How to Make a Flannel Board
Although I sell wonderful pre-printed educational felt boards and story figures through the home party business, Story Time Felts, I have found that making my own small plain flannel boards is a great way to present our product as gifts for hostesses or giveaways at home parties. Since children of all ages love working with felt and flannel board stories, I thought I’d share how to make a great flannel board gift. You can make your own felt figures or purchase some through Story Time Felts, but making your own plain felt board of any size is easy and economical! I am showing you how to make a “lap board” here, suitable for individual stories, but you can use the same techniques to make larger flannel boards for home or classroom. If you have any questions, let me know! Also, if you have your own ideas for making flannel boards or accessories, please add them to the Comments section! This is just one example of the many creative ideas I’ve seen out there!
Karen
How to Make a Flannel Board
Materials:
Stiff board, about 9″ x 12″ for a lap board. I used Coroplast but double walled cardboard (or 2 pieces glued together), masonite, or any other firm board works, too.
Fabric – flannel or felt, about 1.5 to 2 inches wider than your board
Adhesive: I really recommend 3M’s 777 Multipurpose Spray Adhesive
Scissors
Packing tape
Plastic wrap, 18 inch width
Step 1
Position your board on your fabric to make sure the sides are about evenly cut.
Step 2
Lift off the board and lightly spray the back of the fabric with the spray glue, then lay the board down again, centered where you want it.
Step 3
Fold up the straight edged sides of the fabric and smooth down across the back edges, leaving the corners to meet up and form “bunny ears.”
Step 4
Take your scissors and snip off the “bunny ears” on each corner as close to the flannel board as you can. This will leave you with a nice mitered corner which will be flat.
Step 5
All 4 corners cut. It is OK if they are not perfect! The front is what matters most. LOL
Step 6
Using packing tape, tape down the straight edges on all 4 sides of the back of the flannel board. The spray glue will help the fabric stick but the tape is a little extra reinforcement. If you are just using the flannel board yourself, you are done! Flip it over and have some fun! The following steps are for wrapping it up as a gift with felt board story figures.
Step 7
The following steps are if you are presenting this as a gift with felt board story figures. I am using the Story Time Felts figures for Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See? which will be a donation for a local fundraiser silent auction. Take the roll of plastic wrap and put it at one end of the table and unroll at least twice the length of the flannel board you are wrapping.
Step 8
Lay your finished flannel board on the plastic wrap toward one end and lay out your felt story figures. You may want to insert text of the story or other information under the back side of the flannel board. As a Story Time Felts Consultant, I am sure to insert my catalog and contact information at this step, but I omitted that in these pictures.
Step 9
Bring the other end of the plastic wrap over the top of the flannel board to meet the other side, then cut with scissors, with 1 to 2 inches left on the side to wrap tightly to the underside of the flannel board.
Step 10
After pulling the cut side of the plastic wrap tightly and sticking it on the back, pull the top and then the bottom of the plastic wrap and stick it to the back on those edges. This gives the front of your flannel board gift a nice finished look.
Step 11
The back of your wrapped flannel board will be covered and can be taped down if you wish.
Step 12
Voila! Your beautiful flannel board gift is ready to present to one lucky child! For suggestions for great felt board story figures, be sure to visit my Story Time Felts website. Our Figures to Tell collection works especially well with this sized board and do not already come with a flannel board to use. Have fun and please leave us suggestions or comments!
{ 38 comments… read them below or add one }
Awesome instructions! Any time I’ve given these as a child’s present, the kids *and* parents were thrilled. This is my kind of “software”!!!
Great pictures and discriptions! It almost makes the entire process seem easy!!
Superb step by step explanations with pictures – being one not too gifted in the arts and crafts I took the courage and with your intructions have made now over 5 boards. My kids love it they want all their friends to have one!!
Thank you very much.
Have been wondering how to make a felt board. Thank you very much for the instructions. Should be fun to make and my grandkids will love it.
Happy Holidays!
Thanks! this just solved a big problem I had. A customer ordered the figures to tell set and now wants a board. Didn’t know if I had time to order her one by Christmas. Now I can just teach her how to make her own and I bet I’ll sell more felts that way!
I am hunting a spray for paper so it will stick to our flannel board. We teach in the Good News Club organization after school. Maybe you have heard of it. They took prayer and everything else to do with it our of school, but now we can teach the kids about Christ after shool. We have about 35 in our class, and have a flannel board, but have found many thing we can print off some good Christian sites, but are hunting the adhesive to spray on them to stick on the board. Our last lesson book came with figures we had to cut out and was already coated with the adhesive to work with them. We have more ideas and would like to use them on our board. Thanks for your help!
I was thinking of making a felt background out of only the felt material.If I double layer a 25 by 25 sheet of felt and whipstitch them together then sew loops across the top and slide a dowel rod in the loops like hanging a curtain.then the whole piece can be rolled up and stood in a corner out of the way . I could also tie a rope to each end of the dowel rod and hang it from a hook or door knob .do you think this will work or will it have to be sturdier for the felt to stick?
