Spoonflower Swatches and Felt Figures

I love my felt boards! We use these occasionally for play and school, and I realize now I haven't shared half the stuff we use them for. I'll try to remember to share more!

For Christmas, I thought I'd take advantage of Spoonflower to make some My Little Pony felt figures. Because, we need some Twilight Sparkle in our grassy meadow, folks.

Here's a super easy way to turn your custom prints (or any print you find at the store) into felt figures.

1. Print an 8" spoonflower swatch filled with figures. 

2. Cut a piece of sticky felt down to 8" square. Peel the back off and stick your swatch on. 

3. Cut out your figures!

4. If you cut figures from fabric larger than an 8"swatch, cut them out loosely first and try to fit them as closely together on the sticky felt as you can so you waste less.

The cutting takes time, but the custom figures are a hit!

Heart Felt

 I started this small felt board several years ago as a disciplinary tool. I was struggling with how to communicate good and bad behavior to my toddlers, you know the terrible twos and threes. I thought why re-invent the wheel, eh? So we developed a sort of gold star chart - only its a flannel board with hearts. Good behaviors were rewarded with hearts, and bad behaviors got a black square on the board. [See how I made my felt boards here.]

It was amazing how effective this was at that time. The girls were not catching on to the idea of consequences when I gave them warnings - and lecturing wasn't working, of course. But seeing a heart or a black spot on the chart sort of became a consequence they could understand. 

When the girls did something kind, or obeyed without arguing or said please and thank you - I let them pick out a heart to put on the board. (Each girl had a side of the board, identified this day by their little dress.)

When their behavior was not so good I put a black mark up. Really, the square is totally arbitrary. But it made the bad behavior visible - and they didn't like that. [side note: Black is one of J's favorite colors, so we recently added black hearts as well - which was a little confusing for John, but the rest of us were cool with it.]

When they apologized, or corrected the behavior, they got another heart and they could cover the black mark. They loved that. And so did I. Honestly, I was surprised how easily and quickly this worked. And its been fun to talk about colors and see how the girls arrange their hearts.

Now that the girls are a little older, consequences come a little more easily for all of us. Bad attitudes mean quiet time, fighting over a toy means losing the toy, etc. So I don't really use the black marks anymore. Instead, we made a little felt tree trunk and we started putting all of our hearts together, in one big family love tree - to continue reinforcing good behavior.

They love giving hearts to each other when they are kind to one another. And its good for me, too, to remember to look for those things instead of always pointing out their bad behavior. Sometimes they even give me hearts when I'm kind.  works for me, too.

The little felt board used to sit on the windowsill, but recently I took it apart and put it inside a large picture frame with the glass removed. I just used the cardboard already in the frame - which made this the easiest felt board I've ever made. (I did include a layer of batting between the felt and cardboard, but I didn't glue it or anything - the frame holds it together.) 

Our entryway table has become a little collection of school things, which I'm kind of digging. We refer to the globe and abacus quite a bit now that they are accessible - and kind of pretty, too. We have made other felt board projects for school or fun over the years, so I like having this accessible in the living room too, for a quick school-ish felt-play time. More felt to come, I'm sure.

Felt Play Dolls and Tutorial Round Up

I've been in need of quiet toys for the kids, and so I decided to make some felt dolls. I was really excited to see that they were really into them. That's not always a given, some toys are hit and miss. But these have been such a big hit, I kind of wish I'd saved them for birthdays. I can see this being a great tool for homeschooling because you can easily add new parts as you're learning about new things.

As usual, there is a wealth of tutorials and ideas around that I really enjoyed perusing. The whole project can be no-sew if you want - which makes such a satisfying quick project. If you want to make a set of dolls, or a felt board, have a look at what I did and some of the great links below.

I made each of the girls a small felt board with a pocket on the back (the link for this tutorial is below!). I can store them face to face, and stuff all their accessories in the pockets. I put all the parts in baggies and drew pictures of some of the parts that are inside - I don't really expect this to last long, but it makes me happy now. :) I think these are great for traveling, but a really big board would be fun, too.

I cut everything from cheap craft felt with sharp scissors. Craft felt can be thin at times, which is really okay for this project, but I did put fusible interfacing on the back of the doll bodies to make them a little sturdier. I used fabric glue for attaching permanent things like hair and bows on dresses.

My template (scroll down) includes a child and an adult size - I've only made the child so far.  I cut out the bodies first, and then used my body template as a guide for the clothing instead of drawing out each garment first. I also threw in some random shapes that I thought I might use as guides, but mostly I just free hand cut everything else.

I made a playground.

The girls love the tea party. They can push the boards together when the dolls want to have a party.

Felt board tutorials:
 - Jennifer Dawn has a great felt board tutorial which is what I used, and I totally recommend. I haven't used a glue gun since college, but making this board reminded me why people love them so much: they're awesome.
 - I also loved this chalk board and felt board pair for a playroom
 - Find more fun ideas like this postman set, at Artful Parent

Doll tutorials:
 - Here is a simple felt doll template by Jennifer Dawn who made the board above.
 - About  has some paper doll templates and lots of clothes that would work nicely.
 - If you use die cutters, this is a really nice set.
 - I loved this doll and her clothes. I thought she was a bit too mature looking for my toddlers, but I love the details on the clothing. I meant to do more of that, and maybe I still will.
 - Another cute felt doll set with some fun details
 - You can use printed fabric for dolls, like Mayamade (with a nice travel board tutorial also).
 - And if you'd rather have a full blown pattern, there are some tidy simple sets for sale  on etsy by Lucky Penny.

There are 7 Days, There are 7 Days...

..There are 7 days in a week.

Sunday, Monday,

Tuesday, Wednesday,

Thursday, Friday, Saturday.

I've been meaning to make something like this for awhile, but just kept putting it off. Yesterday, when Ouise was talking about Twosday and Foursday, I thought it was time.  So we're using this chart and learning the little 7 days a week song (to the tune of "Oh, My Darling") in hopes of also learning that her birthday was not, in fact, yesterday.

I don't have much experience with flannel boards, aside from Sunday school many years ago, so this was all figure it out as you go.  I only found flannel boards when I googled, but I made this felt quilt-y thing that just hangs on the wall.  It seems to work fine, and I was able to put it together with stuff I already have (always a win).

I made little pieces to represent things we do during the week: a book for storytime, a grocery bag for shopping day, a little church for church, a bath tub for bath time... you get the picture.  I'll probably make more pieces as new things come up, or multiples if necessary.  Like fun numbers for upcoming birthdays, holiday symbols, maybe something for the zoo trip we're planning this summer.  The car is supposed to represent the days Daddy goes to work - I'm not sure that's making sense to L though. 

I used felt for both the board and the pieces, and I just cut everything out free hand - which is why all the columns are different sizes and all the shapes are wonky.  I'm cool with that.

 I sewed the little pieces together by hand, although you could use fabric glue (I didn't have any) or the sewing machine (I was watching a movie).  The letters are stitched onto the board, but all of the other pieces just stick on, and can be moved around.  I did iron fusible interfacing to the back, which seems to make them stick much better. You can see the back of the car here.  Because some of the pieces are bulky, it helped to iron each piece individually. 

There's a little pocket on the back for pieces we aren't using.  L wanted to use all the pieces, and did not like the pocket, but I'm hoping that's just because it's new.  She doesn't get the concept of the days of the week yet, but I think this will give her a way to put together all the information we're giving her.   Seems like just a few days of moving the circle will make a big impression.  We'll see.  :)