DIY Mousepad

After months of using my mouse on the bare countertop and it collecting dust and whatever little particles it could pick up (therefore junking up the sensor eye), I decided it was time to make a mousepad.

You need:

A 9x8 piece of sturdy cardboard

A piece of thick fabric (I used canvas from a dropcloth) big enough to wrap around your cardboard

Glue gun

Stencil

Paint

Start by wrapping the fabric around the cardboard, like you're wrapping a present.  Gluing at the seams, and where the fabric will hit on the cardboard and need securing.

Then cut off most of the excess from the ends, fold sides in (as shown), and glue, then fold over onto back of mousepad and glue them flat.

I added another small strip down the middle due to the fact that the canvas was pretty thick and caused a bowing effect because of no extra bulk in the middle, you may not have to do that if your material is thinner.

After it was wrapped, I ran an iron over the top to smooth out any remaining wrinkles.

I just found a font I liked on Microsoft Word, printed out our monogram in a large enough font, cut it out and used it as a stencil.

Then dab your paint on.  This brush wasn't very dab worthy.  I definitely need a stencil brush.  But it worked well enough for the time being.

Then, for the outline, I just lined up two pieces of paper and stenciled in between them.  Like so...

The line came out a little uneven due to my non-dabbing brush, but I kinda like it a little uneven and wavy.

I think it works nicely in the office, and my mouse is much happier. And I'm happy that it was free:)