Perusing the Halloween aisles at Target, I chanced upon these cool, lenticular skull (with bead curtain) placemats for only $1.99 a piece. Initially, I swooped up about a dozen of them thinking that I could magically transform our dining table to accommodate twelve seatings — from four. But, as I continued with the rest of my shopping, I very slowly began to be overcome with the unforgivable sin of buyer’s remorse. One by one, I abandoned each placemat; setting it atop a random shelf of every aisle I passed — not once daring to look back — until I was left with only two at the checkout stand.
Back home with my spooky purchase, my aversion to most things plastic overtook me. I came to the self-admission that I would never really use these mats to catch crumbs or spills from a place setting. As I was rolling them up to be put back into the white and red shopping bag, I came up with the idea of turning them into Halloween lanterns.
[slideshow]
What you need:
- 2 placemats
- 1 roll Scotch tape
- 2 plain Jesus candles
What you do:
- Tear off two 3″ pieces of Scotch tape and stick to the edge of a flat surface.
- Roll up one placemat, leaving a 1″ overlap.
- Secure the top overlap by affixing one of the 3″ pieces of Scotch tape (outside, over the top and inside the overlap)
- Repeat for the bottom overlap.
- Take a 6″ piece of Scotch tape and tape over the outer seam.
- Repeat for the inner seam.
- Light your Jesus Candle and place the rolled up placemat over it.
- Repeat all of the above for the second placemat.
Voila! Halloween Skull Lanterns!

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Corky Nepomuceno has 64 post(s) on Fullerton Foundry