project // dino bone thumbtack

In just over a week, my sister will be starting a new job as a teacher. I'm soooo happy for and proud of her! She learned that she may soon be doing a dinosaur unit very soon as part of their curriculum, and I got all excited since I had just drawn up the dino wallpaper and started thinking of dino ideas for March.

I thought it might be fun to make her a few dino bone thumbtacks for on her bulletin board...and maybe you'd like some too! You could easily change these over to magnets too, if you're so inclined...

Here's what you need:

White felt
Black and white embroidery floss
Thumb tacks
Scissors
Needle
BONE THUMBTACK PDF TEMPLATE

Here's what you do:

For each thumbtack, cut out two bone shapes. Embroider a face onto one of them. I used two strands of black floss, and formed the eyes with french knots and the mouth with a scallop stitch (a modified fly stitch).

Push the thumbtack through the plain piece of felt. The bone shape isn't symmetrical, so be sure you are sticking it through front to back so that the two felt pieces will still match up.

Layer the felt pieces together and stitch around the shape. I used two strands of white floss with running stitch. If you're making your dino bone into a magnet, you could glue and insert a strong magnet inside the shape, otherwise, glue it on after you've secured the two pieces together.

Hide your knot on the back or between the pieces, and your thumbtack is all ready to go!

Yes it's cheesy, but I think this tack is dino-mite!

And it's happy too! I have to admit, I had so much fun making this, I'm not going to be able to stop with dino bones. More thumbtacks/magnets will be in my future. Here's hoping for more fun ideas from my sister's new classroom!