Geometric Shapes Boat

Between gorgeous weather and a new baby, crafting has been a bit slow around here lately. I did put together this new geometric shapes template for Emma to use with her felt shapes on her travel felt board this weekend. Go here for other geometric shapes templates, and here to learn how to make a simple travel felt board. I also posted instructions on how to make a large felt/flannel board in two parts, here and here.

Crayon roll

I decided to make crayon rolls for my kids after seeing Valerie make a felt crayon wallet for her daughter in this post at the Frugal Family Fun Blog. I’ve admired crayon rolls on many blogs, but I was attracted to the idea of using felt as a material because it’s so easy to sew. My crayon rolls are quite a bit different from Valerie’s crayon wallet, so I’ve included a tutorial. These crayon rolls were super easy to make, and could also be sewn by hand – it would take a little longer but might also look nicer.

MATERIALS:

• 1 9x12 sheet of felt (standard size sold in craft stores)
• 2 3x11 strips of felt
• velcro

  STEPS:

1) Divide each felt strip into eight sections and mark. I used a pen with disappearing ink for this step.

2) Stitch each strip to the sheet of felt and stitch section lines (see photo below for placement.)

 

3) Attach velcro. Emma’s fingers in the above photo show the placement for one hook piece and one loop piece. I sewed a second piece of hook velcro directly behind the hook piece on the side you see in this photo to keep the crayon roll shut. You can either add a second loop piece for this to attach to, or have it attach itself to the felt (my solution). Here is Emma’s finished crayon roll filled with crayons:

And Johnny’s crayon roll rolled up (with crayons inside) – you fold it in half lengthwise first, which makes it more compact and keeps the crayons from falling out:

Both kids like their crayon rolls, although Johnny only uses his properly about half the time and methodically removes and throws each crayon the rest of the time. Emma neatly removes one crayon at a time, colors with it, and carefully replaces it.

My first swap!

I just took part in my first blog swap! Beth from be the thread sent us this adorable dress for baby #3, and we sent off a travel felt activities kit with a felt board similar to this one, felt shapes, and some laminated geometric shapes activity templates. Emma was super excited when we got the package in the mail – she even had to help take the picture of the package contents, as you can see!

Travel Felt Board

MATERIALS:

• One sheet of felt – make sure it’s the regular kind, not the stiff type. You want to choose a color that is different from the color of the shapes you intend to use with the board
• File folder
• Glue stick

STEPS:

1. Trim the felt to fit inside the file folder
2. Cover the back of the felt with glue using the glue stick. If you’re using liquid glue, spread it very thinly – otherwise it will soak through the felt and make it so that felt shapes don’t stick as well
3. attach felt to inside of file folder
4. Enjoy :)

Emma’s new travel felt board with a “castle” created using some of the geometric shapes from these activities.

And with her dress-up bear – the pattern for the bear is here, and winter outfits are here.

Penguin puppets!

These puppets are based off of this free pattern. I printed the pattern half-size so that it would fit tiny toddler hands, and then made a few minor changes (I shortened the white part and made the main body a bit thinner). They were super easy to put together – I hand-stitched the eyes and beak, and then used my sewing machine to finish the rest super quickly.  You could even glue on the eyes, nose, and white body – but only if your children don’t try to pull any glued objects apart the way mine do.

I’m not sure if it’s because of my changes or because I used pink and blue felt instead of black (Emma’s request), but these wound up looking like a cross between penguins and snowmen to me…what do you think?

Thankfully, their lack of authenticity doesn’t make my children love them any less.

Geometric Shapes Truck

Here is our latest Geometric Shapes felt board activity. The shapes for this truck are the same as those used for the geometric shapes train and the geometric shapes castle. My plan is to make an entire collection for my daughter (and eventually son and second daughter once she arrives and grows up a little) to build and rebuild on their felt board (see instructions for a felt/flannel board here and here). Here is the pattern for this one:

And here is the finished product:

This truck was especially popular with Johnny, who made many truck noises before destroying it. Emma can build it by putting the pieces on top of the pattern paper, and then looking at this picture or at a second truck built by me to see where the small circles and square go.

While we’re on the subject of geometric shapes and felt boards, check out the awesome artwork one of Emma’s friends made for her using the shapes from the geometric shapes train (the pieces are glued onto a piece of glitter felt):

Loving Hearts

 

Inspired by this post, I made the kids some differently-colored felt hearts of various sizes to play with on their flannel board today. Ironically, they started fighting over the hearts almost immediately. We worked out a compromise, though, and this evening after Mike got home we had a nice talk about love and how you show people you love them. Of course, when we talked about sharing with Johnny because we love him (notice the unequal distribution of hearts in the above photo that prompted this discussion), Emma said she wouldn't share. I asked her why not, and she answered, "Johnny no share with me." Sigh…

We ended the evening by making some paper valentines (very simple ones, just heart shapes cut out of colored paper). Emma loved making valentines, and she carefully wrote rows of "I"s and "O"s (the two letters of the alphabet she considers herself to be truly proficient at writing) on each one.

