If you don’t have a plan for Mother’s Day yet, here’s an easy idea that serves as both a fun activity and a thoughtful gift: pack her a picnic basket full of her favorite food and wine, plus picnic essentials like a pretty blanket and a wood tray. Then, be sure to take her on a Mother’s Day picnic somewhere special!

This is such a sweet and memorable gift to surprise your mom with, and a fun experience for her to look back on every time she uses that picnic basket in the future. And today, I’m showing you how to DIY a folding wood tray to include in the basket! My biggest pet peeve on picnics is when there is no hard surface to set your drinks down or cut bread on. This project solves that problem stylishly … and it folds up so it’ll easily fit in a picnic basket, or be carried by it’s handles. Best of all, this is a really quick and simple DIY project, so you totally have time to make it by Mother’s Day. Ready? Let’s do it.

You will need:

• Wood board
• Saw
• Wood stain
• Marine vinyl or leather
• X-acto knife
• All purpose glue
• Screw eyes
• Fabric

Cut the wood board into several pieces of even length. I used a 2×4, so I did five pieces that were 4″ wide and 12″ long. This definitely worked, but looking back, I think other variations could have been even better. Two wider pieces of wood would have folded up like a gameboard…or several skinnier pieces would have rolled up like a sushi mat. Feel free to try making your tray with a wood board that is a different width–I’d love to see the results, if you do!

Once your wood pieces are cut, stain them with wood stain and let it dry.

Lay out the marine vinyl with the vinyl side down, then put all the boards on top of it, side by side. Measure around the boards and cut the vinyl to size.

Glue each board to the vinyl carefully, making sure to use plenty of glue. Once all the boards are in place, put a stack of books (or anything flat and heavy) on top. Wait for the glue to dry fully.

Once the glue is dry, cut away any excess pieces of vinyl with your X-acto knife. Screw in two screw eyes on either end of the tray.

Lastly, cut the fabric into two strips about an inch wide and tie the strips onto the screw eyes to make your handles! You could also use rope for the handles if you don’t want it to be as girly.

Now, your folding wood tray is ready to use! It’s the perfect surface for serving cheese, cutting bread and fruit, and making sure that your wine glasses don’t tip over on the grass!

Hope you love this project. And don’t forget, Mother’s Day is coming up fast … it’s Sunday, May 10th!