Jaime's Quiet Book

Today I get to show you a super cute quiet book from Jaime of the blog Crafty Math Mama. All of her pages look so fun - it starts off with a page where you can braid Rapunzel's hair, a page with a personalized felt family and pets, a dog with collar to buckle, a purse with lots of fun things inside, a pizza with toppings, Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head, a fishing page, the Eensy-Weensy Spider, a pirate page, and a music page (I love how on the music page the notes can slide along their strings!). Jaime's favorite page is the family page, and it's definitely one of my favorites too - how fun would having little dolls of your own family be for a child? This whole book is awesome. So please enjoy!

Interview

What's your name? Describe yourself in one sentence.
My name is Jaime and I'm a mom of a 2 year old named Delia with a baby boy on the way! When I'm not at my job teaching math, I love to craft, sew, bake, and decorate cakes.

Who did you make this quiet book for? How old are they?
I made this quiet book for my daughter Delia to give to her for her 2nd birthday. She is now almost 2 1/2.

What's your level of sewing experience?
I can sew basic things. I learned in school and from my mother. My sewing experience includes these quiet book pages, pillows, and a few dresses for Delia.

How long did it take you?
I'm not sure how many hours this quiet book took me. I started last summer sewing maybe an hour or two each night and then when school started again I didn't have time to continue. When I had Christmas and Winter breaks I took the time to finish up what I wanted to include before Delia's birthday in March.

Did you use any templates? Where can they be found?
I used one of the Quiet Book Blog's templates for Mr. Potato Head and the others I used were from ImagineOurLife.com. Some pages I took ideas from Pinterest and recreated them in my own way.

What material are the pages made out of? What other materials did you use?
The pages are made of felt and most of the decorations are made from felt and sewn with embroidery floss. Some pages have little random trinkets like the dog collar, jewels, hair clips, buttons, ribbon, and magnets.

How much did all the supplies cost you?
The wonderful thing about quiet books is that they can be very cheap to make. Felt is only about $0.30 per plain sheet and about $1.00 for a patterned piece. Anything extra I had to get, I tried to get from the dollar store or the dollar bins at the craft store.

What's your favorite page? Why?
My favorite page is probably the page I designed to look like our house. It has finger puppets of all our family members including baby who is on the way.


To view Jaime's quiet book on her own blog, with more pictures and a lot more explanations, click here: Crafty Math Mama - Delia's Quiet Book. 

Jaime, thank you so much for sharing your adorable quiet book with us!

Have you made a quiet book that you'd like to share? Click here for instructions on how to submit your own quiet book!

Lanette and Shaun's Quiet Book

Today's quiet book comes from my friend Lanette and her husband Shaun, who you can find at Shaun, Lanette, and Iris. They made it together and it is so cute! I love all the pages, and I think my favorite is the car page (I love all the little trees). I also love the dresser for storing all of Mr. Potato Head's accessories, and I definitely want to make a bead page like theirs in my next book.

 

Interview

What's your name? Describe yourself in one sentence. 

My name is Lanette, and I love art, baking and reading, but most of all I love my handsome husband and our sassy, smart and adorable little girl! 

Who did you make this quiet book for? How old are they?

My daughter. She is about 18 months old. 

What's your level of sewing experience?

Personally, I have a very low level of sewing expertise, but my husband Shaun is really pretty good at it, probably "intermediate" level at least.

How long did it take you? (How many hours total? Spread over how many days?)

This was our Christmas Break project. We spent approximately 6 or 7 hours on it as a team. It took about a week. 

Did you use any templates? Where can they be found?

We did not use templates. However, we were inspired by pur friend Jocelyn's blog about the quiet book she made.  (Flower Page, Weaving Page, and Mr. Potato Head Pages inspired by http://jocelynandjason.blogspot.com/2011/12/quiet-book-round-up.html)

What material are the pages made out of?

Sheets of felt, which we purchased at WalMart for about 50 cents a sheet, and in multi-packs for about 3 dollars for 12 sheets. 

What other materials did you use?

