This is the final Play Tray project that I have planned in the
Play Tray craft series. I had to wait for my LEGO building plates to come in
the mail before I could tackle this project. I ordered these for $5.00 a
building plate off Amazon, as opposed to paying $14.99 for one in stores. It
was worth the wait though. Once the LEGO building plates arrived my boys were
more than ready to get to work on our last play tray!
97¢ cookie sheet from Walmart
10x10 LEGO building plate
Hot Glue Gun {with glue}
Velcro
Scissors
Small plastic containers
{try the dollar store}
How to make it:
Take the LEGO building
plate and the container and figure out where you want everything to go – making
sure you have enough space for everything and if you need to cut the LEGO sheet
go for it! I cut the LEGO building plate to fit my cookie sheet in order to
extend farther at the bottom of one side.
*optional* take a pen and mark where everything will go on the
cookie sheet.
Take the glue and go over the back side of the LEGO building plate
and then press the LEGO building plate down onto the cookie sheet on one side.
Take the glue gun and glue around the edge of the LEGO building
plate that you just attached to the cookie sheet. This will help to seal around
the edges and will help prevent little tiny LEGO pieces from getting stuck in
the cracks.
Take the Velcro and adhere it to the cookie sheet.
Take the plastic off of the Velcro on the other side and adhere it
to the little plastic container.
Set aside and let the hot glue cool.
I did this in the
morning and once the boys woke up from nap time in the afternoon they were able
to play with it. So our drying time was about 5 hours, but that may be a bit
excessive. I am sure that this was cool and set much earlier than that, but
waiting gave the boys a reason to take a nap without putting up a fight and I
was also 100% sure that everything had dried and set. If you have used a hot
glue gun before then you know full well how quickly that glue cools.
This LEGO play tray was
HUGE hit with the boys, as they each liked having their own space to play with
the LEGOs and the fighting over space was not really an issue. They also liked
being able to create something of their own, using their own LEGOS and being
able to come back to their creations after taking a break. This was a
huge success and gave me over an hour of serious quiet time with all three
children wide awake – a miracle, I know!
I have loved making these play trays. I love how easy they are to store {since we used Velcro to adhere the plastic container on the LEGO Play Tray the tray itself can store quite easily as well}. I love how transportable they are and the fact that they give the boys their own space to create with. They are all fun easy projects that my kiddos have loved helping me create, although I think they like playing with them even more than they like making them.