Geometric Shapes Castle

This castle can be made using the same shapes from the Geometric Shapes Train.

Geometric Shapes Train

This craft was inspired after we made this Cut and Paste Train posted at No Time for Flash Cards.
Both kids enjoyed building the train, so I decided to make them felt shapes for a train. Here is the design I created:

My plan is to create a series of standard shapes made out of felt that can be used to create various scenes/pictures. Then I can just get out the shapes and design sheets and my kids can use them over and over, or create new designs of their own.

Here is the felt train. Emma really enjoyed making it over and over, with a little help.

Gingerbread Man Craft

I couldn't get the photos for this to post, so I just have patterns. There are two patterns, for two different crafts.

The pattern on the right was designed to be cut out and decorated with stickers, fabric, yarn or colored paper. This gingerbread man has more space for more decoration :)

The pattern on the left is for a felt dress-up gingerbread man that you can dress up in the clothes I designed for the felt bears (see here and here for patterns, no sewing required).

Felt pumpkin pie

Here's the pattern. Four slices will fill the IKEA play pie pan pictured above. The edge piece may be a bit long, but you can just trim the end if needed. I used double layers of quilt batting - so I cut eight pieces, not 4 like the pattern says. It all depends on the thickness of the batting you use. The pieces were stitched together using a blanket stitch.

Winter clothes for the felt bears

Winter clothes for these bears

Some cool posts and sites

A Year of CrockPotting: Recipes from one blogger's New Year's resolution to use their crock pot every day for one year.

BeFreeForMe: A site catering specifically to gluten and allergy free diets

A-line elastic waist skirt tutorial from The Train to Crazy

http://homemadebyjill.blogspot.com: some awesome felt food, sock animals, and tutorials for several projects

Felt Board Dress-up Bears

I made these bears to go with this flannel board. They took almost no time to make and my daughter loves them. You can turn this activity into a game by putting pictures of the different outfits on cards (or just having colored cards in a container) and having your child put the outfit/color that matches the card they drew on their bear. Turn the dress into a skirt by cutting it in half.

The faces on my bears were drawn on using a regular gel pen.

Felt Food

I'm very fond of felt and fleece as fabrics, because they are easy to work with and fairly forgiving. I designed this felt bread to fit into the children's bread pan sold at Ikea when the pattern is printed full scale to fill up an 8.5x11" sheet of regular paper. I'm not sure how scaling
blogger images works. If anyone knows a better way to include a pattern like this, please let me know.

The loaf of bread can be made using a single square of felt, sold for 20-30 cents in most craft stores. I bought a bag of stuffing for $3, and I barely used any.

You can use the pattern piece for the end of the loaf to make slices of bread (just cut out a 1/2" strip of felt to sew around the edge) and to make "jam" and "peanut butter" fillings. Yellow rectangles make pretend cheese, and a brown circle works as a hamburger (sew two together and stuff them if you want it to be more realistic).

Peanut butter and jelly sandwich:

I sewed everything together using a blanket stitch. Both of my kids love their play food, and I don't have to worry about lead paint!

How to Make a Flannel Board: Part I

I remember loving our flannel board as a kid, and this was an experience I definitely wanted my children to enjoy. I borrowed The Flannel Board Storytelling Book by Judy Sierra from my library, and was pleasantly surprised to see it included directions for making a flannel board as well as patterns for flannel board shapes to go with several stories. I couldn't find the exact materials she recommends within my budget ($10 for all materials), so I made some changes. Here is what I came up with - part one since I have to wait 24 hours for the glue to dry to finish.

Materials:

- 1 Cardstock-covered Foam Board, 20*30 inches (I used Elmer's brand)
- craft glue
- duct tape
- black or navy fleece (I bought a half-price remnant). It needs to be at least 1 inch bigger than the board all the way around.

- ribbon
- knife or cardboard cutter
- scissors

STEPS:

1) Cut the board in half. I used a knife, but a cardboard cutter would work better if you have one. Scissors might work, if you have a sharp pair. I didn't think to try.

2) Put the cut edges up against each other and tape with duct tape:

3) Fold the board the opposite way (so the duct tape is on the inside):

4) Duct tape this raw edge as you did in step 2.

5) Lay the board flat and add a second layer of duct tape to each side. I'm not sure this is absolutely necessary, but it seemed to make the seam look better.

6) Put craft glue in this seam that you have created - on the side of the board that you plan to fold in for storage.

7) Lay the felt, fuzziest side down, on a flat surface (a table or the floor)

8) Lay the board, gue down on top of the fleece so that there is about 1" around the edges. Try to line the board up with the selvage to keep the fabrics aligned. Judy Sierra recommends velour, but when I was in the fabric store velour was a lot more expensive than the fleece remnant and the felt seemed to stick to the fleece really well (better than velour maybe in my opinion)

9) Flip the board over, fold in half along seam, and drape fabric over to dry for at least 24 hours.

I will post Part II tomorrow...