Dinosaur Quiet Page

Another one of Stephanie patterns I made.  I added the volcano to the page and opted not to make faces on the dinosaurs.  I decided after doing this page that ribbon is a lot trickier to sew down than it looks!

I Spy

This is the boy themed I Spy page I made using 3 different button packs from Shelly's Buttons.  I used the "superhero", "boy's toys", and "when he grows up" packs.  I also used a bag of white poly beads from JoAnns, red felt, clear vinyl, and white ribbon.  I laminated my list using my awesome $20 laminator from Costco (such a useful tool!), punched a hole in it and threaded the ribbon through the hole.  Then I sewed the ribbon back to itself to attach it to the list.  The page is actually really quick and easy to do.  I used my sewing machine for the whole thing to make it even faster.  The only problem I really had was that the vinyl MUST be between two layers of felt because it sticks to the sewing machine and won't move like fabric.

Since my pages are 9x9 I cut a red front piece and freehanded a hole in the front.  I cut a square slightly bigger than my hole and layered vinyl in between and sewed around the circle.  Then I cut the same sized hole out of the square - being VERY careful not to cut the vinyl.  I decided I wanted the beads to show through the vinyl better and be easier to find so I sewed the back 9x12 piece to the sides and bottom of the 9x9 piece and then stitched the sides and bottom about two inches outside of my vinyl window.  This creates a pocket you can dump your poly beads and buttons into.

Then I simply sewed the top of the circle closed and the top of the page to the background.  Stitch the ribbon to the inside edge of the page and it's done.  It is so much fun to shake the page around and find the buttons inside!

Change the Face Quiet Book Page

This was a quick and easy page spread that I made.  I freehand cut out a face shape and stitched it to the left  page.  Then I cut and stitched a pocket with star patterned felt on the right page.  I added a flap to the top of the pocket.  This would allow you to add velcro or snaps to close the pocket if you wished.

I got pictures and clip art of eyes, noses, and mouths off google images, arranged them on a page and printed them onto iron on transfer paper.  I ironed it onto white felt, cut them out and put them into the pocket.

Simple + Fast + Fun to play with = Awesome quiet book page!

Space Ship and Aliens Page

This is the latest page I came up with after seeing a similar one on Pinterest.  There was no pattern so I made up my own.  

The one special element of this page was the buttons.  I used the Take Me To Your Leader set from Shelly's Buttons and More.  I LOVE her site and variety of buttons.  I have to give myself a strict budget when I shop from them though cause there are just SO MANY cool button packs and I keep thinking of new fun pages to use them for.

I used dark blue felt for the background, gray for the ground, white & blue for the rocket ship, tie dye purple & lavender for the planet, and red, yellow, and orange for the flames.  Oh, and lime green and black scraps for the alien finger puppets.  I also used the buttons, googly eyes, scraps of decorative trim, a couple sequins, and clear vinyl for the rocket window.

I started with the planet.  I machine stitched around the outside of the planet and both edges of the ring, then I did another accent line in the middle of the ring.  Hopefully the close up picture explains what I mean: 

After I finished the planet I stitched the ground on.  Then I positioned the bottom rocket piece and stitched it into place - leaving room on the page for the flames.  I really enjoyed making the flames!  I layered the yellow, orange, and red shapes and stitched around the edge of the yellow to attach them to the rocket.  I overlapped them with the bottom of the rocket since the top rocket piece will cover it.  I then free form did a flame outline with my machine.  I think it makes the flame look much cooler!

I hand stitched the accent pieces onto the top rocket piece.  Then I sandwiched the vinyl between the top rocket piece and the middle ring piece - otherwise the vinyl sticks to my machine and snarls it all up - and stitched around it.  I left the top edge of the rocket open to form a pocket for the aliens.

I made the aliens with my hot glue gun.  Hot glue works beautifully with felt and is secure enough for rough playing.    I wouldn't use it for children who put things in their mouth though.  My five year old designed the eyes and mouth for the aliens for me :)  I glued the eyes, mouth, decorative trim "belts", and sequin "communicators" to the top body piece and glued top and bottom piece together around the edges.

My boys LOVE this page!

Circus Train

This is another of Stephanie's patterns that I made.  I LOVE finger puppets and I thought the idea of a circus train was very clever.

Let's Make Cupcakes

I JUST finished the cupcake page from Stephanie.  She has the cutest pages!  I am working my tail off trying to get 16 pages done for 2 quiet books for my 2 NEW NEPHEWS!!!  My brother-in-law and his family are adopting two sweet little boys from Haiti.  They are 7 and 3 years old.  We are SO excited to meet them and my boys are so looking forward to getting to know their new cousins.

Quiet books are the perfect gift for them because they will be useful on the airplane, doctor's visits, church, etc.  I am hoping they love the books.  MY boys sure love this page.  I'm going to have to make another one for them since they are currently standing next to me playing with it :)

Farmer's Market

I made this beautiful pattern from Stephanie at Imagine Our Life.

I made a couple small changes, mostly cause I am not nearly as good at fitting stuff on a page as she is.

Isn't it lovely?

She is an amazing designer and seamstress and I am always impressed at her patterns and how she so sweetly offers them for free!

5 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed

This is one of my recently finished pages.  I wanted to make a page to go with the song 5 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed.  Since I've taken this picture I added fabric paint eyes to the little monkeys.
I used purple, green, black, blue, white, brown, tan,gray, and pink felt.  I also used purple ribbon, black and white embroidery thread, 2 buttons, a sew on snap, and silver ball cord.
I made all the little monkeys first.  I stitched the faces onto the heads and then sandwiched the arms and legs and ribbon between the bodies and the body between the head pieces.  The fun part is that you can pose the monkey however you want when stitching them for a lot of variety.  Then I stitched the ribbons down to the page and positioned the bed over them.  I did the bed supports first, followed by the blanket and finally the pillow.  I stuffed the pillow with a tiny bit of stuffing to make it fluffier.

For the facing page, I simply stitched the faces to the heads and then the heads to the page; adding the stethoscope with black embroidery thread and a button.  I stitched the phone base to the page and added the embroidered black circle with a button so it can turn.  The phone was stitched mostly together, turned right side out, stuffed, and attached to the phone base with the silver ball cord.  Finally I added a snap beneath the phone to hold it to the page.

As always, if you are interested in the pattern, please email me and I will send it to you.  One of these days I will learn how to attach a document on blogger.
Update: HERE IS THE PATTERN :)

Bragging on my mom and sister

My mom and little sister are amazing.  Check out what they did to my little brothers' room to give it a Lego theme!

My mom hot glued duplos to a posterboard frame & put cut out Lego guys with my brother's names in them

 This is my incredibly talented and awesome sister painting Lego Ninjago heads on the wall.  They are HUGE and amazing.  I never noticed Kai had a scar until I saw his head all big like this.  Or that their eyebrows are all different.  They are pretty detailed little Lego guys.

 She also painted the Lego & Ninjago logos on another wall and this picture above the light switch that my brother drew and designed :)