Car Play Mat

Since our cardboard car mat died, K has regularly begged for a new blacktop. I have been working on a fabric one for months and finally finished just in time for Christmas!

I used a heavy fabric that I have had in my stash for forever and appliqued all of the pieces onto it. On a side note, I wanted to cry when Black Friday ads had all sorts of play mats for dirt cheap, but at least this one can be thrown in the washer right? And it folds up nice and compact.

Among the locations a small vehicle can visit are our apartment complex, a park, Wal Mart (because what town doesn’t have a Wal Mart?!), a temple (I’m Mormon), and a barn. Provided I get fabric paint at some point, I plan to add some traffic signs. The roads are wide enough for Matchbox cars, and slightly larger vehicles (4 inches wide).

Out of all the buildings, I think I’m most proud of my temple…

For Wal Mart, I used freezer paper as a stencil and really do feel it’s a pretty accurate representation of our Wal Mart here…all the buildings we tend to go to seem to be brown…

On the back I used a “Cars” print flannel, and the mat is a yard wide and long, so this can be used as a blanket too :).  I wrapped it before getting a picture of the back because I was so excited to have it done!

I feel like one day I’ll go back and think of all the things I should have done with this, but for now I am so happy to be done, and have it wrapped! K walked in on me when I was working on it a few months ago and my heart nearly broke in two…thankfully it was the middle of the night and I think he forgot since he never mentioned it again.

There are some amazing car play mats out there in the blogosphere to mention a few:

• Homemade By Jill (I want to cry when comparing my pathetic mat to hers…it is simply beautiful!)
• Hepburn and Houndstooth
• A Girl and a Glue Gun
• Serving Pink Lemonade

I’m linking up to:  What are little boys made of? @ Seven Thirty Three, Get Your Craft on @ Life as Lori, Thrilling Thursday @ Paisley Passions,  and Crafty Soiree @ Yesterday on Tuesday.