My Almost Insta-Flannel Board

Ever since I found a love of felt (<a href=”http://wp.me/p2N1aX-fM” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener noreferrer”>see here</a>), I’ve been wanting to invest in a flannel board.  However, we’ll hopefully be getting a new children’s librarian soon ::crosses fingers:: and I have no idea if s/he is even interested in using felt in storytimes.  So, to spend the library’s money on something that may or may not be used is just wrong.

Enter ingenuity!

I have no idea if other people have done this, but this idea came to me because I’ve used various frameworks (from <a href=”http://wp.me/p2N1aX-2N” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener noreferrer”>bulletin boards</a> to empty frames) for other random crafty things and I was like, “hey, we have these extra unused picture frames at the library that I could totally use! It’ll be on the small side, but it should be quick, easy, and cheap.”  It was indeed all of the above!

Basically, I took out the glass from one frame and carefully discarded it.

I then glued two pieces of black felt to the backer board (and trimmed the excess).

It was on the flimsy side (this needs to stand up to curious toddlers who I hope will interact with the board), so I took a cardboard box lid and cut it to fit the frame. I then folded down the little metal prongs – and BAM! I was done.

I now have a pretty snazzy gold-framed felt board.

The gold paint had flecked off a little bit in the lower left-hand corner of the frame (you can see the black splotches in the above picture).  I had a gold leaf pen at home, so I brought it in and used it to cover the damage – and it looks great! (refer to the top image of this post)

This truly was a fantastic instant gratification project.  I’ll be sure to let you know how well it holds up.  And if it does hold up well, then I may even think of making a few more with different colored felt backgrounds for different stories.  It would also be fun to add a hanger to the frame and hang it up somewhere in the library where we could switch out what was in the frame(s) to go along with the decor each month.

I showed my boss this project and she was so excited about it that she’s offered to bring in a much larger picture frame of hers to be converted since the glass was cracked.  I’ll be sure to post about that board as well if we do indeed flannelize it.

Side Note: I made the turkey from the top image from using the template found <a href=”http://naptimecrafting.blogspot.com/2010/11/felt-turkey-for-toddlers-w-template.html?m=1″ target=”_blank” rel=”noopener noreferrer”>here</a>.  I plan to use this in a toddler storytime, so I wanted to make only the large feathers, and didn’t embroider the feathers since I wanted sticking power.