I choose to mark the roads, railroad, signs, and airport landing strip with permanent marker, you could sew them all or applique black fabric. In a few years I will need to freshen it up, but for now I like the look of this.
After the railroad is complete you can start to draw in the rest of the city.
You can draw a sidewalk if you want to, I just marked a line where each driveway or store entrance is. The last thing I did on the carmat was marked the dotted lines on the roads.
Add crosswalks, stop signs and other traffic signs. Add the names of stores and places too.
I should have made these railroad crossing signs the same size--but I didn't notice it until I was coloring the yellow.
Add parking spots where ever there is room.
The finished carmat
Oh yeah! I added a tunnel for the train. This has some heavy duty interfacing to help keep the shape through the years. When the interfacing goes just use an empty tin can with both ends off to prop it up.
The car mat is in full use now. The Army men, or "people" as my little guy calls them, have taken over
The zoo if getting full.
Cars are everywhere, imaginations are running wild.
Hope you can make one for your children too. Thanks Mom for bringing the supplies and letting me help :o)
After the railroad is complete you can start to draw in the rest of the city.
I love it! Andrew is jealous. I'm afraid if we have one, our future children will never get a chance to play with it because their Daddy would hog it. :)
ReplyDeleteI love this. I wanted to make one for Christmas for my little boy, but never got around to it. This looks fun though- maybe I'll start for next year.
ReplyDeleteVisiting from Polly
Love this, I had one growing up! So I had to highlight it on Polly Want a Crafter. It will show up tomorrow @4:00 pm CST, hope you find some new readers! (and thanks for linking up to the party!)
ReplyDeleteOhhh, WOW! This is soooo cute!! I love that the houses are also little garages. And the lift-the-flap fossils! And the mountain!
ReplyDeleteI linked to your tutorial over at Craft Gossip Sewing:
http://sewing.craftgossip.com/tutorial-car-playmat-with-houses-mountains-and-an-airport/2011/02/05/
--Anne
This is excellent. I can't wait to try this although I expect it to take me a long while to complete. This will be lots of fun!
ReplyDeleteI just found your blog and am enjoying reading through it. I just made a car mat similar to this for my grandson. I noticed that you included McDonald's on yours too. lol
ReplyDeleteYou did a great job!
this is fantastic! love it so much! wish I would have found it in time to put on my shout out list!!!!
ReplyDeleteI will be featuring your car mats 1,2 & 3 tomorrow at: seemesew.blogspot.com!
ReplyDeleteI'd lookded around a lot online to get ideas for a play mat, and I really loved how interactive yours was. I used the dig site idea, and the 'garage' under the houses. Thanks again for posting and inspiring me. Here's the link to the one I made.
ReplyDeletehttp://veniceit.blogspot.ca/2012/12/play-mat.html