MIY Monday

It's "Make-It-Yourself-Monday" again! (Isn't this fun?) Today I want to show you a labor of love I worked on a few weeks ago, getting ready for Lilly's birthday. Our main gift to her was a little wooden toy train set and Jeff had the great idea of building a train-table for it. He put me to work figuring out a way to make the table a "train table" and at first I was wracking my brain for how I was going to paint a scene on the table.

Then I found this idea: a fabric mural background. Brilliant. And so much easier.

I used two foam boards taped together - from the craft aisle (or what's left of it) at Walmart. Then I covered the front with flannel I found on sale at Joann's. The larger pieces of fabric you see are flannel, and the rest I cut from felt pieces. The background fabric is folded over and taped on the back with packaging tape, and all the scenery is glued on using Tacky Glue, which I had on hand, also from Walmart. Jeff made two wooden tables, 2x3 foot on top, which we placed end-to-end. I laid out felt fabric on the top, and we set up the train on top of the felt. I found little animals and trees at the 99 cent Store, and at the $1 Spot at Target. Most of the things I found were identical to those in the scene pictured in the above link at the Apartment Therapy blog.

Playing with the train at Lilly's party

The barn, animals, and some of the trees were carried away to play with other places in the house. Oh well.

This was such a fun project and I love the way it turned out. You can do this too, and it's so versatile. I think I might do this again for nursery decor. You could even do a different scene on each side for playtime versatility. Older children can even help put it together. The possibilities are endless. So make this yourself - and make it your own!

If you'd like to participate in Make It Yourself Monday, please do! Leave a comment telling us about something you've made recently. You can even leave a link to a post on your blog so we can marvel at your work. Happy Monday!