Mouse Pad Re-make

My mouse pad was looking, well, blah. Actually it looked pretty blah right from the beginning, but now it was looking dingy, diry, and blah. I've seen some really pretty mouse pads for sell, with toile or calico prints, but a new mouse pad was always way down on my list of things we needed for the house.

What can I say?

It was a freebie they gave us when they came to hook up our internet access.

I started by pulling off the old cover.

I tore apart a paper shopping bag so I could protect my work surface, then I sprayed the back of the fabric and the top of the mouse pad with a heavyweight spray adhesive. I waited 2 minutes and then sprayed a second coat. After 2 more minutes I flipped the mouse pad over on the fabric, turned it over and smoothed it out, pressing firmly. You can't reposition the pad once initial contact is made, so you have to make sure any pattern you have in the fabric is turned the way you want it when you lay the pad down.

When I first picked the mouse pad up to turn it over, I folded the bag so I wouldn't lay the pad back down on any adhesive. After I'd smoothed it out and pressed it firmly for a few minutes I used the rotary cutter I use only for crafting to cut away the excess fabric. As you can see, the paper bag is sitting on top of my cutting mat.

 .

I took a second to clean any adhesive off my rotary cutter and then I applied fray check to the edges of the mouse pad.

Voila!! A beautiful 'new' mouse pad.

By pressing the pad firmly as I was laying it down, I was able to drastically minimize the bubble/ripple that was along one edge of the pad. You can see it clearly in the second photo, and not so clearly along the top of the mouse pad in this photo.

I let the mouse pad sit for an hour or so before we used it. You can kind of feel the difference in the surface once the adhesive is set and the fray check is dry. All in all, I'm quite satisfied with the results. Even if you have to go buy a can of spray adhesive it's cheaper than one of the decorative mouse pads which can run from $10 to $16. And then you have the spray adhesive on hand for all kinds of other crafty things. It's great stuff. Everyone should keep some around.