So I wanted to start by saying that I can’t take credit for this idea (a lovely lady named Carsonna on the Making One Fun Facebook group inspired this project) but it’s been AWESOME.
Ever since I saw the idea, I couldn’t stop thinking about doing it for Mabel, my 8 month old. I didn’t expect how much my two-year-old would love it too!
I started by going to the Dollar Tree and grabbing some odds and ends that I thought might be good for this project. I’ll link to the items below (the Dollar Tree links are NOT affiliate links) so you can see what I used.
I looked for interesting textures: a car wash mitt, a heavy duty scour pad, a gray lego baseplate, a cleaning pad, and a white supersoft microfiber towel.
I looked for things that move (like these mini clacker party favors), things that could be removed (a colorful wooden puzzle that I added Velcro to), things to interact with (a circle mirror), and things with buttons (the toy cell phone).
My dollar store also had a large foam board, so I grabbed one there.
(The following Amazon links are affiliate links:)
Things I used from home: magnetic letters that Dan had gotten in college, and purple sandpaper (bonus – it has a really cool foamy texture on the back!).
The colorful lids on a black shoe lace are from baby food pouches – I’ve been saving them for miscellaneous projects, so I had a few on hand. I threaded them through a shoe lace and tied knots on the back, then used packing tape to attach it to the back of the board.
The peekaboo pictures are made from the lids of baby wipes packs – after I peeled the lids off the packs, I scrubbed the labels off so I could write names on the outside, then glued the pictures and lids to the foam board.
I started just by laying everything out on the board – trying to decide what fit where and what height was best for everything. I wanted Mabel to be able to grab most of it when she was sitting down.
Then I just started attaching everything. I used super glue for the smaller items, like the wipe lids and then a combination of super glue and my hot glue gun for the bigger items. I used zip-ties to attach the mini-clackers, to allow for more movement. So far everything has stayed attached except the circle mirror – probably because it doesn’t have a flat back.
We used 3M velcro command strips to hang the board – the velcro part comes in handy in case we need to fix or adjust anything.
This craft did take more time than some of my other activities, but I personally think it was worth it – the board held their attention this morning for almost twenty minutes, no joke! It’s been up now for a few weeks and the girls keep going back to it and for the most part (see the above note about the mirror), it’s held together well. If you have a little bit of time, I highly recommend it!
Noticing the Happy 