F is for Felt Board.

Way back in the day I had an unconventional 3rd grade teacher. She was Swedish and liked to make giant block mazes for our class gerbil. She sang a lot and taught us about Santa Lucia and rewarded us for good behavior by letting us select a special treat from her Special Treat Cupboard each Friday. Treat options included real licorice (ick) but also very cool trinkets and toys. Or you could do what I always did and opt for a slab of clay. She'd pull down a giant block of clay wrapped in plastic and use one of those cool wire clay cutting thingies and slice off a chunk. It was great.

She also had a felt board. For those of you who are sadly unfamiliar with the felt board, it is literally a giant board with a piece of felt glued to the front. Sounds like one of those fun "creative toys" that your parents try to fob off on you during especially lean years, right?

"That's not just a stick, Suzy. It's an ULTRA SPECIAL MAGICAL STICK!"

But, I assure you, a felt board can be so much more. I have fantastic memories of creating my own versions of familiar stories with the felt board. It's like storyboarding an animated film without all of that pesky drawing. I've collected a lot of felt board patterns over the years to use with my very own offspring.

Then last week we were visiting my favorite creative reuse store and came across this jackpot:

I cannot stress how much The Spawn is into Thomas right now. He wakes up each morning ready for Thomas in any form that he can get him... shooting, snorting, makes no difference as long as he gets his fix. So I knew this would be a hit. The only problem: many, many pieces... tiny, tiny felt board.

I went in search of felt board making supplies and came back with this:

 

I picked up the poster frame from Cheapo Depot (aka Walmart) and already had the ModPodge, foam brush, and scissors. I didn't get the cheapest poster frame as I wanted a single piece for the actual frame and the el cheapo model is four little plastic edge pieces instead of a solid frame. I got the felt (1 yard though you could certainly use 1/2 with this frame size) from JoAnn's with a coupon. I also picked up a lot of felt rectangles while I was there as I had a 6/$1 coupon.

Putting it together was a snap.

1. I removed the cardboard backing form the frame and used it as a cutting guide for my felt.

2. I used my foam brush to glue down the felt.

 

 3. I removed the plastic from the frame (this was surprisingly glued in). I then inserted the felt and folded down the tabs. Et voilà!

 

As suspected, the felt board and Thomas set have absorbed The Spawn for a solid two hours. Mommy got a nap. Boom, baby!