Quiet Book - Clock page

This was the LAST page to put together for Baby Bear's quiet book!!! Since so many kids that I've worked with have been unable to read a traditional clock due to the prevalence of digital clocks, I felt that it was extremely important to include one in this book. Other than creating a clock out of felt, I had no ideas about how to design this page. I decided to add pictures of things that the time could be told for, like breakfast, bed and church. And, let's be honest, what's a quiet book without a picture of bacon in it somewhere? It turned it better than I had hoped. I embroidered the numbers on the clock and the words on the page. The hands of the clock have a loop attached to them that goes around the button so that they can turn. This probably isn't the best method to made the hands turn, but it works.

Now that I have all of the fun parts done, I get to bind them together and make a cover! Finished book pictures coming in a few weeks...

Keepsake Box

When we were growing up, my mom kept a box for each one of the kids to save things that were important to us. She called it our keepsake box. Looking at the items in that box as an adult is like opening up a treasure chest of my childhood. There are awards from school, pictures I drew, craft projects, little trinkets, and birthday cards in it that bring back tons of memories. I'm so glad that my mom kept all of this stuff for me and I wanted to do the same for baby bear. I actually borrowed this design idea from my sister :) All I needed for this project was a recycled copy paper box and some fabric.

Keepsake Box
Materials:
- Copy paper box with lid
- 1 1/2 yards of fabric (Baby bear picked out her lady bug print)
- Hot glue

1. Measure out the fabric to fit around the lid and bottom part of the box. Cut the fabric into two pieces.
2. Center the lid in the middle of its fabric piece, outside top facing down. Spread hot glue over the top of the lid and carefully place it onto the fabric. Spread some more glue on the long edges of the lid, pulling the fabric up the edges and smoothing it out. Spread glue on the short edges and smooth the last of the fabric onto the lid. I used the gift wrap technique to finish my edges (see picture) and give it a cleaner finish.
3. Repeat step two for the bottom of the box. Glue the extra fabric down to the inside of the box to help it hold up better against wear and tear.
4. Let the glue dry for at least an hour before you put the lid on the box!
5. Fill with memories!

Baby Bear's box is already full of baby shower cards, birth cards, newspapers and other items from the day she was born, mail that she's received from our family up north and items from her baptism. I plan on adding birthday cards, favorite little toys, pictures and projects she's made, awards and things from school and whatever else is a representation of her as she grows up. 

Quiet Book - Fall page

This page.. Well, it didn't turn out how I was planning, but I think it still turned out ok. I was originally planning to make this a counting page, with 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 leaves of the same color that were matched up to a basket with their number. But, after I started making the leaves, I realized they would be way too small and a choking hazard for the little lady until she got a bit older, so I came up with this instead. 

 

The tree and grass are felt and are sewn on. The rake is also felt. I left the bristles loose so the baby can feel them for texture. The leaves each have a number 1-5 and have a piece of velcro on the back. The leaves can be taken off and put on the grass to be "raked" up. The title is made from a scrap piece of fabric and the other letters are sewn on. 

Here's the leaves on the grass. 

I think this one turned out pretty nice despite the design issues. One page left to go!!

Quiet Book - Paper Doll page

Another page completed! Every little girl needs a dolly to dress up, and I'm sure that baby bear will enjoy dressing this one up during church, car rides, etc. The dolly has hair that can be braided and brushed. And of course, this book wouldn't be complete without at least one Sparty item, so there's a Michigan State sweatshirt for dolly :) This was a super easy page and I'm really happy with how it turned out!

The hangers are made from silver fabric that was left over from another project and the hair is made from yarn. Everything else is made out of felt. 

Each of the outfits has velcro on the back and the opposite piece of velcro on a hanger. The velcro sticks to the felt ok, but for storage, I wanted to make the pieces somewhere a little more secure to attach to. 

 Sparty outfit!

 Ballerina outfit

The empty page and removed clothes.

I'm getting so close to being done creating pages! Only two more to go!

Quiet Book - Winter page

I'm SO excited to share this quiet book page! This is the winter page for the four seasons section. I really wanted to do something extra special for the winter page since I'm one of those rare, weird people that loves snow. Since we live in the south, baby bear isn't going to get to see snow like I did as a child. Knowing that she's missing out on this kills me. There's nothing more magical than waking up in the morning and finding out that you have a snow day and then looking outside to see snow as deep as your waist. My mom will tell you that my siblings and I loved to play in the snow and she had to coax us back inside most days before we froze. So, channeling my love for winter (and staring out at a sunny, 70 degree day in January...), I came up with a snow globe to be the winter page. I also added a few snowflake beads on long pieces of thread that can be moved up and down to "snow" on the scene, a brilliant idea from the hubs. Now that it's finished, I think this is going to be my favorite page :)

Materials: felt, snowflake buttons, seed beads, a fabric scrap, and a plastic page protector.

The "Winter" title was sewn on by hand , as are all of the other elements. I  was originally going to use vinyl for the "globe," but since we have an abundance of page protectors hanging around, I figured I'd give that a try before I bought vinyl. Thankfully it worked great. I even cut the "globe" to have two pieces, placing the seed bead "snow" and snowflake buttons in between the two pieces of plastic so that it would slide better than if they were placed directly onto the felt background. I shook it a lot to ensure that it works great :) 

A close up of the snow globe!!

Quiet Book - Summer beach page

Another page completed! This is another installment of the four seasons pages, the summer scene. I was debating making this a picnic with watermelon and fireworks, but since we are now living quite close to the ocean, I figured a beach would be more appropriate. This page was easy but time consuming to make, as I had to sew every single object on by hand. There is a shovel, bucket and beach ball with velcro on the back of each piece to play with on the "beach." The sunshine also has velcro on the back. The seahorse and fish in the "ocean" slide along the ribbons to "swim." I was originally going to make a sea turtle, not a seahorse, but the baby bear has an orange seahorse stuffed animal from a recent trip to the aquarium that she is obsessed with, so I thought it was fitting. I left a 1" margin on the right side of the page for binding, so the ribbon ends won't be visible once the book is assembled. Everything but the ribbons in the "ocean" and the "S" in summer is made from felt.

Here's the finished page!

The removable pieces.
I used a stencil to make the bucket and shovel, and did the sunshine and beach ball by trial and error (mostly error).

Close up of the seahorse and fish. The twisted piece of ribbon at the bottom is for added texture because the baby bear loves to feel things and I don't really see that changing anytime soon.

The "empty" page - minus the pieces.

Close up of the title. The "S" is made from a fabric scrap and the rest of the word is sewn  on.

Only 4 pages left to make before I have to assemble the entire book! If you have any questions about how I've made this or any of the other pages, please leave a comment! I'll be happy to help as best as I can!

Quiet Book - Spring Flowers Page

Life has certainly been busy! Between the baby teething and having my husband's parents in town for a week, I haven't had any time to craft. Luckily, the baby went down for a very long and much needed nap so crafting time it was!!

This is the 5th page in the quiet book completed and is part of the four seasons page set I decided to do. The entire page is made from felt, minus the "S" in the title and the flower stems. The grass at the bottom is actually a pocket for the flowers to tuck into before they "grow." The stems are made from ribbon and sewed on page underneath the grass pocket. The flowers have snaps sewn and snap onto the page. The sun is removable, with velcro on the back. I didn't use a template for the flowers, just made them up as I went along, same with the grass and sun.

Spring flowers page

Flowers tucked into the grass pocket

The sun can go in the pocket too!