommended time between coats.
Once you're through, you'll have a wonderful washable doggy place mat for your furry companion!
This mat should not be immersed in water. Just wipe it clean with a damp cloth.
