Monday, October 22, 2012

finally finished.

Once upon a time while in the evil land of Pinterest, I happened upon this quiet book.  I was instantly in love and knew Gage HAD to have one.  I had a quiet book growing up and still have it today.  I love handmade gifts and this one seemed perfect for Gage's second birthday.  So the obsession began.  I spent days looking up page ideas.  I loved everything about Shea's book, but knew I would have to change a few things to make it more "boyish".  I also knew I wanted to use fun printed fabric like Shea did instead of the commonly used felt.  This alone probably tripled the time involved in this project.  So without further adieu... I present to you Gage's quiet book. 

I used The Quilted Fish pattern for the general construction of the book, but designed most of the pages based on different things I found online.
I also added an extra page to the book because I couldn't narrow it down to 10 pages.
The first page I copied from Shea. The activity is pretty obvious... lace and tie a shoe.

The counting carrot page is directly from the pattern.  The barn page was inspired by this one.

The activity is counting and number matching.

Animal finger puppets to play with.

The eye spy page is also from the pattern.  There are matching magnetic pieces for each square. The dump truck came from Vanessa at Lella Boutique.  The dirt is soft and the wheels button on. 
 
This page was the worst page in my opinion.  It was extremely time consuming and tedious.  Not to mention that I did not have a single novelty fabric prior to starting this book.  Shea was actually kind enough to send me a few of the fabrics to help me out.  Thank you again for all of your help!  You were so sweet to answer all of my questions!
If I had to choose I would say these two pages are my favorite.  The suitcase was again inspired from Shea's book.  Instead of a dress up doll I loved the idea of Mr. Potato Head as seen here.
The suitcase holds all of Mr. Potato Head's pieces.
You can raise and lower the pirate ship's sails.  The robot page has a zipper compartment to store treats and the arms and legs are elastic.  I stole the idea from Homemade by Jill
The cookie dough and baking sheet is from Imagine Our Life.  She is a genius when it comes to quiet books designs.  You match the shapes on the dough page and match the colors on the baking sheet.

The last page is the mailbox page.  Again, the idea was from Shea, but I used this template
JD and I each wrote Gagey a short letter.

So there it is.  It isn't perfect, but there is a whole lotta love in all those pages.  Overall, I am happy with the way it turned out.  It was a fun project, but I am so glad it is finished!  Time to start brainstorming for Krew's.

16 comments:

Jen said...

Magnificent work! So beautiful. I love all of your fabrics and construction.

Claire said...

Wow! I love it! That's a lot of work...

Gabe said...

Hi, I came across your blog and am in LOVE with this book. I was just wondering what type of fabric did you use for the robot, cookie sheet, and mail box?

Angela said...

Thank you! The blog is under construction, so sorry it is such a mess. I used an apparel type fabric. I'm not sure what its called, but it is a thick cotton fabric that I fused to felt. hope that helps, thanks for stopping by!

Jenna said...

disgustingly cute!!! puts mine to shame :) did you use a cricut for the letters?
I can only imagine how long that took you. I know I spent probaby 60+ hours on mine.

WOW!!!

doloko said...

Fantastic work. I love how your pages appear to be firm. What did you use inbetween the pages to mount the activity pages to?

cat+tadd=sam said...

This is seriously INCREDIBLE Ang. Way to go!

Petra said...

I would like to make this too :). May I ask you for the template? Just let me know. email me at: fajnofky@gmail.com

Unknown said...

There are links throughout the post of the patterns and templates I used. For the pages without links I just made them up as I went. Hope that helps!

Unknown said...

I used stiff interfacing (I believe it's called pellon).

Rachael said...

Just wanted to clarify how you made your pages because I like the clean fabric look instead of felt, but i read in a comment that you had used felt (Oct 24, 2012). So what I got is you cut out your patterns in fabric and felt and then fused them together and then attached the pieces to the page? did you just sew around the edges to make it look sharper did you actually attach everything by sewing?

Vanessa Goertzen said...

WOW!!! Your book it so completely adorable. It is perfection. I've been thinking of making another one (my little guy needs one) and this is too perfect. How many hours did this take you?!

X

Vanessa G.

Unknown said...

Hi! Love this! How did you do your lettering and numbers?

Unknown said...

Where did you find the template for the counting carrots?

Unknown said...

When you made the actual pattern pieces, did you use felt or flannel? I can tell that some of your pieces are crafted with cotton, but I am trying to decide whether felt or flannel will hold up better over the long-term. Thank you!

luvbabyfeet40@gmail.com said...

I love the I spy page. what did you use for the magnets and the page. I am working on a page with the letter m and I'm thinking a matching game with M words and upper and lower case M's