Skit Skat Skoodle Doot

I've been wanting to make something for one of Doug's favorite books for a long time. By Thursday afternoon I'd already been to the gym, the house was clean, I was caught up on my bible study, Doug was down for a nap and the banana bread was in the oven baking (believe me, I'm not nearly this organized with life) and I found myself with some time on my hands. Break out the craft box!

Doug loves the book 'Chicka Chicka Boom Boom' by Bill Martin Jr and John Archambault. He can recite long bits of it with you. Frequently when I'm trying to corral him into the car because we're running late (so normal) I'll say to him "Skit skat skoodle doot!" to which he'll reply "Flip flop flee, everybody running to the coconut tree, mamas and papas, uncles and aunts, hug their little dears and dust their pants!".

Anyway, I've been wanting to use it to help introduce lower case letters to him, as the book is very familiar.

So I cut out a strip of brown felt for the trunk of the coconut tree. I cut it diagonally to maximize the amount of felt I had to work with. The pointy, Washington Monument-y end of it is also a great place to attach the   palm fronds.

 

Then I took two different shades of green felt to make the fronds, I made five fronds in all: 

Next I took some fabric glue and glued them all to the trunk: 

Next I cut out three brown circles for coconuts and glued them to the tree: 

While I let that sit and dry, I got to work on the letters. I used Times New Roman for most of the letters, except 'a' and 'g' because I wanted them to look more like they do when you write them. I used 200 point font for them. Each upper and lower case pair are the same color. I printed them out on cardstock: 

Yes, it's been a long time since I've had a manicure.

Then I fired up my trusty laminator and laminated all the sheets. After they were laminated, I cut them out and applied some sticky back velcro to their backs. The squares I had were on the larger side, so I cut each square into quarters. 

That was probably the most tedious part of the project.

The finished product: 

I made a felt board a while ago by taking some felt and stretching it over a thick craft board and stapling it on. Actually, Jeff did the stapling, you need some serious muscle to do it.

Doug was elated. He made sure some letters were falling out of the tree.

Time to flip flip flee!