This DIY is very much in celebration of my dear friend’s first baby. She’s very interested in Montessori, so these will be a perfect baby shower gift! That said, black and white images are not exclusive to Montessori. In fact, this is an evidence based learning material that has a place even in the least Montessori environment.

I love how valuable these are in supporting newborn visual development, but I also love how easy these are to make. This would be a lovely, heartfelt gift that an older child or teenager could make and give. I’m obviously a huge fan of giving handmade gifts. It’s just such a nice way to show someone how much they mean to you. Sure, you could spend about five minutes in Google Slides, print these onto some cardstock, and tuck them in a little plastic paper protector, but taking the time to craft something with love just means so much more.

The Science

According to the American Optometric Association, from birth to four months of age infants don’t have well developed eyesight. They are only able to focus about 8-12 inches from their face, and they focus best on simple, high contrast images. Furthermore, babies don’t have well developed color vision until about five months old, hence black and white as opposed to blue and orange. Placing high contrast cards within their field of view will support their visual development and give them something engaging to focus on.

Completed high contrast cards. Machine sew wrong sides together with a 1/4-1/2 inch seam allowance and then cut around the edges with pinking shears for this border!

How to Use High Contrast Cards

In order for a newborn to get the most out of these cards, please follow these evidence based recommendations:

Place the card within 8-12 inches of the baby’s face.
- Tummy time is a great time to make these available!
- Car rides are another great time to observe these. Attach these to the seat that your baby can see, but do not attach them to the car seat (this is a safety hazard!).
Allow plenty of time for the baby to observe the cards.
- Generally, just leave them until your baby has clearly lost interest, then present them again later.
- Remember, focusing their eyes is a skill that babies really have to work at. Popping these in front of your baby like you’re doing flashcard drills isn’t going to help them at all.
Start with one at a time.
- Seeing is a relatively new thing for newborns. Start with one card at a time so that they can focus without distractions.
Switch it up.
- The benefit to having four double sided cards is that there are eight different images for the baby to view. As your baby gets older, you may want to put two, three, or even all four cards out at once. With eight sides, there are a ton of different combinations that you can create!
Keep them in rotation.
- These will have the most impact from 0-4 months, but they are still useful for discussing colors, shapes, and counting.
- Using felt also makes these a great tactile experience, especially because the shapes will be slightly raised.

Does making these out of felt sound overwhelming? Don’t worry! Head over to the freebies page to download some printable high contrast, black and white cards! I recommend printing them on thick card stock and laminating them just in case your newborn gets their hands on them!

Materials

1 12x18 inch sheet of white felt (I recommend Benzie’s Wool Blend Felt Sheets)
1 12x18 inch sheet of black felt
1 skein white embroidery floss
1 skein black embroidery floss
Scissors
embroidery needle
Recommended:
- Rotary cutter
- Cutting mat
- Large clear ruler

Instructions

Please follow this cutting guide exactly in order to have the right measurements for the smaller pieces. You will follow this guide twice, once for the white felt and once for the black.
- Cut the 12x18 inch sheet down to 12x14 inch
  - Cut in half to 12x7 inch
    - Cut to 10x7 inch (you’ll do this once for each of the above halves)
      - Cut to 5x7 inches (You’ll do this twice to yield four 5x7 inch cards)
  - You should have the following strips remaining:
    - 1 - 4x12 inch rectangle
      - Cut a circle from the 4x12 inch rectangle (I traced the bottom of a large bottle)
      - You can choose to cut the circles in half or leave them whole, or you could even do one of each!
    - 2 - 2x7 inch rectangles
      - cut 2 2x2 inch squares
      - cut 4 .5x3 inch strips (it’s ok if it’s not perfectly 3 inches long)
  - You will still have one 2x7 inch rectangle and the remainder of the 4x12 inch rectangle remaining. You could make a rattle, mobile ornaments, or just throw them away.
Lay out all eight cards to plan how you’d like to assemble them.
- I chose to use this combination, but as long as there’s a sense of symmetry and balance, you can create many different combinations.
Using thread that matches the object, not the background, sew each piece to its’ assigned card.
- Note: You can use pins or washable glue to hold these in place. if you use glue, you must hand wash these before gifting them!
Optional: To make these a little stiffer, attach fusible interfacing to the back of each card using a cool iron and a layer of quilting cotton between the iron and the interfacing. Be vigilant here; you don’t want to burn or melt your hard work!
With wrong sides together, sew two cards together.
- You will do this four times, yielding four double sided cards.