I'm so excited to share this with you all!! My niece turned two just before Christmas, and I wanted to do something fun for her this year. So I pulled out my felt stash and glue gun and spent a ton of time on Pinterest and Google and put together what I think is a rather epic, interactive quiet book!
And by epic, I mean it's twenty-two pages.
And it took me a million hours to make.
But it was totally worth it, because my niece loves it, and apparently she asks for it all the time. For some reason, she really, really likes the tiny felt toothbrush on one of the pages and keeps wanting to take it to bed with her...
So over the next few weeks, I'm going to share my book and process with you, in case you're interested in making some of these pages for yourself. Starting with this cover page!
For those not familiar with quiet books, they're books made of felt (either sewn or glue gunned together), that toddlers and kids can use to play and learn with. Pages often include exercises for counting, learning shapes and colours, seasons, and all sort of other things. They're great for taking places where you want to keep your child busy, but don't want something noisy.
To help you visualize what I'm talking about, I made a little video, so you can see what I'll be sharing over the next few weeks (yes, it will take me that long to edit all the images and add notes!!)
I'm not going to lie, these interactive quiet books take a lot of time to make, though the process is definitely faster with a glue gun vs sewing. I cut aaallll my little bits out first over several evenings while watching tv, and then spent a few nights gluing it all down.
Supplies:
Felt sheets (I used sheets from the dollar store, so there was no need to cut them to size).
Craft scissors
Glue gun & glue sticks
Metal grommets (optional, depending on how you choose to bind your book, but these were super easy to use)
Paper Templates (see below)
To keep things organized:
For each page I used a separate baggies to hold all the felt bits.
I also kept a notebook listing each page and the felt colour requirements for each one
The easiest way to cut the felt out:
Print out pages with templates (trust me, you want templates!)
Cut out the paper templates
Use a simple gluestick that just makes the paper tacky. Stick the paper on the felt and use sharp craft scissors to cut the felt out.
Craft scissors are best, because they're small and sharp and can work around little corners.
To find templates:
Search for other quiet book pages, some include templates
If you're looking for a specific sort of picture, search Google or Pinterest using the words "clip art", "template", "outline", "black and white", "felt page", etc.
And of course, I'll be posting a couple of links to the templates I used over the next couple of weeks, so stay tuned!!
And for my first page, I used the cover page template from Powerful Mothering
I also used some sticky felt letters I got at the dollar store for the lettering.
And then on the other side of the sheet I added this, so she knows she has an awesome aunt who loves her ; )
When it's all together, it's a very, very large book!! See?
And this is how I put it all together, using the grommets.
Using ribbon to tie it together allows for pages to be moved in and out, to make the book larger or smaller depending on if you want to slip it into a baby bag or purse to take out with you or change or add pages.
You could also use binder rings, I just didn't have any on hand.
Available Tutorials and Templates so far:
As I add pages to the blog, I'll continue to add the links here, so stay tuned!!
As I add pages to the blog, I'll continue to add the links here, so stay tuned!!
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In the meantime, have you seen the latest novel in my romance series, Lady of the Caravan? Get it now, and follow the queen's cousin as she braves the dangers of Egypt's great desert to marry a nomadic chieftain.
Love your quiet book ideas. Thank you for sharing. :)
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