Making a Felt Board

We had quite an Easter weekend. There was egg dying, Easter baskets, an indoor egg hunt, snow forts and snowmen. An odd combination even for here in Minnesota. It just kept snowing and snowing. Even with all of the holiday festivities and snow fun I still managed to make a felt board for Seth. I’m so proud of myself. I’ve been meaning to do this for about a year now and am happy to say – mission accomplished! Here’s the how to if your interested:

Materials

• Large frame, including a back panel – I used one with a roughly 16×20 opening
• Felt for background – a little larger than opening
• Adhesive – I used a spray photo mount
• Rotary cutter
• Cutting board
• Straight edge – optional
• Newspaper

Steps

1. Remove glass from frame – reserve for another project (coasters? a pendant?)
2. Cut background felt a little larger than back panel of frame. I suggest blue felt as it makes a good sky, ocean or just about any other background.
3. Adhere felt to back panel. The spray photo mount worked really well. Lay down a layer of newspaper to protect tables as it’s hard not to get some over the edge. I sprayed two coats on both the felt and the board, one vertically and one horizontally. Let dry a few minutes and lay board onto felt, tacky sides together. Smooth down to avoid wrinkles and puckering. If using other types of adhesive remember that felt absorbs well so stay away from things like craft glue straight out of the bottle.
   
4. Using a rotary cutter trim excess felt along edge of board.
   
5. If one side of the board tucks into a slot on the frame, use a straight edge and the rotary cutter to trim a little back from the edge.
   
6. Slip board back into frame and lock into place. Walla! Now all you need is something to stick on the board.
   

My first batch of items for Seth to play with on the board were inspired by some felt finger puppets that had come with a group of board books his Auntie Ellie gave him a ways back. Some of the books are no more but the puppets are all still in tact. I simply added a grass boarder, a barn and some clouds.

Prefer something a little more open ended? Try simply providing geometric shapes made out of felt. Although Seth thought the farm scene was a hoot, he definitely played more with the shapes.

It took Seth a couple minutes to see how the felt stuck to other felt. There was a little frustration when the first couple pieces he put up fell down. It didn’t take long before he got the hang of applying a little pressure in any direction to make the fibers “lock”. I’m working on a set of build-your-own-flowers and will hopefully be able to post about them later this week. If time cooperates, that is.