Yes you were right, it is a tic-tac-toe game and a tut

So Kat was right, I had a little preview and it was a game. Right now, because of severe food allergies, my almost 3 year old is on an elemental formula only. He can't take in anything but this formula. I am so glad I made this. I will be giving it to him on Valentine's Day in lieu of candy.

Start with this template if you want to make it like mine. It took me a minute or two to get the arrows the same size as the hearts.

For just the arrows and hearts you need:
The template
Brown felt
Red felt
White felt

If you don't sew, you could do the same thing with papers and glue.

Starting on the hearts layer a white piece over the red. It is fun to have layers and contrasting colors.

Put the template on top of that. I actually ended up rough cutting each heart and arrow out.

This is my favorite way to sew on felt. I do not own an embroidery machine like my sister and sister in law. So I came up with this way. Using really small stitch length, sew right through the paper and felt layers. You may want a seperate needle for this because it may dull your needle.

Once you have stitched closely around the shape, the paper peels off easily. I peeled up the outside first. The holes basically perforate it.

Then the inside of the shape comes off.

Voila, a sewn heart. It doesn't have to be perfect.

Carefully trim the outside of the white away. Make sure you don't cut through the back layer. Trim as close to the seam as you can.

Now with pinking shears, leaving about another 1/4 inch, trim the red. I like the little extra detail the second layer with the cute edge makes. Follow these steps with all the hearts.

Now make the arrows in the same way. This time I used red as the back, but brown as the front.

Layer on the individual template piece and sew around just as you did the hearts.

On to the pocket and playing area. Since I planned on little hands using this, I wanted it to be self contained. I started with two pink pieces of felt. I folded one piece to make a square. (Sorry I didn't take a picture of it.) Remember in school when you did this with paper? Same thing here. I made two square pieces and kept one of the top pieces for making a flap.

Taking one of the squares, I folded it into thirds and pinned where the folds were. If you are a math genius like my youngest sister, I'm sure you would know the correct way to do this. I just moved it around until all three pieces were the same size.

Mark these same points on all four sides. This is where you are going to sew the lines for the grid.

For the grid lines you could use ric rac or any kind of ribbon you would like. I had this little detailed ribbon that I thought would be perfect. Sew the trim pieces on where the pin markings were. I carefully folded the edges around the back as I sewed them. I think it finishes it nicely.

To make the pocket: With the other square pink piece, trim about 1/4 inch off the top. You want to pocket to be useful. This way the top will come just below the flap leaving enough room that it doesn't get sewn into the top seam (and making it un-usable as a pocket)

Sew the two sides of the pocket piece. Layer on the flap and sew just the seam along the top.

Here it is all ready to be played with.

As always, I hope you enjoy this enough to make one too. If you do, please share your creation with us on our Make it With Me group

Don't forget to check every day for our 14 days of Valentine's Day. We have a bunch of ideas to delight you. (Oh my what have we gotten ourselves into?)

~~Anjeanette

Linked to Blue Cricket Design, My Frugal Family, and Fireflies and Jellybeans.