Faye – You can use the 3M adhesive and make it “repositionable” by spraying the paper lightly on the back and letting it dry. This makes it tacky and reusable. I have done this before for paper or photos and it works great! If you adhere it right away after spraying, it will be permanent so let it “dry” first and you can use it on the paper if you spray very lightly. Check the can, there are even instructions for it! It kind of makes it like stickey note adhesive! Have fun!
Melissa – I think that would work BUT in my experience the felt background needs to be held at an angle, so keeping it vertical like hanging from a doorknob may not work as the pieces would fall off. You could just have the sewn-together felt on a dowel and lay it across an easel or back of your sofa or something tho, rolling it up for storage or even hanging it up to get it out of the way but I don’t know if you could actually use it for a felt board hanging up.
Hey everyone here’s an idea for a vertical felt board I learned from a preschool teacher – if you use ASTROTURF – the shorter pile kind – you can put it on a wall or anything else vertical and ANYthing will stick to it!! LOL It is kind of funky to be using “grass” for a felt board but it really works! So there’s another idea for you. You can just get a rectangle of it and roll it up when you are done, or you can “wallpaper” part of your wall with it! It even comes in different colors. She said you can get it at hardware stores or department stores, I know we have some we use with our trailer as a “porch” that is a pretty blue color! LOL
Thanks for reading!
Karen
Thank you for leaving the links to your site on our blog! These are great sites and very useful & helpful. Thank you, thank you!
You are welcome, Teresa! I really enjoyed your blog and sent the link to my team as an example of a great family blog, because I’ve been trying to tell them how much fun blogging is! I’ll keep you and your family in my prayers.
Karen
I’m confused. I went to the fabric store today to look at felt. I tried to stick the small felt squares to a larger peice of felt and the thing just fell off. Am I suppose to buy felt or flannel. What am I doing wrong here? I’m scared the felt peices I’m planning to buy won’t stick to my “unstickable” felt board. What the heck am I doing? LOL
Thanks
Mommy to triplet 3 year olds.
Hi Rochelle! The felt board you are sticking the smaller felt to should be held at an angle and it will work better if it is on a board. Did you try that? I work with the felt from Story Time Felts which is a little thicker but I have also used regular felt from the craft store and not had a problem. Regular flannel (like for pajamas) works great too, so maybe the angle is the problem? You could also look for “glitter” felt – it is a little rougher (and pretty!) and would grab the felt more. I like the black with glitter – looks like a night time sky! The main thing is the board needs to be held at a slight angle so gravity is working with you along with the friction! Good luck, I hope you can get it to work!
Rochelle,
You can use sandpaper or velcro on the back of the felt pieces to make them stick along with spray adhesive that makes them sticky on the backs. Hope that helps.
The only thing about sandpaper or velcro is that they will snag the felt on the felt board itself so it gets hairy and fuzzy. A really fine sandpaper can be OK but try it out on the back of the felt board or something that doesn’t show first!
Karen
Hi, everybody!
I think, that this is a great forum. Very intresting and useful.
But I can’t find the search function, cause I want faster find the topics that could be intresting for me to express my opinion…
Please help me with search function on this forum!
Hello! At the very top of every page to the right side there is a blank box and a button that says GO – type what you are looking for in the box and hit go! Let me know if you have any more trouble.
Karen
Hello! I’m Crystal. I am almost 19.
I guess http://www.fun-activities-for-kids.com – wonderful name for this site!
It is so interestingly here, especially in this category.
I was surfed about 3 hours before found this site. I think i’ll be here for a long time! :-*
I was looking for something in this line but.. to you for picture of family and friend for kids going off to school. I have seen them with ribbon cris-cross on them. Can you help me?
Thank You you much.
Paula.
Hi Paula – do you mean something like these?
http://www.diynetwork.com/how-to/how-to-make-a-ribbon-bulletin-board/index.html
or
http://lazylittlecp.deviantart.com/art/Quilted-PhotoBoard-Thinger-133183573
??
Karen
Hi Paula – do you mean something like these?
http://www.diynetwork.com/how-to/how-to-make-a-ribbon-bulletin-board/index.html
or
http://lazylittlecp.deviantart.com/art/Quilted-PhotoBoard-Thinger-133183573
??
Karen…
hello – i cut out funky figures from cereal boxes and used the scraps to make arms and legs, some markers and glitter glue for face details, made the arms and legs moveable by using knotted string thru a needle hole in the body and the joint. i will get those butterfly paperclips next time. so the arms and legs can be quite expressive. thanks for info on felt boards so i can set them up and keep their limbs in position while telling a story.
cheers
I have LOTS of your felt sets…have used some overseas during our missionary career. Now I want to give the farm and ocean set for Christmas to our great-grandson. If I make a flannel board for those sets, it will need to be “hinged”. How would I do that? Thanks!