In addition to mass amounts of felt sheets in every color we could find, good sharp scissors and a sewing machine, we used lots of buttons for embellishments, woven thread for the doll's hair, google-y eyes for the finger puppets, hot glue and sharpie paint pen also for the finger puppets, wooden beads and ribbon for the shapes page, more ribbon and modgepodge for the spider web (we just oozed paint all over to get the page to be a bit more stiff and textured so the felt spider would "stick" a bit better, but take note, he doesn't actually stick that well!) and velcro for the snowman page. In addition we reused an old zipper for the Mr. Potato Head's Dresser page, and used Dritz Jean Rivets to make holes in the sides to bind it. My mom has the little clamper tool that clamps those in.  

How much did all the supplies cost you?

We spent about $30 total on this project, although we had a few of the supplies beforehand (buttons, velcro, modgepodge, hot glue, google-y eyes, ribbon, and wooden beads).

How did you bind your quiet book?

Dritz Jean Rivets, which we clamped in using some fancy little tool my mom has. It cost about $10 for the clamper thing. We intended to use binder rings to hold it together, but opted for yarn temporarily. 

What's your favorite page?

I love the doll page with hair that you can braid or play with. Shaun's favorite page is the car page, while our little girl really likes the Mr. Potato Head page and the Snowman page lately.  

Check out our quiet book (with more pictures and descriptions) on our blog: http://shaunandlanette.blogspot.com/2012/04/iriss-quiet-book.html

Thank you so much, Shaun and Lanette, for sharing your quiet book with us!

Have you made a quiet book that you'd like to share? Click here for instructions on how to submit your own quiet book!

Britt's Quiet Book

Today's quiet book was made by Britt from Britt & Her Boys, and it really is a fantastic one. She made it by following the templates from Imagine Our Life. I love all of the detail she put into this book - each page is seriously just incredible. She actually sewed the whole thing by hand (apart from the binding). And all of the pages look so fun!

 Interview

Tell us a little bit about yourself.

My name is Britt and I'm a stay at home mamma of two boys with a passion to make homemade items that will be cherished and last a long time! 

Who did you make this quiet book for? What are their ages? 

I started making this book for my youngest son, age one. But my 4 year old LOVED the pages so I made a few of them a little more "advanced" with smaller pieces. 

What is your level of sewing experience? 

I'm not sure what I would consider my sewing level. I do tons of projects for my boys from quilts to clothes and lots of projects around our house. This book was done by hand and only a few stitches were used, so it would be very simple for a beginner. 

How long did it take you? 

This book took a while, I will say that. But being a mom of two boys I don't sit down for long periods of time to work on projects. Overall, I would guess each page took about two weeks with a few minutes here and there. 

Did you use any templates? Where can they be found? 

I did use templates for these pages and modified some a bit. I found them over at Imagine Our Life! 

How did you bind your book? 

I sewed a thicker binding edge on each page and installed three grommets per page. I use key rings to hold the pages together. I do have plans to make a cover and a back as well. (Maybe one day, ha.)

What are the pages made out of?
The pages are all (for the most part) made with wool felt sheets. The majority are 100% wool felt and the rest are made with a wool blend. 

What other materials were used? 

Other materials used: plastic vinyl, silver polyester, a crinkly material, snaps, various buttons, beads, ribbons & sequins. One page I used a flexible mirror that can be cut to size with regular scissors. 

How much did all the supplies cost you? 

Wool felt can be expensive but I thought the quality was worth it for the time I was putting into the project.  A lot of the other materials I already had, and a few specific things were purchased such as the mirror, snaps, and grommets which can all be found at any craft store. I picked mine up at either Hobby Lobby or Joanns fabric. 

What is your favorite page and why? 

My favorite page is the "Itsy Bitsy Spider." I love the interactive spider and being able to change the weather. My one year old loves the train page- mostly the elephant! :) 

Britt's quiet book (with more explanations and pictures) can be seen on her blog here. Thank you, Britt, for sharing your quiet book with us!

Have you made a quiet book that you'd like to share? Click here for instructions on how to submit your own quiet book!