If you yearn for foreign travel but this year’s budget confines you to day trips, try adding a few reminders of exotic lands to your daily life. This fun and inexpensive project gives your meals a bit of an exotic flavor even on nights you’re too tired to make anything more elaborate than a box of mac n’ cheese. The placemats clean up easily and will last a long time.

Things you need:
Construction Paper or Brown Paper Shopping Bag
Old Maps
Foreign language newspapers (if you live in a large city, visit different neighborhoods to pick up a variety of different newspapers. Our personal favorites are the ones with different characters from the English alphabet.)
Picture books on costumes and customs of foreign lands
Travel brochures showing your target destinations.
Scissors
Craft’s Pick the Ultimate Tacky Glue
Color photocopier (or access to one)
Laminating Strips or Laminating machine (or access to one)

1. Cut a brown paper bag, or tape together two sheets of construction paper so you have a base sheet which measures about 11″ x 14″
2. Photocopy then cut out color images of people wearing saris, Parisian high fashion, saffron monk’s robes or whatever attire you associate with the countries you dream of visiting.
3. Photocopy then cut out map images of these countries, along with the flag of the country if you want.
4. Photocopy images of specific places you want to visit. the Eiffel tower, the Taj Mahal, Macchu Picchu, or a beach in Bali.
5. Cut out strips from a foreign newspaper.
6. Take your map, newspaper strips and other images and make a collage on top of the newspaper. Experiment until you find an arrangement of shapes and colors you like.
7. Paste your collage to the background of the newspaper on the poster board.
8. Laminate your collage.

You can either make a set of placemats about one specific country you love, or a series of mats about different lands. These placemats are a great way to teach kids about foreign lands as well as to give you some additional travel inspiration.