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So I have a bit of a problem… I always fall in love with cute, trendy items that cost a chunk of change. A normal person would just buy the thing they’ve fallen in love with but I’m also cheap!! The item of my obsession these days: a felt letter board. My mission: to make an inexpensive DIY version. Here it goes….

All of the felt letter boards I’ve been able to find have been $50 and above! My tutorial will make you a board of your own for around $20. Come on! Thats less than half price!!

Supplies:

frame (I used Ikea’s Ribba 12×16)
felt (Michaels has a yard of felt)
skewers package (make sure they’re long enough to reach across the length of your frame)
glue gun & glue

My felt came folded in a package so I made sure to iron it out before getting ready to measure and cut. I wanted my felt lines to run along the 12 inch side of my frame so I marked my felt to cut it 12 inches wide.

I marked my cut line with chalk. This would be easier to cut using a rotary cutter and mat, if you have one. (This is one of those brilliant ideas I had AFTER I had already cut my felt this way!)

I ended up cutting my felt into 2 1/4 inch strips. You could probably get away with cutting your strips at 1 3/4 inches to make your felt go further. I am notorious for burning my fingers with the glue gun so I gave extra fabric (that you see I cut off later) in order to reduce the 3rd degree burns on my finger tips!

I folded the felt around the skewer to give the fabric a little dent to hold the skewer in place. Then added a line of hot glue.

When folding the felt over, I pushed the glue towards the skewer with my fingers, so to get a good seal for each felt line.

You can see how well the felt is glued around the skewer in this picture.

This is where my fear of glue gun burns added some extra work for me. I’m cutting the excess felt from felt lines. I wanted each line to be about a 1/2 inch wide.

I started to lay my felt lines into the frame about an inch or two at a time, laying a line of glue and then pushing the felt pieces in. It’s a good idea while waiting for the glue to dry to keep a firm hand on the already placed pieces, not pushing too hard but keeping them in place.

Here is what the backside looks like after all the pieces have been glued in.

I used the original picture frame backing but the metal secure pieces didn’t reach it, so I decided to use quarter round wood pieces to secure the back.

I just hot glued these in! Now, I will be the first to say, this is not the most secure way. I think eventually I might tack nail them in but I’m not planning on being rough with my letter board so I think this will hold for now.

Don’t think I forgot about the letters! I found this pack with TONS of letters (nothing worse than a letter pack that has two of each vowel!!) and it’s pretty inexpensive. Amazon prices vary, so if you have patience, you could see the price drop a bit. When I bought these, they were around $10. Would these be fun spray painted gold?! Hmmm….

With Valentine’s Day around the corner, I chose to use my board to display a phrase my sweetheart and I have said to each other since our newlywed days. He signs every card to me with that same phrase. Yes, I’m totally lucky!! And isn’t that carved birch wood the cutest?!

If you make your own felt letter board, tag us in your pictures! We’d love to see!!