Giveaway: Glitterful Felt Stories story + travel board $22 ARV {12.1; US} CLOSED
This giveaway is now closed. View the winner here. Thank you all so much for entering!
This is a joint giveaway with Hobo Mama Reviews and Natural Parents Network. You may enter at one site only. Please find the section marked “Win it!” for the mandatory main entry and optional bonus entries.
WILL TRAVEL special event: I am featuring a few special travel items for review and giveaway that I was able to use on my trip with my three-year-old son and eight-year-old niece this summer. If you win, you’ll have your items in time for December holiday travel or Christmas gifts!
Glitterful Felt Stories is offering our readers a giveaway of a travel flannel board and felt story of the winner’s choice!
Glitterful Felt Stories features incredible hand-crafted felt boards and story characters that are sure to spark your child’s imagination. If you remember Flannelgraph stories from childhood Sunday school classes (anyone?), this is similar in concept but in a child-usable size and child-oriented themes, generally from children’s literature or songs. The felt characters stick to the flannel board and can be rearranged at will. Felt boards make a wonderful tool to keep children engaged and happy during a long wait — such as on a trip, in a waiting room, or at a restaurant. They also make storytelling fun, because it brings the characters to life, letting you or your children “act out” the story in a tactile and visually satisfying way.
I (Lauren) actually won a Glitterful Felt Stories prize in another blog’s giveaway (thanks, Katydid and Kid!). I was so impressed with the quality and care that went into making these one-of-a-kind pieces — and of the potential for child amusement on trips — that I contacted the owner, Shelby, and asked if she’d mind if I did a giveaway on my own site as part of my travel theme. As you can see, she agreed to give the same prize I won to one of my readers!
When I received my travel board and story, I couldn’t resist opening it right away instead of waiting for our trip. This almost proved fatal (ok, not really) — it’s just that Mikko took to it so strongly I wasn’t sure he’d let me put it away until the trip! He even loves wearing the travel roll like a cape (no, truly) with the ribbons that close it tied around his shoulders, flying around the house like some sort of pirate superhero. Yes, that’s an unorthodox use of the travel board, but kids’ imaginations are priceless like that. I love when a product is open-ended enough to allow for such diverse interpretations of use!
Untying the portable travel roll. We chose pirates. Arr! The exterior, when rolled, is a fun fabric, and the other side is high-quality felt. The stitching seems really solid, and the fabric feels plush. You can roll the felt pieces up in the board and tie it with the attached ribbon so you can take your stories with you! The size of our travel board is 10.5 inches by 17 inches, so a perfect lap or airplane tray size, as I can attest. If you’re familiar with the book, you can see Glitterful Felt really went all out on including every item you need to retell the story: the tree, the peddler, the monkeys, and all his colored hats, including his own. The only problem I have is fitting all the pieces on the travel board!
We went with Caps for Sale
Mikko puts a hat on a monkey.
I put a hat on Mikko. (I’m like that.)
Here Mikko is, happily playing monkeys on the plane ride.
Besides the folding travel boards, Glitterful Felt Stories also offers wall-hanging and aluminum-backed flannel boards for use in a home or classroom (or a home classroom). They would also be great for a library story hour or playgroup. For most families, I think the patented travel boards would get the most use, because you could use them for storytime and then tuck them away; plus, you can bring them with you whenever you want a story and playtime on the go! They have some new larger-size versions if you get a character-heavy story as I did!
Here are some examples of the felt stories that Glitterful Felt Stories offers, to give you an idea of the range:
More strictly educational versions, such as safety and civic themes (911, fire safety, recycling): alphabet and number recognition: and life cycle lessons: And if I’m itching to relive my Flannelgraph days in earnest, there are religious and holiday-themed stories, too! They even sell cute little glove puppets to make story or song time even more interactive! And I thought this was a marvelous idea for young children and particularly for children with special needs who could use a visual aid for performing routine tasks. They offer Picture Learning Stories that outline the steps needed to complete a certain task, such as getting ready in the morning, going to the potty, or using good hygiene.
Felt stories based on beloved children’s books, such as Chicka Chicka Boom Boom from the children’s rhyming alphabet book of the same name
Felt stories based on kids’ songs, such as “An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly”
Fairy tales and other familiar stories such as “Goldilocks and the Three Bears”
Nursery rhymes like “Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed”, complete with mama and doctor
Anyway, that should give you an idea of the wide range you’ll have trouble choosing from if you win!
BUY IT!
You can buy any of these items online from GlitterfulFeltStories.com, FunFeltStories.com, or their Etsy shop.
Portable folding travel boards are $12 for the regular size, $14 for the larger. Aluminum and wall-hanging boards range from $14.99 to $19.99.
Felt stories generally start around $7.00 (although some are on sale for even less), and most are in the $10-$14 range, depending on complexity. Some of the felt pieces are “printed,” so the pieces are a laminated and felted drawing (that’s what our Caps for Sale ones are), and some are entirely cut out of felt and decorated with felt and glitter (hence the name!). I think they’re all pretty dang impressive and seriously cannot imagine how they manage to make and sell such a variety at such low prices. Glitterful Felt is family owned and operated by Shelby Barone, a former preschool teacher and mom to three young children, and three employees. Seriously, how do they make these custom products so fast and so professionally? It’s a mystery to me!
