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Make Some Fun DIY Toys for the Kids!
Playing cars is a regular activity in our house and even more so now that the road tabletop for our light table is complete. However, I wanted to make more accessories to enhance the boy’s car play. So I came up with this super cute idea for interchangeable homemade road signs for car play. I promise these DIY toys are really easy to make, too!
Road Signs – Simple DIY Toys
First you’ll need some wooden clothespins. I decided to dye mine black, but it is completely optional. To dye my clothespins, I took the clothespins apart and put them in a watered down acrylic paint dye. That just means I put some black acrylic paint with a touch of water in a plastic bag, added the clothespins, and shook the bag until the clothespins were evenly coated. Alternatively, black liquid watercolor could be used in place of the acrylic paint/water combination. Then set the freshly dyed clothespins out to dry.
Now it’s time to make the signs. If you have a color printer, then you could simply print out the road signs that you want to use. I, however, do not have a color printer, so I chose to make my own from scratch using cardstock and permanent markers. I decided to make speed signs, stop signs, yield signs, road signs, and traffic lights. You can make any sign you want really. The traffic lights were made a little bit differently. I used cardstock and colored dot stickers to make them.
Once my signs were made, I ran them through the laminator to make them extra durable. Then I reassembled the clothespins and let the kids add the signs that they wanted! These simple DIY toy signs look great on our homemade road tabletop, especially next to our homemade wooden trees, even if the scale isn’t entirely realistic.
Do you make DIY toys for your kids? I’d love to hear about the fun toys you’re make in the comments below!
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Angela @CreatifulKids says
I love the idea of using cloth pins! I can do the same for the cardboard city we did a while ago.
Thanks for the inspiration!
Krissy @ B-Inspired Mama says
Oh I love that cardboard city! Yes, you should totally add some DIY road signs. 🙂
Q @ JAQS says
What a fun project to do for the kids!
I featured your project here:
http://www.jaqsstudio.com/2014/03/made-by-me-117-linky-party-and-features.html
Thank you again for sharing and linking up!
-Q
Krissy @ B-Inspired Mama says
Thanks for the feature love!
Krissy @ B-Inspired Mama says
Thanks, Q!!
Debs says
These are so cool! Love them! Thanks for linking this post to Tuesday Tots. I’m featuring it this week 🙂
T'onna says
Such a cute idea! I loved playing with cars when I was little, and my daughter does, too. Oh, and my daughter’s nickname is Krissy. 🙂
Navy Wifey Peters @ The Submarine Sunday Link Party
http://www.usscrafty.com/2014/03/submarine-sunday73.html
The Preschool Toolbox says
Thanks so much for sharing these on our FB wall today! What a great activity…I know our kids will LOVE this!
Emma says
My daughter loves playing with her cars, but I never thought to make road signs! Great idea!