It seems quite a lot of you guys, seem to love making your own mats, so what sort of paint do you use, when you are painting on vinyl fabric?

? I don't know who you're talking about.

Most of the custom mats I've seen are custom printed on vinyl from print shops that can make banners (typically). Some places do the mouse pad material, but are more expensive.

I haven't seen anyone actually paint their mats in a looooong time. Like years.

AHh.. i made the assumption some of the mat's i've seen here, were actually painted. Not printed..

Painting a mat yourself is pretty difficult, since you'll still want it to roll up. Lots of common paints start flaking of when you try it. Print therefor is the preferred method for most.

How much does it cost to print out something on a say 3ft by 4ft piece of vinyl?

Check out Deepcut Studio. Their price is good and the products are sweet.

I wanted to create my own play mat as well but due to the paint flaking issue already mentioned by Admiral Deathrain as well as my play table being a 4ft diameter circle causing the corners of a flexible play mat to droop I went with a piece of rigid foam insulation.

I cut out a 3ft x 4 ft section then split that down the middle and added a packing tape hinge to the back so I could fold it in half to take up less room during storage and transportation. Over all I think it turned out ok for a first attempt. I still need to add stars and other little details, and the propellant in the spray paint melts the foam a little to create the "orange peal" effect you can see in the picture. Next time I will use a paint setup that runs on compressed air instead.

Now that looks nice. I also liked how you did the paint job on the Gozanti!

The other option I have seen videos of is thin black felt. This way you can still roll it up without the hazard of paint flaking off.