When we make the larger ones, we simply score the coroplast down the center and fold it so one side is still ‘attached.’ Then you can (while it is folded) reinforce the folded part with packing tape. We score and tape before putting the felt on the front side. Hope that helps!
Karen
Hi, this is my first time with a flannel/felt board. Do I use felt with adhesive backing for the characters, regular felt, or do I need a spray adhesive?
thanks
sandy
The felt will just stick to the felt! Nothing else is needed. If for some reason you find it doesn’t stick well (sometimes there is sizing on the felt that makes it slicker) you can kind of rough it up with a toothbrush but it should stick with just friction and gravity! Be sure your felt board is leaning at somewhat of an angle so the gravity part works in your favor. Have fun!
Karen
hello,
i am interested to purchase a flannel fabric for my card board can you give me examples of flannel fabrics…do they look like a the winter pyjamas fabric…i am not sure where to get a flannel fabric from
Yes you can use any flannel fabric like they use for pajamas. Go to any fabric store and they’ll have lots to choose from. I prefer using felt because it is thicker and glued on smoother, so look at those too. Fabric stores have felt in any color and even some with glitter or other textures woven in. Have fun!
Karen
Hi,
Thanks for your reply….I was wondering will the baby flannel blanket work if i used it on a card board…what should i do to stick the felt fabric …should i use a sand paper or velcro which is best…
No you should not need to use anything else. The felt will stick to the flannel just by gravity and friction! Just make sure your flannel board is leaning at a slight angle. It’s like magic! Using sandpaper or velcro will unnecessarily rough up your board. I only use those when I am using paper cutouts or something that won’t stick, but the felt does! Have fun!
Karen
I have new Sunday school literature that comes with visual aids that are not for felt. I would like to collect some interesting flannel backgrounds and boards, and make the figures where they will stick to the felt or flannel backgrounds. Do you think a really fine piece of sandpaper glued to each piece would work without roughing up the felt too much? They do make a really really fine sandpaper. I am in the market for something that will work, since I am buying this Sunday school literature, and each story comes with characters and visual aids.
Yes the really fine sandpaper works (even just little squares of it strategically placed) but you can also just glue felt or flannel to the back too which is easier on the felt board even still! Have fun!
Karen
I want to make a felt board to present stories to my daughter (and maybe sometimes a friend of hers at the same time). What size board would you recommend? I would rather err on the larger side to accommodate slightly more elaborate presentations, but I still don’t really know what size to consider.
Also, I wanted to mention something I’ve been doing: my daughter has an inexpensive 2-sided art easel. I regularly take a simple piece of large light blue felt that I cut to fit the easel surface and I clip it to the whiteboard side for her to use for play time on her own. Simple, can take it off and fold up, and an alternative to a lap board! One thing she likes to do is build things like houses and faces out of felt pieces of different colors and shapes. It’s fun for me too!
I plan to clip a thin felt board to the easel with some large clips when I present to her or set the felt board in the easel tray. Hopefully, I will quickly learn the most comfortable/practical/effective ways to arrange everything for presentation. I’ll have to acquire some presentation techniques too.
Love the easel idea!! For your felt board you are making, I would use the width of the easel (or less) in case you want to set the felt board on there! You can make it any height but maybe 15″ high would be good. Our medium board from funfelt.com is 15″ x 23″ and it is a good size for just about anything! You can also score it down the center of the back (not all the way through of course) and then cover that cut with tape while it is folded, and that makes it foldable! Our larger boards are 23″ x 31″ and fold down the center for storage and they are pretty big! I like them for a classroom so you can see from everywhere but they are a little too big for one kid I think. I’d go for around 15×23!
Karen
I am decorating my nursery and instead of the traditional decorating, I wanted to make a scene on the wall that could have changeable pieces. Ex. The tree could have autumn colored leaves and green, changeable weather, animals could be moved. After reading your board, I can see that I might have a problem with the vertical aspect of this idea. I like the felt because it is soft and I can get so many different sets. The astroturf might be a solution, but I’m not sure where to find it. (Lowe’s??) Do you have any suggestions? Thank you!!
Actually, I did an experiment with a Christmas stocking and went to Lowe’s and found the outdoor carpeting. Not exactly AstroTurf (AstroTurf is sodded, so I am told). IT WORKS! First I tried it on a large piece that was vertical. Even a small sample above the rolls held the weight of the stocking. They DO have blue, beige and green. So perfect for the background scene I want to make for my little one. I can’t wait to tack it up with finishing nails and being to collect sets!!
I want to know which is better…felt or flannel? And is the quality or material ( such as wool vs. poly) important?
The only paint that might work is Applicance Enamel spray paint. They sell it at any Home Store. The only down side is it only comes in white, black and almond.