How to make a flannel board

First of all: what IS a flannel board?  It is a piece of cardboard covered with flannel. You can also make a felt board, or any type of fabric-covered board that you can stick other pieces of fabric to and they'll stay put.  Very simple.  You can create stories, games and activities using your flannel board.  There are many books full of patterns for flannel board stories, tons of resources online (google felt or flannel board patterns), and you can very easily create your own (either by drawing/decorating your own, or using other sources as patterns - such as clipart).  Make your children's favorite stories come to life with a flannel board.  If you don't have patterns or pieces for your flannel board pertaining to that particular story, go online and print off clipart relating to that story and glue it to flannel and cut it out!

My flannel board is made using one of my husbands heavy-duty cardboard targets for shooting practice.  We had a white flannel bedsheet that I folded in half and wrapped around the board.  I folded the flannel over the board to the back from the top and bottom, and then folded in the sides. Using very big safety pins, I pinned the sides together that were folded in, then I reinforced the top and bottom so the sheet wouldn't slip.  That's it!  You can also use pizza boxes (ask for one that hasn't been used yet, and store your pieces in the box with the flannel on the inside top flap - perfect for on the go with build in storage for your story pieces).  You can also use folders (perhaps make scenes on several folders and keep them together in a binder.  Make one for day and night, country and city, house and barn, etc.) you can then store your story pieces inside the flaps of the folder.  You can also use cardboard boxes, cover each outer edge with flannel and create different terrains and settings on each side.  The ideas are about endless!

I choose white for my board so it would serve a bunch of purposes.  I also cut out green and blue flannel to fit my board to make sky and grass.  I have a bunch of black flannel sitting here that I am going to cut into road pieces so my son can piece together his own road system.  I have car, airplane, boat and truck clipart I've printed out and will back with flannel.  I'll also be cutting out ponds, parking lots, buildings and more so he can create his own city for his little vehicles.   My daughter loves Hello Kitty and princesses, so I printed a bunch of clipart pertaining to those, backed them with flannel and am working on several different settings with furniture, etc. that she can use to create her own "flannel house".   Does your daughter like paper dolls?  Create flannel dolls and let her dress her dolls on flannel board.  You won't have to worry about paper ripping or the paper clothes always falling off!

If you are so inclined, you can also back your flannel or plain paper with a little piece of 'hook' Velcro or other fastening tape.  The hooks will stick well on the flannel (or felt) but beware unless there is something to give more stability, you may find your paper rips right off the velcro when moving the pieces. I've had dreams of creating a Velcro board - sewing the edges of wide 'loop' Velcro together and backing them with cardboard, then any peice I use on the board would have a small piece of 'hook' Velcro and there would never be an issue of dropping anything off the board again... Although, it would make it hard to layer certain things like flannel doll clothing and whatnot..