Like the look (and smell!) of those cute hanging car air fresheners? You can make your own all-natural car air freshener, one that has no toxic ingredients, that can be any shape and color that you want, and that emits your absolute favorite scent for your driving pleasure.
The secret to this project is wool felt. Wool felt is a little thicker and stiffer than recycled plastic felt, which means that it will hold a simple shape well without curling when it’s hung. Wool felt also comes in a ton of amazing colors, so you’ll have a LOT of options for your air freshener.
1. Cut it out! Cut out a simple shape, about 4″ tall, from wool felt. I used my Cricut to cut out a basic tree shape (but not THAT tree shape!) from paper, and then used that as a template to cut the same shape from felt.
2. Make it smelly! Drop several drops of your favorite combination of essential oils right onto the wool shape. Essential oils are a natural source of scent, and you can always benefit from aromatherapy in your car–for instance, I always include peppermint essential oil in my mix of scents, both because I find it a comforting scent and because it helps keep me awake on long drives. You’ll want the scent to be too strong at first, because much of that will evaporate very quickly, so don’t be afraid to have a heavy hand with the oils.
You’ll also notice as you apply the oils that you can see them on the surface of the shape. Just set the wool shape aside for about a day, and the oils will soak into the middle of that nice, thick wool; you’ll no longer be able to see them on the surface, but if you press on the shape where you applied the oils, you’ll find that you still get a little oil on your finger. That’s the secret to how the air freshener is going to stay active for several weeks!
3. Hang it up! Using a small hole punch, punch a hole for hanging near the top of your shape. Thread a piece of twine through the hole and tie it into a loop; your car air freshener is now ready to hang. Don’t hang it on your rear view mirror, though, because I want you to be able to see to drive without something dangling in your face; a good place to hang a car air freshener is on one of the hooks in the back seat, those ones where you can also hang your dry cleaning.
The bad news is that the scent of your car air freshener will die down over time, of course, although you can expect it to last for several weeks. But the good news is that when the scent does expire, you can replace it with an all new scent combination!
My favorite combination of essential oil scents for my car is peppermint and rosemary, although my older daughter prefers vanilla and citrus on her own kid-made air freshener, which hangs right above her seat. What essential oil scents would YOU choose?
So clever! Why settle for just a tree when you can make anything? On my to-do list now
I just made one with Balance for my husband’s work truck, one with On Guard for my truck, and I’m trying to decide what to put on one for my dad’s work truck. Mine is a star and I just cut circles out for the guys. Thank you for the idea!
An angel shape with tangerine and ylang ylang
Hi
Loving your ideas, but wondering where to get wool felt Toronto, Ontario CANADA
Please advise,
Robin
The big-box crafts store in my town now actually stocks wool felt, although not in all the colors that I like. I buy a large amount online of wool felt at one time, so that I don’t have to do it often. I usually buy from Weir Crafts (http://weirdollsandcrafts.com/), although I browse around online first, and I’m not opposed to switching vendors if a different one is having a sale.
I made a flower shape and used peppermint and lavender. Yum! I also made one for a co-worker who keeps it on the wall next to her so she can smell it at any time. Helps combat the miscellaneous office smells (kitchen, bathrooms, etc.) that waft her way.
Can you reuse the felt shape? Wash it or just add more essential oil or can you only use it once?
Definitely re-use the felt shape. I don’t wash mine, but you could hand-wash the wool felt in cool water with a teeny bit of hand soap, rinsed well.
How would you package these that you can wrap as gifts to hold for scents. I thought of making some to sell for crafts shows and what kind of pricing would you do also.