Crafting with felt and how I make my felt story pattern pieces (giveaway is over)

***Read on for a coupon code for my Etsy shop until Feb 14th and a giveaway to win one of my felt stories*** Giveaway is now over

I love felt and the rainbow of colours it comes in.

I love pinning felt ideas. Most I will never try but they are so pretty to browse through. You can have a wander through my felt, felt and fiber fun Pinterest board HERE.

I love crafting with felt.

Being a jack of all creative trades I find the creative process quite magical no matter which medium you like to work with. Taking a blank canvas and creating a painting, or taking a piece of wood and carving beautiful toys and bowls. It's an amazing magical process from raw to finished project...don't you think? The same goes for felt...taking a rectangular piece of felt and transforming it into a usable story or game is a wonderous process.

To make my felt pieces I first draw a pattern on computer paper.

 Next I make a tracing pattern from empty cereal boxes on to the inside of the box (we go through enough Cheerios that some days I think we should buy stocks in it). The cereal boxes are more sturdy than the paper and last through many years of use. I also like to write the name of the story on each piece so when you have a table full of scraps and patterns you can easily find the piece you need. I don't know about you but my table is always a creative mess (when finished I store each stories pieces in a small ziplock bag).

Next comes the fun part...choosing your colours of felt.

Once you have your cardboard pattern piece all cut out trace it onto your chosen felt colour. When it is traced on the felt, cut it out. I like to cut along the inside edge of my pattern pieces (approximately 2 mm). This ensures that all the ink is cut off and your pieces don't have inked edges...a pet peeve of mine.

This week I've been crafting up a storm creating felt (flannel) stories for Valentines day. I haven't made any felt stories since we sold the daycares and I honestly miss it. I know it's almost Valentine's Day but I added a bunch to my Etsy shop if you'd like to have a look. I will be busy making more stories for upcoming themes in the coming weeks so check back often.

Psst...I love to hear what you think of the stories I've added so far (keep reading to possibly win a story for yourself).

I have a special coupon code for my blog readers in celebration of Valentines day I am offering a discount of 14% to anyone who uses the coupon code " loveday " at the checkout. This coupon code is valid for my blog and facebook readers only; a small thank you for following along. Hurry though this coupon code ends on Feb 14th.

Sierra joined me in making some pieces of her own this week and she even made her own mini felt board. if you are wondering what the orange things are on her felt board; they are pizza slices...all orange because she only like cheese pizza.

She also enjoyed playing the lovebug game shown at the beginning of this post. A game where you hide the lovebug behind the felt hearts and another person has to guess which heart it is behind. Younger children can guess by stating a colour choice while beginning readers can read the words. The one in the shop comes with two different poems to use with it; a short version for younger kids and a slightly longer version for older kids.

Sierra and I played a few games while Aayla was playing at the neighbours but as soon as Aayla came home Sierra asked to have the pieces she made so she could teach Aayla to play.

If you'd like to make a felt board of your own HERE is a DIY I did a few years ago to make one like this with a storage pocket for the piece on the back:

If you are local to Barrie, Ontario I'm hosting a bead giveaway here. The owner could only donate a gift card to be used in store but I'd love to offer another giveaway open to everyone everywhere to make it fair. So here you go! Good luck and I look forward to seeing which story is your favourite.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Just singin' in the rain...

"I'm singing in the rain 

Just singing in the rain 

What a glorious feelin' 

I'm happy again 

I'm laughing at clouds 

So dark up above 

The sun's in my heart 

And I'm ready for love 

Let the storm clouds chase 

Everyone from the place 

Come on with the rain 

I've a smile on my face 

I walk down the lane 

With a happy refrain 

Just singin', 

Just singin' in the rain"

-Gene Kelly

Create a Snowman bowling game from recyclables

Aren't these cute little snowmen?

Every week my girls go through these Danimals smoothies like crazy!

And every week they make their way to the recycling bin...but not this week! This week 10 of them turned into a sweet little snowmen bowling game.

Simple to do...just wash, dry and use permanent markers to add on the facial features, buttons, colour the top for the hat, add on arms or any way you want to decorate them.

When finished adding the snowman features, set all 10 up by placing one in the front, the next row has two, the third row has 3 and the last row has 4.

Now crumble a large piece of paper up to be the "snowball" bowling ball and toss away.

You can also try stacking them. A different way to play and a great way to build fine motor muscles and hand eye coordination.

Tired of bowling? Line them all up for a fun math activity.

Try one of these poems to work on Math skills.

10 Happy Snowmen (Tune 5 little monkeys jumping on the bed...original author unknown)

10 Happy snowmen riding on a sled,

1 fell off and bumped his head.

Frosty called the doctor and the doctor said,

"no more snowmen riding on the sled"!

(Continue down to 0)

No happy snowmen riding on a sled,

None fell off to bump their heads.

Frosty called the doctor and the doctor said,

"Put those snowmen back on the sled"!

10 Little Snowmen (tune Mary had a Little Lamb...original author unknown)

10 Little snowmen dancing all around, dancing all around, dancing all around,

10 Little snowmen dancing all around, then the sun came out and one melted to the ground.

Continue until all the snowmen have melted. Then if you want for the last line you can say, "don't worry...they'll all be back tomorrow".