THERE are so many things that you can do with a flannel board.  The problem is that they are very expensive to purchase.  My mom had sent us some of her felt pieces a while ago, and there was a long piece on which I glued magnets to the back.  We set this up on our radiator (for use when the rads were not heated).  Unfortunately, this simple felt board did not work very well at all.  It drooped and the felt did not stick to the felt of the board.  So it sat in the closet unused while opportunities passed us by.

I started to think about what I could do.  It occurred to me that there are not just felt boards, but flannel boards as well.  So I purchased as small a strip of flannel as I could, but we had the same problem of ‘droopiness’ with this.  So it too was left in the closet…until I was walking down my favourite grocery isle; stationary, and saw some white boards for a low price.  I thought maybe I could do something with them.  But the seasons changed, and life continued and it too was in the closet feeling neglected.

Then came the New Year and my re-energised goal of finishing projects that had previously begun.  I am trying to live frugally this year, but I do not want to give up crafting and being creative.  So I when I looked in the closet I though there is no better time than now to put these various items together.

I don’t know why it sat so long; it wasn’t difficult and it didn’t take very long to do.

These are the supplies I used for the home made flannel board:

• Whiteboard
• Flannel
• Tacky glue
• rotary cutting knife
• ric-rac
• buttons

This is how put together my home made flannel board:

I was very lucky that my width of flannel just covered the size of the board, as this was by far my most expensive item.  I have a little left off the end for another use in the future (let’s get that thinking cap on!)  If you have an old flannel sheet or  PJ’s around, why not turn those into a covering for your board?  I spread the tacky glue (with a little help from the children) over the entire back side of the whiteboard, especially around the edges.  I made sure to get the coverage as even as possible so that the cloth would not bubble or harden from the glue bleeding through.

I carefully placed the flannel over the board and smoothed it out as best as I could..

I used my rotary cutter to  trim the excess fabric from the board, almost nipping in under the frame.  There were a few stray threads that needed an extra clip, but they’re easy enough to take care of.

To hide the edges and to give the flannel board some character we then placed some glue arond the edge of the fabric and gave it a nice trim of coordinating ric rac that I had left over from making Christmas cards.  It’s coming back into fashion, but mine is pure vintage, again sent over by Mom from her personal collection.  I added another round of the same ric rac to the wooden frame.  If you’d like to coordinate with your room, or give a brighter focus to your own home made flannel board, you could paint the frame, and it would look great.

I thought our home made flannel board still needed a little something, so I brought out some buttons and Kallista helped me to choose some nice pastel hands, hearts, and flowers to glue around the wooden frame, on top of the ric rac.

This is a fun and cute way to recycle or up-cycle things you may already have around the house.  Wouldn’t this also be a fun gift to make with your children to give to a friend?  You could include some nursery rhymes and characters to start them on their way to flannel fun!

By using the back side of the whiteboard, the children can still enjoy drawing pictures and practicing their letters when not making felt scenes.  I LOVE multi-purpose activities:  they are fantastic for cutting down the clutter in a small space.

We have been making use of this flannel board with felt pieces I’ve cut out myself, with some £1 felt cut-out sets, and most recently with 5 little snowmen from Ingles360.  More projects will be coming soon, so please stop by again to see what else we do with our home made flannel board!