Flannel Board Tutorial

Make an easy and beautiful flannel board using fleece ad foam core board.

I remember loving our flannel board as a kid, and this was an experience I definitely wanted my children to enjoy. I borrowed The Flannel Board Storytelling Book by Judy Sierra from my library, and was pleasantly surprised to see it included directions for making a flannel board as well as patterns for flannel board shapes to go with several stories. I couldn’t find the exact materials she recommends within my budget ($10 for all materials), so I made some changes. Here is what I came up with – part one since I have to wait 24 hours for the glue to dry to finish.

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MATERIALS:

– 1 Cardstock-covered Foam Board, 20*30 inches (I used Elmer’s brand)
– craft glue
– duct tape
– black or navy fleece (I bought a half-price remnant). It needs to be at least 1 inch bigger than the board all the way around.

– ribbon
– knife or cardboard cutter
– scissors

STEPS:

1) Cut the board in half. I used a knife, but a cardboard cutter would work better if you have one. Scissors might work, if you have a sharp pair. I didn’t think to try.

2) Put the cut edges up against each other and tape with duct tape:

3) Fold the board the opposite way (so the duct tape is on the inside):

4) Duct tape this raw edge as you did in step 2.

5) Lay the board flat and add a second layer of duct tape to each side. I’m not sure this is absolutely necessary, but it seemed to make the seam look better.

6) Put craft glue in this seam that you have created – on the side of the board that you plan to fold in for storage.

7) Lay the felt, fuzziest side down, on a flat surface (a table or the floor)

8) Lay the board, gue down on top of the fleece so that there is about 1″ around the edges. Try to line the board up with the selvage to keep the fabrics aligned. Judy Sierra recommends velour, but when I was in the fabric store velour was a lot more expensive than the fleece remnant and the felt seemed to stick to the fleece really well (better than velour maybe in my opinion)

9) Flip the board over, fold in half along seam, and drape fabric over to dry for at least 24 hours.

Go here for Part II

MaryAnne Kochenderfer

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MaryAnne is a craft loving educator, musician, photographer, and writer who lives in Silicon Valley with her husband Mike and their four children.