Little ones have a ball with things like crazy mirrors. Today, I bought
two scrap pieces of "mirror" acrylic/plastic. One piece (11-3/4"x18")
will become a mirror to use, but the other piece (8-3/4" by 3-1/2') will
become a crazy mirror to hang on the wall. The smaller piece will be
mounted (maybe glued at the edges) on pressed hardboard and framed nicely.

The crazy mirror's construction is not yet determined. I could use two
strips of plywood (or 1x2 solid stock or larger and cut it down) for the
sides and route a gentle S-curve in them (to "seat" the plastic) but I'm
not sure they would be a close enough match without first making a guide
for the router to ensure they match properly. Of course, with a child's
crazy mirror, it probably would not matter.

Another way would be to cut two strips of plywood (back to back at the
same time, resulting in four pieces, two for each side) and then put the
plastic between them and then frame around that . Either way, the back of
the crazy mirror would be pressed hardboard, attached to the frame, to
keep it reasonably unscratched. I will frame the entire mirror somehow so
it looks good though won't spend a lot of time on the frame (best laid
plans). I'll probably paint the frame white and let her color it with
permanent markers to make it a really crazy mirror. (She'll be six on her
birthday so this will be a cool thing for her to do. Last month, I cut
snowman shapes, painted them white, and the two of them had a ball
coloring them with markers.)

The other grandma in town is a big Nordstrom's shopper type and definitely
not an arts and crafts type person, so it's my quest to be certain those
two little girls learn about the "things-not-from-the-store" side of life
as well. They love "working" in the garden, picking things, feeding the
chickens, helping with simple sewing projects, etc., so so-far-so-good.
(*And* they love to dig in the dirt which they cannot do anywhere else,
and have special garden clothes and boots here for that purpose.)

So routed or cut? Or is there a better way?

Glenna

P.S. I checked SunTouch's web pages; HD does not carry the mats here but
Lowe's does. There is a Lowe's on the way to/from work so will stop there
on Monday to check out the mats. I'm thinking, even before I do anything
in the garage, that I'll make my started-spraying-now-outside tomcat a
platform on the patio with one for cold weather (or might change to a
plant starting heating mat if price is prohibitive for a naughty pet). He
has stopped using the box with the heating pad in it though he used it all
last winter.

Thank you for the info and the pages!!!