DIY Feltboard!

I have been working on this for a few weeks now, and  had the idea and desire to do it for a fair few weeks before this. I really want Lily and Hartley to have toys that are homemade, battery free and good clean fun in their lives, that I also can be involved with.

So, I made a felt board. 

And may I just say, being a bit short in the cash department on only one income at the moment, this project was super cheap money wise for the amount of time that it has already been used for. 

Though time consuming, Lily and I have both really enjoyed the felt board. Lily requests all the pieces herself, hence the fact so far we have a tiger, polar bear, horse, house, wolf/dog, 3 butterflies and 3 pigs. 

Apologies for the terrible photography here. A) I have a terrible camera, that I dream of one day replacing. B) Felt is fluffy, and seems to be almost impossible to make it look quite right with a cheap digital camera. 

I made the felt board itself out of an old memo board I had lying around the house for the last 3 years, and bought felt off the roll from Kutwell Fabrics in the central city (only $6 a metre)! After that, I just stocked up on cheap sheets off felt, and let Lily and I's imagination run wild. 

The tiger joined the family first of all, and he was a real learning curve for me. I have cut these out with my little scissors and it is a bit of a mission, but so worth it. 

I sketch all my designs out on paper first, cut them out and either lightly draw around them onto the felt or pin the paper to the felt and cut around from there. 

Butterflies have since been added, which I am quite a fan of! 

And yes, I am completely aware I am living vicariously through my daughter!

And over the last few days, I have been working on Lily's current favourite story "The 3 Little Pigs"
2 more houses to go, but they are quite time consuming, so they are slowly getting there.

I would highly recommend this as an easy and cheap DIY project , easily interchangeable to suit your child's personality and age group. 

I have heaps more plans with this felt board. Lots more stories and characters are on the way, and I would love to make her a cupcake decorating set, maybe an ice cream one too, before we start doing numbers and letters on here too.

For anyone wanting to give this a go, I have simply sewed the 2 colours of felt together to depict sky and grass, and then used my staple gun to attach it tightly at the back of the board. 

Give it a go!

Talk soon
Lou Lou xoxo