DIY Car Play Mat

Hadley is VERY into cars right now so I thought she would enjoy a play mat where she could drive the cars on the roads. After looking at the prices of some play mats, I thought surely I could make her one for much less! I also needed one that I could roll up and put away instead of leaving it out on the floor all the time. 

Once again, Pinterest to the rescue! I found this one at While He Was Napping (http://www.whilehewasnapping.com/2011/03/felt-play-mat.html) and decided these instructions were the clearest that I had come across. Plus I really liked her layout of the buildings. 

Then it was off to Hobby Lobby for the supplies! I spent around $10 for all of the felt, which included a pack of green and a pack of black that come in roughly 3x3 foot squares. I already had plenty of hot glue sticks at home. 

The first step was to lay out the big black square which would be the road. I used pieces of paper to mark roughly where I wanted to put the various buildings.

Then I used a piece of white chalk to draw out my roads around the buildings. I drew very lightly with the chalk so that I could rub out any mistakes that I made. 

Then it was time to cut out the road. 

I flipped the cut out road over so that the chalk lines weren't visible. This meant all of my buildings needed to be flipped as well so it was a mirror image of how I first laid it out.

Then came the fun (but oh so time-consuming) part of cutting out the buildings. 

And more cutting...

I glued all of the roads and buildings to the large green piece of felt with hot glue. Lots and lots of hot glue. 

All total, it took me about 7 hours to complete this project, so it was more time-consuming than I anticipated. Hadley absolutely loves it though, so it was worth it. It probably wouldn't have taken as much time if I hadn't wanted to fill in with the little details like flowers, but I think it makes it much more colorful and fun. 

There are a couple of downsides to this mat. Felt attracts cat hair and little fuzzies which is annoying, but I figure I can just go over it with a lint roller periodically. Also, the durability factor is questionable, but only time will tell if it's able to withstand a toddler. I can touch up with more glue as needed. 

Here's a look at the finished product!