Friday, February 28, 2014

Saint Patrick's Day Felt Board


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We are so excited for Saint Patrick's Day! Sure, it may not be a major holiday, like Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter, but it is still one of our favourites! I decided to go with a few classic themes for our felt board. When I asked the kids to choose their favourites, they picked "pot of gold", "rainbow" and "shamrocks". Leprechauns, Saint Patrick himself, the Irish flag and lucky objects like horseshoes were also on the list. Bean did point out that people drink out of big mugs on Saint Patrick's Day, so I told her we would pick up some apple cider to drink out of big mugs when the day comes. :)

For the patterns, I just did a quick Google search and printed the ones the kids liked best: Pot of Gold and Shamrocks. And I found the Rainbow on Pinterest. Once they were printed I cut out the patterns. 

Disappearing ink fabric pen does not work well on solid black (I mean, it does work, but it is faint and you have to hold it at an angle in bright light to really see it), so I just pinned the pattern to the felt (aren't those pins adorable?) and cut around it. 



It should look like this. It looked pretty flat to me, so I decided to add another layer...


Then I cut off the rim of the pot (paper, not felt).


I pinned it to another piece of black felt.


And cut around it.


I wanted the rim to have a raised look, so I cut out the inside of the oval.


Like this. The inside of the rim is just scrap material.


I was originally going to sew it, by my kids were watching me eagerly, so I just glued it on using an Elmer's craft bond glue pen. I like this glue for felt projects because it rarely bleeds through and it dries flexible.


Finished! I think the addition of the rim adds some depth to it. 


For the "gold coins" I just used a bit of yellow scrap fabric. I looked around the house for a circular object to trace but couldn't find any that were really small. (I just didn't like the oval coins from the picture.) So I set my kids off on a mission to find a coin-sized object and Munchkin brought back a quarter. It was such an obvious choice (though I hadn't thought of it haha) and it was so cute how excited he was about finding it. I just held it against the felt and cut around it.


I cut out 20 coins since that is the number they can both count to unassisted. I considered adding clover designs on them but decided not to at the last minute.


They are so cute and I love that they look like golden coins!


Here's what they look like piled up in the big pot! I had also considered adding a second layer to the cauldron so they could actually put the coins inside it, but when I consulted the kids Bean said she just wanted it to be flat. So there goes that idea... Perhaps when I start working on their quiet books I'll add a pot of gold page. :)


They look lovely!


For the rainbow I cut out the pattern and carefully separated the rainbow from the clouds. I saved the clouds on the side. I labeled the rainbow layers so you can see which colours I used for which layer. I then pinned the pattern to the felt.


They each wanted their own rainbow, so I repeated the process trice. I cut out roughly the same shape for each and then trimmed around the edge leaving the bottom flat. Please note: You'll want to keep the bottom even, so pin the rainbow slightly above the straight edge of the felt and do it with each layer. You may have to trim the bottom here and there, but it should roughly be the same on each layer.


Here is what the bottom layer will look like.


For each layer after, simply cut off the top layer and change the felt colour to the one listed at the top. 


For the clouds I pinned them to white felt and cut out four, two for each rainbow.


They should look like this! Yes, the rainbows are raised, but everything still sticks together quite well. And it's perfect for toddlers and preschoolers because they can practice making the rainbow by arranging the layers from biggest to smallest!


For the shamrocks I repeated the same process. I cut them out of the paper and then held them to the felt and cut around the pattern. I'm saving the bulk of the clovers for another felt board!

I arranged one of the rainbows to be dipping into the pot of gold, but it is considerably smaller than the pot. I might make a rainbow that is larger and looks like it is shooting out of or into the pot of gold. But for now this works. It is pretty cute over-all!


I hope you'll come back and check out our other Saint Patrick's Day inspired felt boards that are coming soon!

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