Shipping in the U.S. runs $9.95 for a felt board, $2 for one story and $0.50 for each additional story, plus a $1 handling fee. There is free U.S. shipping on orders over $50. If you sign up for the newsletter, you’ll find they often offer shipping promotions and free stories with purchase. International shipping starts at $5 for one story and $0.50 for each additional story.
WIN IT!
For your own chance to win a felt story and a regular-size folding travel felt board of your choice from Glitterful Felt Stories, enter in the comments below! Contest is open to the U.S. only. (Sorry, everyone else! There are more international contests on the way, for reals.)
MAIN ENTRY: Visit Glitterful Felt Stories (or any of the other shops mentioned above) and tell us which felt story you’d love to win! I’ll warn you, it’s going to be tough to choose.
Leave a valid email address in your comments (the line where it says “email address”) so we can contact you if you win. Email addresses are not made publicly visible.
This is a joint giveaway with Hobo Mama Reviews, the review and giveaway arm of Hobo Mama, and Natural Parents Network, a site co-founded by Lauren of Hobo Mama & Dionna of Code Name: Mama and intending to bring together those interested in attachment parenting and a natural lifestyle. You may enter at one site only, and we’ll be recording IP addresses to ensure that there are no duplicate entries. That said, please do check out and enjoy both sites!
BONUS ENTRIES, to increase your chance of winning (leave a separate comment for each so we can count them all):
- Let us know your favorite portable travel board (not the new large size but the regular).
- Heart the Glitterful Felt Stories shop on Etsy and leave your Etsy user name in the comment.
- Let us know how you will use this felt story if you win.
- Subscribe to the FeltStories.com blog in a reader or email, or become a follower through Google Friend Connect (1 entry for each).
- Subscribe to Natural Parents Network in a reader or by email.
- Follow www.HoboMamaReviews.com publicly through Google Friend Connect, or subscribe to the Hobo Mama Reviews RSS feed in a reader or by email (1 entry for each).
- Follow www.HoboMama.com through Google Friend Connect, or subscribe to the Hobo Mama RSS feed in a reader or by email (1 entry for each).
- Follow @glitterfulfelt on Twitter and leave your Twitter name in the comment.
- Follow @NatParNet on Twitter and leave your Twitter name in the comment.
- Follow @Hobo_Mama on Twitter and leave your Twitter name in the comment.
- Tweet about this giveaway (up to 5 times total, at least 24 hours apart). You can use the retweet button at the top of the post or tweet this text: Enter to #win a charming felt story & travel board from @GlitterfulFelt via @Hobo_Mama & @NatParNet! http://t.co/AZv7gl0 {12.1, US}
- Like Glitterful Felt Stories on Facebook.
- Like Natural Parents Network on Facebook.
- Like Hobo Mama on Facebook.
- Enter another of the giveaways on Natural Parents Network or Hobo Mama’s current giveaways (1 extra entry per giveaway — check back for more, because they are coming soon).
- Put the Natural Parents Network badge on your website or add http://NaturalParentsNetwork.com to your text blogroll for 2 extra entries each. The HTML code for the badge is on the front page of NaturalParentsNetwork.com. Leave your site URL in the comment.
- Put the Hobo Mama button on your website or add http://www.HoboMama.com to your text blogroll for 2 extra entries each. The HTML code is in the sidebar of HoboMama.com. Leave your site URL in the comment.
RULES:
- Contest open to United States street mailing addresses only.
- Contestants may enter at either Hobo Mama Reviews or Natural Parents Network but not both. Entries will be combined for the drawing of a single winner.
- Leave each entry as a separate comment so we can count them all.
- For actions like following and subscribing, if you already follow or subscribe, just let us know in your comment.
- For tasks that garner you multiple entries, you can copy and paste the comment with a #1, #2, etc.
- You don’t have to do any of the bonus entries, but you do have to complete the first mandatory one.
- We will pick the winner through Random.org after the contest closes and send an email notification. Leave a valid email address as you comment so we can contact you if you win. If we can’t reach a winner or don’t hear back within a couple days, we’ll draw a new name.
- Any questions, let me know: Lauren {at} NaturalParentsNetwork.com
Contest closes December 1 at 11:59 p.m. PST.
and travel board as a giveaway prize.
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relevant and useful to your life as a natural parent.
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Lauren blogs about natural parenting at Hobo Mama and is the cofounder of Natural Parents Network.
These are so fun! I would love to have the Chicka-Chicka-Boom-Boom story board for my son. He looooves that book!
I would love to win “Old Mac Donald had a farm” story board
love the fish lives in the ocean one! how fun
My DD would love Chicka Chicka Boom Boom!
Entry #1:
My the story I’d like to win is Stone Soup! I loved that book as a kid and purchased it for my son when I was pregnant!
http://www.glitterfulfeltstories.com/index.cfm/fa/items.main/parentcat/26323/subcatid/0/id/470088
Entry #2: Fave travel board:
Frogs!
Entry #3: Hearted on etsy! (user name: lillitushahar)
Entry #4: subbed to Natural Parents Network via email.
I would love to have Goodnight Moon as it’s the last book we read before bed each night.
LOVE them! So cute, and so hard to choose! I would probably have to go with Old McDonald Had a Farm, since my son LOVES animals, especially farm animals right now.
Thanks for the giveaway!
Love all of these–love the number recognition a lot!
I “liked” glitter boards on FB.
With my ninth child on the way and a lot of traveling, we would LOVE to have a set!