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Make a Mouse Pad at Home

Aparna Jadhav
It isn't always necessary to buy one from the store when you can easily make a mouse pad at home. It sure needs effort, but once you've made it, you won't look at the screen as much as at the mouse pad, so take a look!
Making custom mouse pads can not only be a great art exercise for you but it can also be doubled up as an educational activity for your kids at school and home. Personally, I think this is a good way of exploring your creativity and making the best use of your time and talent.

Materials Needed

  • Craft foam
  • Colored felt
  • Waxed paper
  • Tacky glue
  • Ribbon or Yarn

Directions

1. Take two colors of craft foam, blue and purple, and cut off the corners of the ends of the blue craft foam to make an oval shape.

2. For the purple foam, cut a rounded triangular shape, about one third of the size of the blue foam. Glue the purple triangle on top of the blue oval shape to make the mouse head.
3. Then glue the yarn to the edges and underside of the blue foam to form the tail of the mouse and then cut two semicircles of the blue felt to form the ears. Stick them to the purple head and then make three whiskers from the yarn, to stick them along the face too.
4. Glue two small black circles as the eyes on the face and your "mouse" pad for the computer is ready to be used.

Make Photo Mouse Pads
Another great idea is to have a photo glued on it as that can keep your personal and dear memories always in front of you.

Materials Needed

  • A t-shirt
  • Color printer
  • Rubber cement
  • Rubber pad material (about 1/8'' to ΒΌ'' thick)

Directions

1. Select your favorite picture that you would want to get on your pad and an iron-on transfer sheet with a color printer.

2. Crop the picture to the dimensions of the rubber pad material which will be used and get it printed on the iron-on transfer sheet.
3. Follow the instructions given to apply the photo on the t-shirt, preferably use an old one as you are going to cut it out.

4.Once the photo is imprinted on the t-shirt, cut it out carefully in the given dimensions. Cut the rubber pad material in the same dimensions.
5. Apply some rubber cement to the cut out pad and carefully paste the fabric on to the pad. Make sure you get rid of all air spaces in between.

6. Place a heap of books or a heavy weight over this pad so the fabric sticks permanently and properly. Allow it to dry for some time and then use it for your computer. You can use this as a laptop pad also.
You can come up with your own ideas to make them, as having a personalized mouse pad is always more cheerful than a boring and simple one.