Dear Dutch,

You are such an imaginative child! I can see you right now, sitting in front of the fire place while a whale, shark and fire truck are being brought to life by your creative mind. At 19 months, you have taken great interest in marine animals and vehicles. Our days are filled with fins, tails, barnacles and monster trucks!

I wanted to let your imagination run wild with a new craft, a felt lap board. I created four scenes for you to build. Your favorite, of course, was the ocean. You made friends with felt whale and felt shark and splashed them all around the house. With the landscape scene you liked the little pink flowers best. In fact, flowers are a recent interest of yours. You will pick flowers just about any chance you get, and it’s the cutest thing when you raise one to your little nose and take a big sniff. 😊 Basic shapes and colors were a big hit. You spent quite some time sorting and naming them. And lastly, for fun, we built ice cream, yet another recent interest of yours. You loved stacking and separating the flavors.

This project was fun for both of us and as a result I see us spending a lot more “lap time” together. A Mother’s Dream!

With So Much Love,

Mommy ❤️

DIY FELT LAP BOARD

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Materials:

10 x 10 Canvas
Scissors
Staple Gun
Hot Glue Gun
13 in x 13 in Felt Fabric in color of your choice
Scrap Felt Fabric

First, build the lap board. Use scissors to cut the large piece of felt to measure 13 in x 13 in. Lay the canvas face down on the felt, then wrap the felt around the canvas and use the staple gun to attach. Proceed to staple all around the canvas, avoiding the corners. Next, fold the corners in tightly and staple a few times to secure. Trim excess fabric. Voila!

Cut felt larger than canvas

Wrap around and staple

Trim excess fabric

Felt lap board

Now comes the fun part! Make a list of “scenes” your child might like to build. Sketch outlines or print templates of your pieces and trace onto your felt. Cut and hot glue any layered pieces.

I chose 4 scenes to create for Dutch: