Felt Board People

When it comes to being inspired, what an age we live in! It seems like everywhere I look, there's a blog, a book, a show, or a website bursting with awesome ideas. I love the feeling of inspiration when a really good idea hits, takes hold, and pretty much takes over until you've found a way to bring it to life. The following craft totally had me in love!

I remember loving felt boards as a kid and if you've read any of my other posts, you know that there's nothing I love more than finding a way to bring that stuff back alive for my boys.

When Kai was about 4, I had gotten a felt board and a few packs of pre-cut packs (letters, numbers, shapes) off Etsy. We used it for awhile, just as an added tool for homeschooling, but there wasn't any of that magic I remembered so well. 

As often happens when hit with the problem of knowing something was awesome, but not quite being able to conjure up a mental picture of it, I turned to Google images. It only took a few pages to find a totally amazing tutorial on Instructables about how to make some awesome  felt board people. 

The dimensions of this board are much bigger than the one I made, but it goes to show that any idea can be customized to work with what you've got.

Click here to view the entire tutorial!

 As I said, the board above is very big, about 4' x 3' and the felt boards I already had were only 20", so I just scaled the people down to a size that would fit.

I will run you through how to make the people, faces, clothes and accessories, but not the board. If you don't already have one available, the link to Instructables above goes through the steps to make your own. You can also just search the web, you'll find instructions on how to make every kind under the sun. 

Now before we start with the people, I did add one thing to my board, a strip of felt grass along the bottom. While not essential, I thought it was a nice touch, feel free to do this first or just move on to the next step.

Here's what you'll need to make your people shapes:

Felt sheets (2 per person)

Marker

Scissors

Permanant Bond Spray Glue

For a good size, you want to cut the body from one sheet of felt and the head from another. To draw my shapes I used a picture of the ones on Instructables for inspiration and drew freehand as well as I could. You can go with totally original shapes also, just make sure that if you're making more than 1, you have the arms and legs in similar positions so all clothes will fit both in the end.

To start, use  a fine tip marker draw to the body as big as will fit on the back of one felt piece.

Next draw the head on the back of the second piece of felt.

Now it's time to cut out and make sure they fit on your board, trim as needed. 

(Take a minute here to lay your body piece on a blank sheet of paper, trace around it, cut out, and set aside. Trust me, this will come in very handy later when making clothes)

Once everything is just the way you want it, lay out newspaper and spray the back of your body shape with glue. Quickly turn over and press onto your board. Repeat steps with the head, sticking it onto the top of the body.

          
If you'll be making another person, go ahead and go through the steps again. Once you've got both your people in place, the next step is making them come to life!

Here's what you need next:

Felt sheets or scraps in assorted colors

Scissors

Black Permanent Marker

Super glue 

Imagination!!

When making eyes, noses, mouths, and hair, let your imagination go wild! Make as many or as few as you wish, but the more variety there is, the more fun it will be later.

Cut your pieces and add details (pupils, teeth, etc.) either by drawing them on with a marker or by gluing smaller pieces of felt on. 

Once you've got your face pieces and hair done, it's time for clothes!

Once again the only limit is your imagination. Using your body template as a guide, start drawing and cutting out shirts, pants, dresses, socks, shoes, anything!! You can glue on small detail pieces if you like, but since felt sticks to itself, anything like a small flower or heart can be made separately, and worn on clothes, in hair, or held in the hand.The more versatile you make things, the more fun the board becomes!

 Now that you've got faces, hair and clothes, the only other thing they need is accessories! 

A baseball bat, a magic wand, a crown, a flower, an umbrella, this is a great way to use some of the scraps leftover from making the clothes and hair. Superglue works fine for smaller details, but I recommend a low-temp. glue gun for any larger detail pieces, like on the umbrella.

I asked for suggestions from the boys for what they would like their people to have and still have a page long list of stuff still to be made. I really love that this is a toy that can be constantly evolving, every time you add something, it opens up new ways to play. 

I had so much fun setting the boards up to take pictures, there are so many fun (and funny!) combinations to put together!

Side Note: When it comes to storage I recommend keeping all the face, hair and accessory pieces (especially the smaller ones) on another felt board if you have one. This makes things everything much easier to see and keep track of. Of course a small plastic bag will always work too!

A small box is perfect for storing clothes in

No matter what you end up with or how detailed you go, the most important thing is to Have Fun!!



See you next week!