I got a hanging felt background at a discount store for $3. I would like to put it to use, but do not know what to do with. It is an outdoor scene with caves, trees and grass, hills. Any suggestions. And if I want to make my own pieces, how do I do that?
As to what to do with it: I'll leave that to others. I'm not so great with things like that. How to make your own pieces: Print out whatever pictures you want to use. Cut them out accordingly. Some people laminate at least the front side. Buy some felt at any fabric store. Glue the picture to the felt and cut it out (or cut out the felt first. Or try to cut them both out together, though I've had little success with that, usually tearing up the paper). That's it.
Depending on the age of your kids, maybe you could use it as a story starter and then let them actually use the board to act out the story for you.
Thanks. I was looking at some of the pre-done pieces and they are a bit expensive! I guess it is cheaper to make your own. Another question. If I wanted to make a plain background board how do you do that?
I am going to try to get a felt board this weekend when Mardel has their 20% off sale. Right now I just make pieces with magnets on them and ds LOVES that, but our fridge is FULL! When we are doing a book I will make him pieces (our printer has a scanner, too, so a lot of times I just copy the page from the book and cut out the picture) and he plays with them all the time. I would love to hear any ideas you guys have!!
I made a flannel board for church once, years ago. I just took a piece of thin plywood (it was a scrap from something, so feel free to use any sturdy backing you want) and covered it with plain flannel (I used dark blue). I used a staple gun to attach it to the wood on the back. That's it. Simple, really.
I have made a calendar for Ems out of felt pieces. I just took a large piece of felt and hung it to the wall. That was it. All the small pieces stuck to it. If you want to reinforce it, just glue the large piece of felt to cardboard. I didn't laminate my cut outs because they were all made from felt and it would be to heavy but it should work with paper. You can also find felt that is already prestiffened at Michael's. Patty
The one from church needed to be able to be set on an easel, so I had to use something to made it sturdy. And now that I'm thinking about it, I seem to remember putting a layer of rolled batting between the wood and the flannel.
My friend adds batting to her flet boards too. Dani, I had some cut outs for felt boards that came with Emma's curriculum about four years ago. I am not sure what grade you are working with, but if I can find them, would you be interested in them. PM me if you are. Patty
I took the "science fair boards" that they sell at the craft stores. They are made out of cardboard and the two sides fold into the middle...anyway...I took one of those and bought felt at the fabric store and then used Aleen's glue to glue it on. You will just want to stand it up not too far from something that will stop it from tipping over if the kids get a little overzealous on hanging the things up. To make things to us for it are endless. The best ones we found were to print off whatever we wanted on the computer and then I'd laminate it and stick the course side of velcro on the back and it sticks to the felt board great. Felt will stick to felt but....not as well. We have several stories to tell using the felt board (Old Lady who swallowed a fly, three little pigs, hungry caterpillar, etc....) I also made several of my own. I took some of the fun foam smile faces and put velcro on the back for counting and we did words and...whatever type things. When you buy the velcro...be sure to get the sticky back stuff and not the stuff you have to sew on. HTH
Velcro is a great idea! Places that sell supplies to make cloth diapers sell the different sides of Velcro (or touch tape) individually. Meaning you can buy just the course side without wasting all the soft side. This is sew-in, but can easily be attached using a glue gun (assuming you've laminated your pictures at least with contact paper).
skip the glue gun. Really the velcro that is already sticky is the way to go. JoAnns offers a 40% coupon off on their mail publication as well as educator discount. Michaels & Hobby Lobby are always running coupons for 40% off. Get a package of the stuff already done for you. I mean shesh even at Walmart you can buy a package for a couple of dollars. Worth it!
I only suggested that because many people, like myself, hate wasting anything. That would leave the left over soft side with no use. And even compared to Walmart prices, when I buy the Aplix from the diaper supply sites, I pay WAAAAAY less than I would for Velcro in a store. I mean, pennies on the dollar less. Even after shipping I save tons.
So true! This is why I do not use velcro on my felt boards. It tends to pull at the fibers on the felt board and I like to use the felt for different crafts after I am done using it as a board. I personally have not had a problem with the felt not staying in place without velcro. But at the same time, I do not make large heavy pieces. This might be why. I am enjoying this thread very much! All these ideas are so helpful. Patty
I made a felt board many years ago on the back of our chaulk board. I used it all the time with my daycare kids. We did stories and math on it. I made a lot of my own peices. Felt sticks to felt and I also took paper and laminated it and then used peices of sandpaper on the back of them. This worked well. Feltboards are alot of fun! I would also just let the kids make up their own stories with the peices.
Amy, making the felt board on back of the chalkboard is a great space saving idea. What a great way to make the chalkboard multifunctional.! Patty
The pattern I use comes in two sizes, so I only had to make new ones about the time Xander turned 18 months old. So I've only had to make new ones twice (once for each size). These really should last him until he's potty trained (which happens earlier in children who are cloth diapered). Now, I tend to make a new one every week or so just because I find material I really like...lol. [I chose to make new ones for Xander because I used WAHM-made ones I bought on Ebay for my first two and really didn't like them (pocket AIOs) so I sold them and started from scratch with him. I did borrow some newborn fitteds from a friend that he wore for about a month before the smaller size that I was making would fit his tiny bum.]
