Creating a hot pad with cardboard box

Cardboard box tends to be useful for packing and storing things. Instead of keeping your stacks of cardboard box in the basement of your house or store, why not re-use them into kitchen hot pad. Hot pads that you created can be use as a place for your hot mugs, tea kettle and many more. This hot pad project is easy and inexpensive. Here is how to make it:

Materials and tools you need:

• Cardboard
• Fabric Cutter or scissors
• Paper glue
• Paper weight
• Paper clips

How to make:

• Cut the cardboard vertically to the waves of the cardboard. Make sure you don’t cut along the waves. Using paperweight or any hard and round thing, run it through the cardboard strips  to make them more flexible and manageable.
• Along the perimeter of the strips, dab a small amount of paper glue.
• Start rolling your first strip neatly until it becomes small circles. When the first strip finish, connect the ends with the next strip and continue. You can continue adding the strips into your circles rolls according to your design.
• To make a small flower design for hot pad, make a few small circles as the petals and one bigger circle as the centre for the flower design. Or you can roll your strips like the shown at the image above. Secure your circles in place with paper clips. Don’t be afraid to let your design look uneven, it will look more unique. But just in case, you can always do it neatly as you like. Continue your flower design until it reaches the size you desire.
• When the circles are in place and you satisfy with the design, you can decorate it with a ribbon of your choice around the outer rim. Let it dry and you can use as hot pad or drinks coaster.

Additional Reading:
http://myevaforeva.blogspot.com/2009/08/hot-pad-tutorial.html

Image Credit:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ccyytt/3038048804/