Felt Board Snowman

I mentioned a couple weeks ago about a very special project we were working on. Well, here it is . . . a felt board customizable snowman!

All three kids love playing with our felt board sets. We have upper & lowercase letters, numbers, pirates, princess/castle, and firefighters. I like that it keeps them playing quietly while enhancing their imaginations.

Mostly I like that it keeps them quiet.

I thought it would be fun to make a set myself instead of buying another one. With it being winter, a snowman seemed like a logical choice. And since we've had no snow this winter, this gave them the opportunity to build a snowman despite the uncooperative weather.

I've said many times, I am not the artistic one of the family, but I gave it a try. I used a compass to make 3 circles for the body of the snowman on plain printer paper. Then, I used those templates as guides for the accessories. Sometimes I drew it how I wanted the first try . . . other times I had to draw, erase, and redraw before getting it how I wanted. Overall, I didn't do too shabby. Jake and Alyssa had fun giving me ideas of what to add.

Once the accessories were drawn, I cut them out and used a fine-tipped black marker to trace them onto the felt. Then I cut the shapes out of the felt.

FYI, it's hard to see black marker on black felt, in case you were wondering.

Some of the pieces needed to be glued together. I used regular school glue, but a glue gun might work better. 

And here is the finished (for now) set! I keep coming up with more ideas of pieces to add. I'm trying to recruit Leighton into helping me with some of the harder things. He hasn't been nearly as enthusiastic about creating this as I have been. Party pooper.

The kids love it though. We've had so much fun creating and recreating snowmen.

Here are a few of the ones we've made. Aren't they cute?


Oh, but the real fun comes when you start combining other felt sets.

 Arg! It be pirate snowman! He found me buried treasure in the snow.

Hurry, firefighters! Help the poor melting snowman before all that's left of him is a big puddle!

I admit, those last 2 scenes I made while the kids were in bed. I was playing with the felt and having entirely too much fun . . . by myself. I may even have been a little slap-happy. I was laughing so hard at my own creations that I had tears rolling down my cheeks. Leighton just rolled his eyes. Again I say, party pooper. He asked, "Who did you make that for?" Uh, the kids . . . I think.

I will definitely be adding to my new felt obsession, I mean, our felt collection over time. It really was a lot of fun to make and even more fun to play with! Even if you're not overly artistic (or not artistic at all, like me) try making a set yourself and see how easy and fun it is!

Just make sure you let the kids play sometimes, too.

 

* If you don't have your own felt board and don't want to spend the money on a pre-made one, you can easily staple or hot glue a large piece of felt to a panel of cardboard (cereal box, shipping box, etc) and have your very own board in minutes.

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