Munchkin and Bean: Felt Gifts for Christmas

We love felt around here. Not only is it an incredibly versatile material to craft with, but it also kid-friendly! My children have been playing with felt since they were 6 months old. Between fine motor activities, like button snakes and pretend-play clothes lines, to felt boards and felt toys, they have grown up playing with their homemade felt toys. So today I'm going to share some of our favorite toys and games made out of felt! Some you can make at home (homemade gifts are the best!) and others you can purchase pre-made.

Here are a handful of my favorite shops on Etsy. They have some of the cutest felt crafts I have ever seen!

Ladybug On Chamomile has an amazing collection of felt fridge magnets! Everything from letters, to forest animals, to sea creatures! There's something for everyone and not only are they practical, but they will be so fun to play with on the fridge!

Tomomo Handmade has a bunch of beautiful pretend play felt food sets.

It's the small things made this adorable Christmas Gingerbread House Quiet Book page and also has a handful of others on sale too!

Sweet Juicy April has a ton of creative quiet book pages to choose from, including this musical one!

Box of Felt Food and desserts perfect for a tea party made by Bird Toast.

One of my favorite bloggers sells her patterns on Etsy: Imagine Our Life. She's a Montessori homeschooler and her quiet books are simply amazing! Her mini advent ornaments are the cutest!

Felted Soap from The Twisted Purl. These unique handmade soaps are perfect stocking stuffers. They are neat and help children use soap on their own. These felted soaps will actually prolong the life of your soap! (There's even a coal option!)

Floral Blossom has tons of printable PDF Sewing Patterns for adorable finger puppets (including this farm set!).

Winter holiday inspired Felt Cookies from decocarin.

Felt Vegetable Garden Farmer's Market Play Set by Franconia Ridge Studio. This set is absolutely perfect for a child who loves pretend play and wants to practice their gardening skills.

You may also find something you like at my own little Etsy shop: Felt Creations. :)

I know many moms love Melissa and Doug products for being well-made, educational and because they promote creative role play. I myself am a huge fan of Melissa and Doug's products and we have an entire shelf in our homeschool corner devoted to our Melissa and Doug toys and games. Some of our favorites are their felt food sets (which actually inspired us to begin making our own felt foods). I'm including these felt food sets because they are versatile and it's easy enough to add your own felt pieces to these sets. Check them out!

Melissa & Doug Felt Food - Sandwich Set Perfect for a pretend-play deli or restaurant. We have used this set many times to practice stacking and ordering. Children can practice taking orders and then making the sandwich according to the order.

Melissa & Doug Felt Food - Pizza Set I don't know a single kid who doesn't love pizza. They will love making up their own pizzas and setting up a pretend play pizza shop to serve the chef's best pizza.

Melissa & Doug Felt Food - Taco And Burrito Set This set is fantastic and can make both burritos and tacos. Kids will love how cute this set is!

Melissa & Doug Felt Food - Cookie Decorating Set This particular set is really neat because it comes with additional toys to play with, so you can create your own pretend-play bakery and practice with the tray and cookie cutters. Kids will love decorating their cookies!

The biggest factor that I love about these felt food sets is that they can easily pair with any felt foods that you make at home. Perhaps your favorite pizza is ham and pineapple - you could just make some and add it to the pizza set. Or maybe the cookie set didn't have enough chocolate options - the patterns are easy enough to duplicate and make extra frosting choices.

For those of you more inclined to make your own felt crafts, I would recommend these felt craft books, either for yourself to use or to give to someone who loves crafting. These books are my usual go-to books for inspiration and have so many fantastic craft ideas that you will love making!

Big Little Felt Universe: Sew It, Stuff It, Squeeze It, Fun! I was self taught in the art of crafting with felt, but after a while I decided to branch off from felt boards and discovered a whole world of 3-D felt crafts. This book is bursting with cute crafts and has plenty of templates to help you!

Feltlicious: Needle-Felted Treats to Make & Give For the more ambitious crafter, needle-felting takes a wee bit more effort, but the effects are absolutely adorable and worth it! These felt foods are simply delicious looking and are perfect for pretend play!

Fa la la la Felt: 45 Handmade Holiday Decorations For those of you looking for holiday-inspired crafts, this book has a ton of great ideas! And I personally adore the woodland creatures!

Felt with Love: Felt Hearts, Flowers and Much More Simple and sweet designs and ideas. Great beginner book!

Super-cute Felt: 35 step-by-step projects to make and give This book is just full of adorable crafts and has really detailed directions, including types of stitches and techniques.

If you have any questions concerning felt or felt crafts, please don't hesitate to contact me! I would be happy to assist your crafty needs!