Quiet Book - Cover

I hadn't found a place yet to put a crane or dirt mover or trash truck - all vehicles Kellan enjoys - AND I knew I wanted Kellan's name on the cover - so I pictured a crane lifting one of the letters into his name and I loved the idea.  I made my template in Word, like usual (just piecing together the different elements I envisioned with shapes or graphics I found online):

Then I cut out the elements and tried to figure out the mechanics of the crane.  I had a larger brad and I ended up using that.  I also sewed pieces of felt together for the movable crane piece, to make it sturdier.  The stick on felt letters I had were a bit too big to fit on the page, while making the crane make sense, so I cut the letters down slightly - you have to be all about problem-solving!  One other thing to note on the cover is the center of the tires, I used a silver, textured leather, which I had scraps from another project.  Any chance you have to add depth or texture in a Quiet Book makes a big impact and definitely adds visual interest.

If you're thinking about making a Quiet Book - buying an assortment of felt is a great place to start!

Felt Flower Wreath

For a future project I'm working on, I researched and learned how to make felt flowers.  I agree with the other bloggers out there - once you start making them - they're addictive!  This is the basic tutorial I used:  Little Bit Funky

 

 

 For this project you'll need:

felt sheets

scissors

hot glue gun

wreath form

yarn

I made a bunch of pretty flowers, trying different variations and colors and centers - and I wasn't sure what to do with them.

 

 

 

Then I pictured them on a wreath!  I had an extra Styrofoam wreath form sitting around (I bought it when I made this wreath, but didn't like how it looked) and some yarn leftover from this yarn star project, so I wrapped the yarn to cover the wreath form, using glue sporadically.  I went around the wreath form 3 times, each time covering a bit more. 

Then I hot glued the flowers onto the yarn-wrapped wreath (say that fast 3 times!) and I loved the result!

My friend Amanda recently moved and I thought it would make a cheery housewarming gift!