Monday, July 19, 2010

Mini Car Mats--take 2 ( . . . and 3 and 4)



So I  finally finished my car mats!  My 5-year-old had many opinions about what I should make . . . so I used a lot of his ideas.  He insisted on having a red house.  (I really wanted a purple house a la Mr. Pine's Purple House . . . but I knew that eventually neither boy would want to play with the mat that had a purple house.  Oh well.)  

Originally I had planned to make the mats two-sided.  But then I got to 
thinking . . . after our trip is over my boys are still going to play with these (hopefully!)  So, I made each one separate so that they can piece them together and make one big town.


clockwise from the top: playground, house, Target (our favorite), church


clockwise from the top: forest, temple, zoo, house


 clockwise from the top: baseball diamond (we love baseball in this house), gas station, house, beach


and here is the entire thing together

The fun thing about it is that they can rearrange their town to be however they like it!


As promised I have the template for most of what a used.  They are all fairly simple shapes.






I believe that Amy will be sharing her version of the car mat soon.

I'd love to see what you come up with too!

 


39 comments:

  1. Very fun! My sister and I when we were little used to draw our own 'town' like this on big sheets of paper and tape it all together. I had not thought of using felt. My two would love this, might just have to make them one for Christmas-

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  2. these are so cute! cant wait to make some! love love love the TARGET...

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  3. Great can't wait to make one!!!! Thank you!

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  4. This is so awesome! I especially love the Target!! I might sit down and see if my kids want to make one tonight!

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  5. great idea! i love how you included Target!
    i have 3 boys also. we live where it's very hot and need lots of "inside" ideas.
    check out my blog:
    www.allboystuff.blogspot.com
    you may find some ideas that you like.

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  6. These are all so good!

    I'd love for you to link them up to my Christmas Link so people can add them to the list of things to make as gifts!

    Thanks!
    http://shewearsflowers.blogspot.com/2010/03/christmas-all-year-planning-party.html

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  7. very cute! on my loooong to do list!

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  8. You did a great job!
    II made a little play mat for my son a while back but yours is so much fun with with target included! My son would love that! :)

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  9. Look'n good! I've jumped in and even made a dino playmat! Look for my post at SSB later this week! Thanks for linking up to Mad Skills Monday!

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  10. What a great idea!! I love this and you can personalize them with what you want not what the manufacturer wants!

    Thanks for sharing!

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  11. What a great idea!! I love this and you can personalize them with what you want not what the manufacturer wants!

    Thanks for sharing!

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  12. I'm so impressed by all these amazing projects you've been doing! Thanks so much for sharing on craft schooling Sunday, great to have you as always!

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  13. Thanks for linking up to the Mad Skills party!

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  14. So cute! Thanks for linking @Creative Itch's "Sew Cute Tuesday"!

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  15. ow much fun - now I need a grandchild to use it lol!

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  16. Very cute! I need to make one for my little guy. I made a felt racetrack once, but yours are cuter.

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  17. That is so fun! i need to make one for my boys!

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  18. You have such cute stuff!!! Found you on The girls creative Friend Friday!

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  19. Love these! My kiddo would too...I think I will make some. Thanks so much for sharing and lovely to have found you!

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  20. Another awesome project, thank you so much for linking up to Sister Sister Sunday, you are amazing!

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  21. THis is a super cute idea! Love it!

    I featured you here: http://firefliesandjellybeans.blogspot.com/2010/07/sunday-spotlight-soys-36-favorites_24.html

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  22. I absolutely love that you have them in separate pieces so they can be rearranged! I may have to start buying felt because this is just too cute!

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  23. This project is so cool.
    I'll have to make a few of those for giving away to some little people that I know.

    Marieq

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  24. Thank you for this! I made one for a Christmas present this week and while it was easy and fun...it took a little time between tracing, cutting, ironing, cutting, ironing etc. My boys were fascinated by the whole process and I began to feel guilty that I wasn't making it for them. I didn't want to make another one out of felt but thought about what else I could do. We had a bunch of empty cereal boxes and decided to use those to create our own car mats. I used acrylic black craft paint and painted the roads on my cardboard mats. Then we went to town with just colored paper, stickers and glue. My kids had so much fun helping with the process and making their own houses, stores, zoo animals, etc. I was a much calmer and happier mom since I wasn't worried about them cutting or messing up my "perfect" felt shapes.
    Thanks so much for the great ideas. I've already made multiple Christmas presents from your site. ...the bath foam dolls are a big hit too!

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  25. Love this, I want to make one for my boys one day! :) Thanks for sharing

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  26. I just made one of these for our upcoming flights for my 1 1/2 & 3 1/2 year olds. They really want to play with them now, but I have to keep them put away so they're new and interesting. And we had to include Target as well. I also made the dinosaur mat. I'm going to make the felt tool box too, but I cheated and bought little mini tools from the dollar spot at Target. I actually have daughters but they love all these things too.

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  27. I Just love how creative you are! Thanks so much for sharing!

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  28. I love this idea. My three old came to see what I was looking at and said mom I need those. But my question is how do I get your template for them? I couldnt see it anywhere. If you could please email me or tell me where I can find it.
    greenekh@gmail.com

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  29. Heather, the only templates I have are at the bottom of the post. You just have to click on it and print it. They aren't anything fancy... I just freehanded everything and then traced them onto the page for future use.

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  30. Jeanine: I must be blind cause I cant see anything to click on for the templates.

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  31. Right under the last picture of all four mats put together there are two pages of my sketches. Like I said, nothing fancy! If you are still having trouble let me know and I'll try to figure out why you can't see them.

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  32. Jeanine: I am so sorry. I see where you are talking about but I cant click on any of them to get the templates. I am sorry for bothering you with this. I normally can find it but like I said there is nothing to click on. Thank you so so much for helping me.

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  33. Jeanine:

    I FIGURED IT OUT!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH. I AM SO EXCITED TO MAKE THESE!

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  34. I'm so glad you figured it out! I'd love to see your final product!

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  35. How did you make the stained glass windows on the church? They are awesome.

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  36. Elesa, I cut out an entire window of white and one out of pink camo felt. Then I cut them in thirds length-wise and alternated between pink camo and white when I stuck them on the mat. Does that make sense?

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