Pizza + Ice Cream Felt Boards

It's no secret that I love felt boards. They're one of my very favorite toys because the possibilities are basically endless! If you haven't checked out my felt board tutorial yet, you should go take a look (spoiler alert: felt boards are really easy and inexpensive to make). Or, if you're already a proud owner of a felt board, here are a couple of easy ideas for felt board games you can make yourself! 

Who doesn't love pizza and ice cream? Okay, so maybe it's not the healthiest option...but you try getting a kid excited about playing with kale. Plus, felt board calories definitely don't count. Unless you're eating the felt...in which case, don't. Seriously.

All you need to make these is—you guessed it—felt! I used a few different colors of the 8.5"x11" felt sheets from the craft store (my local store sells them for 25¢ each, so this is definitely a low-budget craft). 

For the ice cream, I cut out a couple of long triangles in tan for the cones and then cut a simple "scoop" shape for the ice cream out of various colors. I free-handed the first one and then traced it for the rest of the scoops so that they'd be more uniform.  Ice cream is meant to be sloppy, so don't worry about absolute perfection; an approximate shape is good enough.  ​I also added a cute little cherry by cutting out a circle with a stem sticking out of it. If you'd like to, you can definitely get creative and add more details like whipped cream or sprinkles, or maybe an awesome soft-serve if you're feeling artistic. Have fun with it!

There are a few different fun ways to play with this one. You could easily use this to help your child practice colors or counting. Or you can just let them use their imagination and enjoy building towers of ice cream scoops. My son likes to build ice cream cones and then feed them to other felt board creations, like the jack-o'-lanterns.

The pizza is also a build-your-own experience. I used a large tan circle for the crust and then cut out slightly smaller red and off-white circles for the sauce and cheese, respectively. To make it look more like a pizza topping and less like a frisbee, I cut random curves into the edges of the circles of the cheese and sauce. Again, these are meant to look a bit sloppy, so don't worry too much about how it turns out. Then I made some toppings. There are tons of other toppings you could add to your pizza, but I went with ones that I knew my son would recognize, since they're often on actual pizza we eat: pineapple, bell pepper, and pepperoni. Some other fun and easy ideas would be black olives, mushrooms, your favorite vegetables, or sausage. This is a chance to make the pizza your own, so have fun personalizing it!

The pizza also doubles as both a learning or an imaginative play tool. Pizza toppings are ideal for counting games. And letting your toddler decorate the pizza however they want is ideal for getting a few uninterrupted minutes to yourself. Sounds like a winner to me. 

I hope that you enjoy these easy felt board ideas! There are tons of great ideas already floating around out there if you're looking for more; just peruse pinterest and you'll see what I mean. And I'll probably be posting more felt board ideas as I make 'em, so be sure to check back! Happy crafting!