Embellished Activity Mat

Making a colorful and entertaining activity mat may just help the boredom that seems to be a daily experience for those unable to provide busy work in hospital or care centers, and help time feel more productive to fill those long days. 

I hadn't known about these until I seen someone post a picture on social media. And here, is the link to this information:

For more on these projects, 

please visit this blog where I first was introduced to these fun mats: 

alzactivityaids

There are two types of aids: 1.) activity mats, and 2.) texture mats.

I happened to just notice the texture mat page, on this blog, when adding the link to this post. But for now, check out what materials I used and added to my mother's special activity mat.


MY VERSION:
It can't be helped, but I just cannot stick with the original design, I must add my own twist to it; and for this project, it was to add elements that reminded me of her.

Of course, to keep things from getting expensive, I also like to stick with this rule: "Use what you have"; and that really emphasizes what she would always do. Many from her generation learnt that everything had value for re-purposing as they lived through times that were very harsh. Therefore, living with the 3Rs of the environment (reduce, reuse, recycle) was a necessity; not a choice.

So I used pre-cut squares to form the prairie points; rings and hooks and ribbons and buttons that just waited to be utilized. The appliques were from leftovers from other projects, and the things attached to the rings can be removed and replaced with other items, at any time.

EMBELLISHED ACTIVITY MAT (left side)

To keep her philosophy in mind, I dug through my current supplies to come up with a variety of items to embellish this mat. The only thing that I did buy were the pony beads, as I did wish to add them, however, had none in my crafting supplies.


THE DESIGN PROCESS:

QUILTED BACKGROUND AND ATTACHED RINGS

BUTTONS AND PRAIRIE POINTS (top left)

HOUSE WITH RIBBON (bottom left)

APPLIQUED FLOWER AND PONY BEAD STRING

ZIPPER and ZIPPERED PHOTO POCKET (right side)

If you've ever had a pen and paper in hand, and needed to provide distraction from a boring lecture or being put on hold on the phone, what happens? Doodling begins to fill that gap... and a page of fun designs begins to take shape. This is like that paper, adding a variety of items that can bring creative distraction and provide stimulation for any agitated fidgeting.

For an activity mat, you can embellish it with any items that suit those that will benefit from such a project.


Bringing cheer...