DIY Car Mat Tutorial

While searching for birthday presents for my now three year old, I came across an adorable felt car mat.  Since my little one has been into cars lately, I thought it was such a cute idea.  Once I looked at the price I thought, no way, I can definitely make that.

After a bit of research for ideas on Pinterest, I knew this was something I could tackle easily and you can too!  I set off to find my felt.  When it was all said and done, I paid about $8 for all the felt.  I bought a yard of green felt, half yard of gray felt and a bunch of individual felt pieces in all different colors.   I also got foam letter stamps (more on that later) but those are optional.

So, here’s a quick tutorial.  This is more just to use as guidance to get started.  Use your creativity and come up with a mat unique to your little one’s taste.

First, take your green felt and cut it in half.  You want to make two squares that are the same size.  I think my finished size was roughly 36” X 36”. Set one piece aside.

Lay out your piece of green felt nice and flat.  Then make a plan for your roads.  For mine, I started by cutting two long strips from my gray felt to form a cross right through the middle of my “town”.  I made these strips twice the size of my girlie’s cars so it could be a two way street.  At first, I thought that I would sew everything down so all my streets are sewn on.  Once I got to the buildings, I decided sewing everything would take a lifetime so I switched to hot glue.  Either way, both work well.

After I made the two larger streets, I filled in my four squares with smaller roads.  I simply laid my piece of gray felt on top of one of the squares and drew a road that would connect to the larger roads.  I also made each square different.  Be creative. :)  Attach your smaller roads using your method of choice.

Once all your roads are on, come up with different buildings/places you’d like to have in your “town”.  I just made a list of all the places we go with my little one.  Then I went to the computer and simply googled all my buildings for a template to copy, such as “museum template” or “museum clipart”.

With all my templates printed, I started to come up with a game plan.  I laid all my pieces out on top of my felt mat and kept rearranging everything until it all fit nicely.  Then I took my individual pieces of felt and decided what colors I wanted everything to be.  Next, start cutting and cutting and cutting. :)

Once everything was cut out, I decided to label some of my buildings.  This step is optional but helps identify your building easier.  I took my foam stamps and simply stamped labels onto the buildings using white paint.  Such as “fire” for the fire station.

Next, glue, glue, glue!  Once everything is glued down, your mat really starts to come together.  You could stop at this point but I felt like it needed something more so I embellished my buildings with doors and windows and made some other little embellishments throughout the town such as stop signs, flowers, trees, etc.  Use your creativity.  If your child is old enough, this is a great point to get them involved.

You’re almost done!  Go find your other piece of green felt that you cut out eons ago because this project takes quite a bit of time.  Place your two squares on top of each other right sides out.  You could skip this step and leave your one piece of felt as is but I felt like this step really completed the look and reinforced the mat.

I had some double fold bias tape on hand but if not, you’ll have to pick up a package in whatever color you’d like.  Using a cup as a template, I rounded the edges of my green pieces of felt to make the corners a bit smoother when attaching the bias tape.  Pin everything together and sew your bias tape in place.

Lastly, I attached a piece of ribbon to the side of my mat so that I could roll it up and tie it together for storage.

Take a deep breath because you are finally finished!  This project took quite a bit of time but it is so simple and easy to create.  For a fraction of what you’d typically buy one for so even better!  If your kids are older, it can be a fun craft for them to help with and use their creativity as well.

Toddler/Pre-K Busy Bags

Hello there fellow blogger friends!

I've been away for awhile but I've had a good excuse.  Our little family is growing!  I haven't forgot about this blog though.  It's a wonderful way for me to escape and enjoy my love of crafting.

Recently, in the past few months, I've noticed my blog traffic has increased quite a bit.  I'm assuming Pinterest has helped with the increase in visitors.  It's so wonderful to see that people are visiting and commenting.  It has inspired me to get back into the blogging world.  With a toddler and baby, I can't promise how regular it will be but I'll do my best.

Let's jump in...

Have you heard of these toddler busy bags that are all over Pinterest?

I was completely in the dark until I was invited to a busy bag swap a while back.  And I have to say, I am so happy I was.  These busy bags are amazing for entertaining little kiddos.

Basically, busy bags are just simple activities to entertain toddlers and pre-k children which also help them learn.  They are wonderful because they are compact and can be thrown in your purse or diaper bag for times away from home when you need a little something to keep your wee one busy. I will share some ideas below but there are ideas all over Pinterest.  Honestly, that is where most my ideas came from.

Just a little disclaimer: I have tried my best to link back to the original blogs where these ideas came from.  Since I was finding them through Pinterest, sometimes it was hard to remember all the links I went to.  There are so many awesome ideas and blogs out there!  Although I'd like to claim them as my own, I did not come up with these awesome activities.

I will share the five activities (bags) that I have made and then also the activities (bags) I received from the busy bag swap.  Obviously, I don't have links for the activities I didn't make but hopefully they can help inspire you.

To start out, I keep all my daughter's activities in this cute little bag.  More on that in an upcoming post.  Each activity is organized in a zip lock bag within.

The first activity that I made were popsicle stick puzzles.  I didn't really use a tutorial or anything for these but if you're looking for one, check out this tutorial at Flip Chick Designs.  Basically all I did was decoupage them onto the popsicle sticks and then cut them apart using a box cuter.  I think the tutorial on the link above may be a much cleaner approach but either works.

Side Note: For anyone wondering, mixing equal parts of Elmer's glue and water works pretty good for decoupage and is much cheaper!

