Our flannel board has been unused for awhile now. I took it out the other day and decided it needed some new pieces to go with it. Incidentally, in case you haven't made a flannel board before, I've found the method I prefer and use is to simply buy a stretched canvas painting frame, cover it with flannel and use a staple gun to attach. Flannel boards are wonderful to have and can be used for a variety of purposes. We use our board for storytelling. In the past I've made characters from the story and used the pieces to tell the story. Afterwards, I would leave the pieces out for my children to play with and retell themselves the story. These new pieces I've made inspire my daughters to create their own stories or if they request one from me, I too can use them.
When I saw this fabric at Joann's I knew my daughters would be excited about having it as part of our flannel board. I purchased 1/2 a yard (more than enough) and cut out the shapes, leaving enough space to cut out around them again. (This photo is of extra play scrap fabric so don't cut this close though.) The other material needed to make these pieces is stiff fusible interfacing (the iron on kind, I got a medium weight and made sure it was stiff enough so the fabric wouldn't be floppy.)
After I cut out the fabric shapes I then laid them on top of a square of interfacing about the same size. Next, I followed the directions for ironing on the interfacing, which really was just ironing them together.
Lastly, I used pinking scissors to cut again around the shape for a clean edge. The interfacing keeps the fabric stiff and attaches easily to the flannel board. With plenty of new pieces to play with now and some new ones to make the flannel board is active again!
2 comments:
Beautiful! I love it! I must make one. I made a felt flannel board but it's quite small, I'd love a larger one for storytelling. Thanks for your wonderful ideas!
Becca
Thank you so much for that suggestion! I HAD a flannel board that got destroyed by my *dainty* children. ;-) I really do want another one, and you have helped simplify two issues for me - the board itself , which I am going to do right away before we start our new year, and also the story pieces. I spent some time making so many small individual items, but ran out of steam, that is simply an easier method. (I initially started out using wool roving, but this led to us not doing too much with the board very often) I like the simplicity of the ideas you shared.
thanks!
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