Wednesday, March 30, 2011

I love Spring Break

I have so much more time to do things when I don't have to work! Amazing. Even having that extra hour between the time I would be leaving for work and the time the kids go down for a nap when I'm home is like a crucial hour. That's the hour where projects get finished instead of halfway started and then never returned to again because I get home from work and then go right on with cooking dinner, feeding hungry mouths, cleaning up, bathing, bedding, etc.
Like this project. Which...alright, I admit, I actually finished like a couple of weeks ago, but the point is I have time to blog about it. That's the important part.
So I have to give a shout-out to my good friend Katie, who's creative mind I dip into everytime I look at her blog, hippos and dinosaurs. That's where most of the inspiration from this came from. She's making a quiet book out of felt for her kids, but I'm not so good with my sewing machine, so I thought, I could make it with paper! Well...yes, I made it, but I'm not so sure how kid proof it will be. It looks so darned cute, though. I still have to find a stapler that will clamp this sucker together, but other than that, it's been sitting on our counter waiting to be put together so she can use it on Sunday.








Instead of doing the whole alphabet, I just made a page for each letter of her name. Hopefully this will be something she will actually use while we are at church! Keeping them contained lately has been a challenge, but projects like this keep me motivated to...not give up. :-)

I have to say, though, that the one I will be making for Linus will very likely be made out of felt like Katie's, which means I will have to conquer my sewing machine once and for all and just do it. This paper book wouldn't last two seconds with Linus. I left it a little too close to the end of the counter the other day and of course Linus's "trouble" radar went off and he went straight for it. I was on to him the second I saw him head that direction, but in the two mili-seconds it took for him to take it off the counter, he was already attempting to yank some magnets off and pull the laminate apart by the time I got to him. So, dear felt and thread...thou shalt meet thy match, and be conquered.

6 comments:

Stephanie said...

LOVE it! Be warned, I will probably steal this idea from you. I'm not too handy with a sewing machine, but this is do-able.

Ashleigh said...

This is awesome! I'd love to make a felt one for Leah, do you have a pattern that you use??

Candie said...

Looks great! I attempted the whole alphabet... it's not done yet. :) About the felt... depending on what you had in mind, I have 2 words: HOT GLUE. Works great with felt and it's stong and you don't have to use a sewing machine to put it on! Also, you may stop by Mail N Copy and see if they have a "Saddle sticher" or a long arm stapler. Either of those would work to staple the book. See you next week!

Katielin317 said...

Very sweet! I can't draw to save my life, it's pretty pathetic, so I'm super impressed:) I bet she loves it:)

Katielin317 said...

Oh, and as far as using felt, you can always just use Wonder Under as well. Not quite as messy as hot glue and less involved than a sewing machine. In fact I use it on a lot of my quiet book pages before i sew them down. I'm actually working on our "O for Octopus" page right now:)

Alli Howe said...

We have a crazy long arm stapler at our house. You just have to drive to Fort Morgan to use it! Your illustration skills have always been remarkable! I love your quiet book!