I am not a crafty person by any means. Despite my lack of talent in this area, I managed to make a pretty awesome felt board for my toddler. I’ve seen some pretty snazzy felt boards out there, but who has the time or money for some extravagant project? Am I going to get a Mother of the Week Award for the best crafts? Nope. Nuh huh. I’d be lucky to get a thank you (although his smile said it all). So I’ve streamlined this process to make it easier, cheaper, less time-consuming and not as boring as you’d think. Everything that I used came from the Dollar Store with the exception of the felt, which came from Michael’s.
Here are the tools you’ll need:
- White felt $8 (the board is 39×27 inches so I’d say about 1.5 yards per side)
- Color felt $5
- Tri-fold presentation board (x2) $2
- Packing/duck tape $1
- Fabric glue $1
- Googly eyes $1
- Glitter pen (optional) $1
- Scissors
- A few pieces of paper and a pencil (optional)
- Music, wine, dessert (see it’s more fun already!)
Step 1: Tape the backs of each tri-fold together across the top and bottom. Leave the flaps free. This will make the board sturdier and able to stand upright alone.
Step 2: Glue the fabric along the edges of each side of the board. Make sure to get it as flat and taut as possible. Cut off the excess felt. If you have 2 kids playing at once, then you’ll probably want to do both sides.
You’re halfway done!
Step 3: Turn on your music, pour your wine and get comfy at the table. Pace yourself! You are using scissors and you wouldn’t want to bleed on your felt. That would turn this into a $30 felt board and I’m trying to keep the costs down. Thank you very much!
Step 4: Wild card! At this point, you can get as funky, wacky or simple as you’d like while cutting out the designs of your dreams. At first, I wanted to do shapes because that’s what we were currently learning (and my skill level was at triangles), but then I really started getting into it! I worked at night so my toddler was asleep and Mister was… well, I don’t know what he was doing because I was so zoned into my project.
BONUS: An easy way to get fancy with your designs is to draw them on paper, cut the design out and lay it over the felt. Trace the design and cut the felt. Simple.
You can add googly eyes, glitter, puff balls or whatever you need to suit your creative palate.
George & Weezy
Barack & Michelle
If you want to make a person and clothes, draw an outline of your person, fold it in half length-wise so that it is symmetrical and cut it out. Then place a piece of paper over the cut-out and trace an outline of the body to make whatever kind of clothes you want.
Step 5: Present the felt board to your child and play with them!
So there you have it folks! The easiest, cheapest felt board that will make your toddler think you are a rockstar. You’re welcome ;-). This board conveniently folds up to fit into a closet or behind a bookshelf for easy storage. If you really enjoyed this project or you’d like to get a little more imaginative with it, you can make cut-outs for each season, numbers, letters, shapes, animals or any other learning activities and separate them into sandwich bags to keep them organized. This would also make an awesome homemade present.
Leave a comment below to let me know how it worked out for you!
Mommy Can Learn 