The other day, I finally made a farm felt board for my one-year-old daughter. This idea had been in my head for too long, and of course, I had already looked for ideas and inspiration on Pinterest and Etsy. We headed to the craft store and bought a 16″ x 20″ canvas, a 36″ square piece of felt, and assorted colors of 9″ x 12″ felt. The total cost was about $10.
That afternoon, after I put my daughter down for her nap and got started. I chose to cut everything freehand, but if you’d prefer, you can easily Google-search for templates. Also, I don’t sew, so I used hot glue.
First, I cut all of the pieces for the barn. I figured that if I couldn’t make a barn that I liked, then I’d consider my project a bust, and most of my supplies would be able to be re-purposed or returned. Luckily, I loved how my barn would look, and I was off to a good start!
Next, I cut the pond, tall grass, two trees, 10 “apples,” and the sun.
At this point, I still hadn’t glued anything together, and it’s a good thing that I didn’t. I laid everything out on the canvas and realized that most of it was too big. I had no room left for animals! I could have bought a bigger canvas, but I was happy with the 16″ x 20″ size I had already bought, so I just trimmed everything down. (FYI, the barn now measures approximately 9″ by 9″, the pond is 7″ wide by 4″ high, and the trees are 7″ and 8″ high).
Eventually, I got the courage to get started on my farm animals, including a cow, horse, pig, sheep, chicken, two ducks, and two bunny rabbits. These were the most challenging part, but I kept reminding myself that I was making them for a one-year-old, and she would either love them or hate them, regardless of how they looked.
Finally, the last step was to cut down the large piece of felt, wrap it tightly around the canvas, and glue it all around the edges and the back.
I put everything in its place, and ta-da, I was done! It’s far from perfect, but I’m happy with how it turned out.
Now, I can’t help but brainstorm my next felt board, or maybe I’ll try a “Quiet Book.” There are so many fun ideas to try!
Hi Jana,
I bought a felt Christmas tree/ornaments this past year for my daughter (she would have been 15 months at the time). After spending many minutes of putting it up and making it look great, it took all of five minutes for her to rip off every ornament, eat two tiny pieces of the felt, and tear the rest right off the wall. It was quite funny, yet sad. How did your daughter do with the farm?
Laila really likes it. Of course, she loves to pull everything off of it, but she’s also learning to move the pieces all around. We like to “hide” animals in the barn (those “doors” open), make animal sounds, and I’ll sing farm songs or recite some of her farm books that I’ve now read enough times to know off the top of my head, haha.
It seems like felt boards are used for a really wide range of ages, so who knows, by next Christmas, your daughter’s felt tree and ornaments might be her favorite 🙂