After I made the Popsicle Stick Puzzles, I was so inspired and wanted to make more!  I found this idea for Block Puzzles over at All Our Days.  She has a free printable but I had smaller blocks already on hand so I just made my own little cards.  There are lots of different ways you could use this bag.  All Our Days explains her approach with the cards but we've also simply counted and stacked the blocks and sorted them by color.

For a little fun, I made these cute felt Mr./Mrs. Potato Heads with this template over at Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows.  This one has been a big hit with my daughter and can be made very inexpensively!

Immediately when I bought the pom poms for this next activity, my daughter wanted to play with them.  I don't know what it is about pom poms but kids seem to love them.  This activity is so simple to make, just buy some pom poms and print out the sheets.  There are fun free printables all over the web.  One I found were these Counting Sheets over at Confessions of a Homeschooler.  Her blog has so many printables and fun activities, I hope to make many more.  There is also a cute Rainbow over at Sew Fantastic to help learn colors.

The last bag I have created so far is an alphabet inspired one from Confessions of a Homeschooler.  I told you she had lots of fun printables!  All I did was print the pages and cut them out.  There is an Alphabet Sound Game and an Alphabet Matching Game.  This one is for older kids but there are so many different things that can be done.  Confessions of a Homeschooler explains her ideas for the cards as well as how to play with the printable board.  You can also simply match the letters with each other, either upper case to upper case or lower case to upper case.  This is a good way to get them started learning the alphabet.

The next few ideas are bags that I received at my swap and can be used for inspiration.  Thanks so much to the ladies who participated with me.  It was fun to get together and great to have more bags when we got home.

Paint Sample Color Matching

Texture Matching Game

Pringles Can Pipe Cleaner Stringing

Velcro Popsicle Stick Shapes

Felt Clothesline

Bead Stringing (Also sorting and putting into bottle)

Pasta Sorting (By Color or Shape)

Pasta Stringing

Foam Lace Up Cards

If you have a toddler, are you hooked?

Some activities seem very simple but my toddler has done every single one of these and enjoyed it.  Many help with motor skills while others are more geared toward learning/kindergarten prep.

These are great for snowy/rainy days too. They are so inexpensive and quick to make, they're definitely worth it! Even if you're toddler doesn't like one or picks it up fast and grows bored (which mine has), he/she is still learning and it's cheaper than buying new toys.

I hope I've inspired you and don't forget to look up busy bags on Pinterest for more ideas. Also, plan a busy bag swap so you can spread the word.  :)  Here's a couple more links too with fun free printables not shown above.

Confessions of a Homeschooler

Mr. Printables

Fairy Tutu

I mentioned I'd be back posting dress up outfits I made for my daughters little dress up dresser from a previous post. Now that her birthday is over and I'm not frantically trying to get everything done, I can take some time to share her adorable little outfits.

First up is this little fairy tutu. It is the easiest thing to make, you just have to know how to tie a knot. I didn't use a tutorial but there are tons out there to help you out. In the past I've just used elastic or ribbon for tutus but this time I decided to use this crochet elastic stuff (not sure what it's called?). I'm so happy I did. It's much more comfy for my little one and lays a bit nicer too.

All you do is tie your long strips to your elastic stuff and then tie smaller strips at the end of the long strips. I did pink and green to match those adorable wings I found in the Target dollar section but you could do all kinds of fun colors!!! This cute little outfit could easily cost you less than $5 if you wait for those awesome Hobby Lobby sales!

Sorry for the bad pics, I'm too tired to pull out my real camera.

Children's easel

We've had these two old "bachelor days" end tables laying around in our basement just waiting to either be given away or re purposed into something spectacular.

At a recent craft fair I saw these cute little flannel boards with felt dolls for kiddos.

I loved the idea but the price tag was a little out of my budget.  I knew I could easily (and on the cheap) recreate them.

So I simply took the top off one of those not so beautiful end tables and covered it with flannel.  It took me about 5 minutes and the flannel only cost about $2.

Then I went searching online for felt dolls when I came across some adorable ones on Amazon that were already cut out and were half the price of the others.  I don't want to be spending hours and hours cutting out little intricate doll pieces.

These are just a few of the pieces it came with...there's all kinds of outfits to piece together.

For the other side of the easel all I did was spray paint it with chalkboard paint.  Easy enough.

After attaching some hinges and chains, it sets up nice as a little floor easel for my little one to play with.

A perfect gift for very little cost!

If you don't have two end table, you could buy a cheap piece of wood too and it would still be a very inexpensive project.

"Let's build a fort!"

I've never really understood the point of sheets.

Who can really sleep with just a sheet?

And, if I have a blanket, quilt or comforter; I'm just not comfortable with the bundled up sheet underneath.

So, what to do with all those "non-fitted" sheets?  Why not make a permanent fort?

All you need is two tension rods and your sheet.

First you'll need to plan a spot for your fort.  You'll need a place where either the end of a bed or crib leaves a space between it and the wall.

Then, simply take the sheet and sew two pockets for your tension rods to run through.  You will need the space between the pockets to be the width of your crib or bed (or dresser, bookcase or really any other piece of furniture).

Hint: You could use double fold bias tape for the second pocket in the middle of the sheet.  Not necessary though.

Then all you have to do is hang up your fort.  Be sure to make it extra tight so your little one doesn't pull it down easily.

There you have it.  A little fort, tent, play house, whatever you want to call it.

Play Kitchen

Before:

Old play kitchen from my grandma's play room.  It was originally my mom and her sibling's and then later all of us grandkids would play with it when we went over to grandmas.

After:

Now it is an updated play kitchen for our little daughter.  She loves it so far and it will be a wonderful long term play item for her.  Check out the oven mitts and apron I made for her too. :)  I'm very happy with the way it turned out for this non-carpenter.