car playmat

Oscar's car playmat

My piece de resistance, Oscar's car playmat:

This project was truly a labor of love.  It took over 50 hours to complete, and at least 10 years off my life.  But ... the final product was worth it.  Hopefully Oscar and siblings will play with this for years to come, and someday he will appreciate the effort that went into it.

The playmat measures about 3x4 feet, and is almost entirely appliqued.  The road is painted with black acrylic paint, and then sewn around the edges to give it a crisp look and to make it more cohesive with the rest of the playmat.

I designed all of the buildings myself, except of course for the gas station and car wash, which I copied from theFiskar's Car Activity Mat (they were too cute to resist).  For the gas pump hose, I substituted the shoelace with a elastic hairband.  The car wash strips are leather trim.

The playmat includes all of our favorite places around town, like Grandma and Grandpa's house, complete with their fruit trees:

Chicken Little, our local toy store:

The courthouse, which also double's as daddy's work:

Crushcakes Cupcakery and Trader Joe's:

In-N-Out burger:

and a school with the ever-important playground:

Other buildings include the train station, fire department, additional houses, our church, and of course we couldn't leave off the beach. We also have traffic signs, cross walks, parking spaces and a post box. 

Some of the buildings, like the courthouse and In-N-Out, look true to life.  I took liberties with others, like Crushcakes and all of the houses, to make them more festive.  If I made this mat look just like Santa Barbara, almost every building would be stucco with a red tile roof.

The playmat is backed with Riley Blake White Map from the Wheels collection.

All in all, a very satisfying project and a very happy birthday boy!