How to Make a Felt Board

If you make your kids a felt board, chances are that you'll also find yourself playing with the felt shapes. That's because this little art project is bound to bring back childhood memories of the nicest kind.

Remember flannel graphs from Sunday School? I can still picture our teacher "sticking" felt cut-outs of the disciples or the burning bush onto a felt board. Brilliant.

What You Will Need:

- 8 x 10 inch canvas
- 11 x 14 inch piece of black felt
- variety of colored felt to cut into shapes
- clothes pegs (to use as clamps)
- optional: plastic, movable eyes
- glue
- scissors

Craft Project Instructions:

1. Place the black felt on a table, then center the canvas, front side down, on the felt.

2. Apply glue to one side of the felt, folding the felt up and over the canvas. Use clothes pegs as clamps to hold the felt strip in place until the glue holds securely (as shown in photo, above right).

3. Repeat Step Two with the other three sides. You can overlap or miter the corners, but whichever method you choose, just make sure that the corners are glued down very well.

4. Cut a variety of colored felt shapes in small, medium and large sizes. Triangles are good to make hats, roofs, arrows, trees or the top of castles; rectangles, and thin or thick lines, will become the base for human figures, houses or other structures; circles and arcs, of course, can be used as eyes, planets, hills, buttons or snowmen.

Consider cutting a few speciality shapes such as hearts or hexagons, plus facial features such as lips, noses or ears.

Although not necessary, you could include a few felt eye shapes with plastic, goggle-style eyes already glued in place. Many craft or dollar stores carry packages of these in a variety of sizes and they make for some interesting face combinations.

You'll be amazed at the scope and imagination of your children as they use these basic felt shapes - and their new felt board - to create a colorful work of art or a fantasy storybook world.

Tip: Felt boards make ideal travel or lap toys. Place the felt pieces in a ziploc bag or plastic baggie to carry along with you. Add some double-sided velcro tape to the bag, and the back of the felt board, for easy storage.

Thanks to the girls (and mom) from Flipflop and Applesauce for showing us how to make and use a felt board!

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