Framed Felt Boards

                Felt boards are a fantastic teaching tool for your little ones. You can make alphabet boards, color boards, and shape boards. They can be made for any situation really. I have been wanting to put one together for La-la and finally got a chance to do it. Here is what I did.

                I took a frame from my stash and stretched thick felt, cut larger than the opening, across the back of the frame. The color is up to you. Grey worked well for us since it will contrast well with bold bright colors. I did not worry about the gap between the lip of the frame and the felt because it would allow for several layers of felt and different inserts to be placed inside. Also, it would act as a support for the larger felt pieces. The grey is the only felt that is secured in place. Felt will stick to other felt and can be repositioned any way you want. 

Staple on the flat part of the frame.

The black felt is just laying on the grey.

                Since this Sunday is October 1^st, I figured I would make a Halloween playset. If you do not celebrate Halloween, you can always choose a different subject such as Fall or ABC’s. With the background being dark grey, I just built off that and made a spooky night time scene. For the ground, I made sure that the width was right for the frame which is 20” and cut a shape to use as the ground.

                The pumpkin is done in parts so she can build it for her own. I drew a pumpkin shape on orange felt and cut it out, cleaning up the edges as I went. My normal marking pencils did not show up very well so I used a felt marker made for fabric. You can also use wax paper as an iron-on pattern. Just iron the paper with the glossy side down and use that to draw the pattern. Once you cut it out just peel the paper off and you have a pumpkin. The face is cut from black felt and loose so she can choose how her jack o lantern should look.

                The ghosts are cut from white felt in the same way as the pumpkin. This time I did draw on the faces since they are so small. The moon is a circle of natural batting. It has basically the same feel as the felt and will stick to the board just fine. I liked the color of the batting better for the moon and used the fabric markers to draw on craters.

I have it leaning against the wall for her in my studio.

                You can get as simple or complex with this as you want. Ella was having fun with the ghosts so I may make more of them with different poses to use as a matching game. She likes to group shapes and colors. I see several more versions of this in our future and we can use the same frame and grey felt using different inserts. I will be making a fall/Thanksgiving insert soon.

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