Quiet Book Part 5 - Sock Matching Page

What Quiet Book would be complete without a matching page?

I found this idea on a blog called Imagine Our Life and used their pattern:
http://www.imagineourlife.com/2011/09/22/sock-matching-quiet-book-page/

This was possibly the most time consuming page.  I made three of each sock design, then sewed two of those together, with a magnet in between them and then sewed one to the page with a  magnet behind it.  I used regular strength button magnets found at Michael's, and they're not quite strong enough.  Michael's also had "super strong" magnets, that I used for the fishing page, which I think would've worked better with this page as well.  http://www.michaels.com/pro-mag-neodymium-magnets-.5%22/10382640.html#q=magnets&start=42

 

 

As I'm posting this blog, I remembered that I wanted to find a couple fun buttons for the washing machine.  #workinprogress

 

 Hope you all have a great day!

 

 

Re-Potted Plant

I got this plant, when it was "up for grabs" at my office.  When I got it, the plant was healthy, but the soil was near the bottom of the container, looking like it had eroded away.  And it was in a dirty, plastic container.  So, I decided to re-pot it.

My first step was to find a pot.  I found a good size, gold, clay pot at Goodwill. I decided it would be extra cute if I added white stripes, so I used painters tape to tape stripes off (harder than it looks, since the pot doesn't have a uniform circumference.)  Then I just spray painted the whole thing white with several coats.

Then I got to peel off the tape and reveal the stripes!

Then I added soil and re-potted the plant, at which time I found it was actually a bunch of cuttings put together, so that was more challenging to re-pot.

I like how it turned out and here it is back at my office!

Quiet Book Part 4 - Counting Page

This page was so easy and I LOVE how it turned out!  Hobby Lobby had buttons on sale for 50% off, so I went and picked out a bunch of fun ones and got a plain sheet of lavender felt and a glittery sheet.  I also found felt letters/numbers that stick on (which is what made this page so easy). 

 

I cut the flaps with my rotary cutter and mat.  Then I sewed them on with a zig zag stitch, to make them strong.  Then I stuck the numbers on.  Then I hand sewed the buttons on under the flaps.  Then only problem I ran into was that I bought soccer balls and saved them for under the 7 flap, but they were too large to fit under the flap, so I still need to find some small buttons to use. 

 

One circle

 

Two Kitties

 

Three Flowers

 

Four Monkeys

 

 

Five LadyBugs

 

Six Ice Cream Cones

 

Seven - TBD 

maybe stars...

 

Eight Flip Flops

 

Nine Crayons

 



Multi-Strand Seed Bead Bracelet

I kind of forgot how fun it is to design and make your own jewelry - you can customize it exactly to the colors and style you want.  It's also a nice project that once you get started, you don't have to think about what you're doing, you just thread one bead after another.

I wanted a bracelet to match the new tank I found at Old Navy, so I got red, silver, dark blue and sky blue seed beads.

1. This is obviously the Old Navy model, not me.
2. It's cuter in person and paired with red capris.
3. Look - the model's bracelet is similar to mine!

I found a tutorial that said you can measure your wrist and then make one really long strand that you can then wrap around your wrist, which gives you the multi-strand look (rather than making a bunch of bracelets to make a multi-strand bracelet.)

After I was finished adding all the beads, I put a crimp bead on each end, as well as a clasp on one end and a chain on the other end.  Then I looped the wire and fed it back through the crimp bead and several of the seed beads.  Then I tightened it.  Then I used the crimping tool to crimp the crimp bead. (I realize that sentence has an excessive use of the word crimp.)  Then I cut the extra wire.

 

Making jewelry was so  much fun, I ended up  making necklaces to match as well - which you can see below in this picture of my adorable nephew Henry, who was celebrating his first birthday on the 4th of July! 

 

Cinderella Wall Art

I found this frame at Goodwill and I liked the size of it. I also liked that it's a wood frame, has a hanging fixture in back and has glass. I knew I could transform it.  Here's the "before" pic:

 

I cleaned it and took it apart. I decided to use the message from Cinderella as my inspiration, so I looked for a paint color in "Cinderella-blue".
 

The actual color is Sailing Sky from Michael's.  

Then I painted the frame, and did several coats. 

I created the graphic in Word and printed it. Then I put the frame back together and had a new art piece to add to my gallery wall!

Quiet Book - Part 3 - Learning to Tie and Button

There are two new skills these pages teach, although the pages are so fun, you don't even realize they're teaching you something!

 

Flower page - learning to button.  This was an easy page.  I had the buttons leftover from the gumball page.  I just freehand cut out flowers, with a buttonhole in the center.  Then I sewed the buttons into place.  Then I used my sewing matching to add the stems and grass.

 

 

The ballet shoe page teaches you how to tie a bow.  Hadley, at 3, might not be there yet, but I think she'll have fun untying!

I think I'm about halfway done with this project - it's been really fun so far!

Quiet Book Part 2 - The Fishing Page

Thanks to this picture on Pinterest, I was obsessed with making rainbow-colored sequined fish.

So when I saw this pack of sequins at Michael's, it seemed perfect.

For this project you'll need:

felt - gray, green and shades of blue

rainbow sequins

thread and needle

fish pattern

scissors

magnets

dowel rod
washi tape (optional)

Step 1:  Find online a fish pattern you like, size it to the size you like, print it and cut it out.

Step 2:  Use the pattern to cut out 12 fish shapes out of the gray felt.

Step 3:  Sew on the sequins in rainbow rows on 6 of the fish shapes.

Step 4:  Sew the 6 sequined fish to the plain backs, making sure to sew a magnet in the nose of the fish.

Step 5:  Cut out 2 worm shapes.  If you want a face on the worm, sew that on one side first.  Then sew the two shapes together, making sure to sew a magnet in the bottom.

Step 6:  I freehand cut out waves out of three different colors of blue and a sun and it's rays.

Step 7:  Sew the sun and rays on the page first.  Then sew the sides and bottom of the top wave. Then work your way down, sewing the sides and bottom of each wave.  That creates pockets on the page where the fish will live.

Step 8:  Using a short dowel rod, create the fishing pole.  I wrapped mine in washi tape, just for fun.  Then I used my hot glue gun to secure the thread to the top of the pole and then sewed the end of the string to the worm I had made.

Step 9:  Cut a thin rectangle piece of felt, which will make a case to store the pole and sew the bottom and sides to the page.

This would also work well as a stand-alone game.  Let me know what you think of this page!