How to Make Flannel Board Characters
For decades Sunday School and preschool teachers have taught stories to young children by placing felt cut-outs on boards covered with flannel. But sometimes finding the right images and characters to tell your flannel board story can be difficult. Creating your own pictures out of inexpensive felt squares, readily available at craft stores, can expand your story repertoire and give you almost endless options for bringing stories to life for your students.
Other People Are Reading
Things You'll Need
- Images from books or the Internet
- Felt sheets in colors that are appropriate for the images
- Tracing paper
- Pencil
- Permanent marker
- Quality scissors
Instructions
-
-
1
Pick images or illustrations from children's books, coloring pages or clip art images. Simple images are easier to turn into flannel board characters. If the image comes from a book or coloring pages, trace an outline of it onto tracing paper with a pencil. If the image comes from a computer or the Internet, print out the image or trace it onto tracing paper.
-
2
Place the tracing paper over a piece of felt that corresponds to the image. For example, use yellow felt when making a chick. Trace the outline of your character again using a permanent marker. The marker will bleed through the tracing paper and on to the felt. If you are good at drawing freestyle, then you can skip Steps 1 and 2 and draw directly on the felt.
-
-
3
Cut out your felt character. If you cut on the outside of the permanent marker lines, your illustration will look like it's outlined. If you prefer a cleaner look, turn over the felt cut-out and use the opposite side. You can use the permanent marker to add features to your felt image, such a face or hair, or add lines to indicate texture like feathers or fur.
-
4
Use steps 1 through 3 to trace and cut out accessories for your character such as clothes, tools and equipment. You can also trace and cut out props and background images like trees, houses or the sun.
-
1
Tips & Warnings
Store your felt characters in a resealable storage bag when not in use. To keep them from getting mixed up, keep the characters for different stories in different storage bags and write the name of the story with a permanent marker on each bag. Keep background pieces and props in a separate bag to be used with all stories.
Be careful that the permanent marker does not get on any furniture.
Do not infringe on copyrights by trying to make money off of flannel board characters created from books or licensed images.
- Photo Credit Flickr
