Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Amaia's Busy Book

Well I did it. I started this project beginning of July, took a hiatus for about a week right before Amaia's party (so I could work on stuff for that) and 'finished' it yesterday. I put that in quotes, because as I was going through my pictures I saw a few things (that I won't point out) that I'd like to fix someday, but at this point I've got better things to be doing.

Here is the front cover. It's a little more boyish than I was planning for, but oh well. I have to give Justin credit for the design of this page. Each 'page' is two pages sewn together, back to back, around the edge. It's got a 2" strip of black 'leather' (folded in half, with raw edges in between the pages) that I used to bind the book together. I put 3 button holes in each black strip (there are 9 pages total, I think, so a lot of button holes). The 'rings' are a piece of ribbon with a button on one end and a button hole on the other, just looped through all those button holes I made. That way, if I want to take a page out, I just unbutton the ribbon loop and take the one page out. Then on the other side I've just got the two buttons on the front cover, and two elastic loops sewn onto the back cover to help keep it closed (because there's a lot of stuff in there!)


This is the I-Spy page. I cut the hole out of the page, sewed the clear plastic vinyl stuff over the holes, and then edged the holes with the ribbon. There are 2 layers of the plastic-one on the back that goes all the way around (to make the pocket) and the other on the front with a slight opening at the top so that I can switch out the pictures after a while. Now I just have to find enough small things to make another one! I swear used everything I already have in that one...

This page has 3 strips of the 'pokey' velcro. The letters are just scrapbook paper mounted onto cardboard and then covered with contact paper, with the fuzzy side of the velro on the back. Pretty ghetto, I know, but I didn't like the look of the store bought cardboard alphabets, and now these are a little waterproof if someone decides to chew on one. The pocket holds the rest of the letters and it done up with three sew in snaps.

Here are my buckles. Pretty self explanatory, I guess. Just had to make the fabric tubes and sew them down. I'm a little sad bc my overalls buckle up there only comes off if you hold it at just the right angle, and I doubt any kid's going to figure it out. Oh well.

Shape matching. I bought a package of iron on denim patches. Then I made two copies of each shape-one out of the denim and the other out of a gray fabric. I sewed the velcro onto the gray piece and then sewed the two shapes together, so you can't see the velcro stitching on the top. Then I traced the shapes on the back of the page and used that as my outline for where to stitch the outlines. Again, more ghetto fabulousness. I'm sure there's a more efficient/better way to do it, but I improvised.

Here is my puzzle page. He's a lion, in case you can't tell. I liked how the two fabric coordinated, but in hindsight I wish I would have done a bigger contrast. It's sort of hard to tell what he is. I ended up hot gluing the velcro to the back of the pieces so you coudln't see the stitching because I forgot to add the velcro until after the fabric was already fused together. Each piece has a small piece of velcro on the page, where you attach it, but if I did it again I'd just put a grid of velcro so the pieces didn't have to be so exact in order to match up.

This is one of the first pages I finished, and I hate it :) My shoe lace is too short, I couldn't find a nice outline of a shoe anywhere so I ended up tracing my shoe and then shrinking the image. So it just looks funky. And it's boring. I couldnt' think of any way to spruce it up.

Here's my dinosaur page. Like the letters, these guys were printed off, mounted on cardboard, and contact papered. They've got the pokey velcro on the back so you can pick them up (and the trees and sun) and move them around where ever you want. Sort of like a mini flannel board.

This is one of my favorites. A little barn (the tree has little red brad 'apples') and when you open the barn doors....

you get little animal finger puppets! Don't mind the pig, he was the original-not-as-good pig, but I lost the better pig after I used him in the I Spy picture. Even after a 100% reorganization and cleaning of the craft closet and room, I still can't find him. So the ugly pig gets a turn for a while.

Clock. Eyelet in the clock and then a brad to hold it all together. Just puff paint on the numbers with that fake black leather making the hands.

Flower buttoning. I tried to make each button different (since I couldn't find them all the same). I just used scraps from my pile to make the flowers and then used my buttonholer on my machine to make the holes in each one.

Here's the first page I ever made for this thing. I like the text but I don't like the rest of it. The mirror I 'salvaged' from a foam craft mirror thing, and it got all scratched up in the process of removing it. And then my ribbons all not even. And then I found out that you could just buy those not-glass mirrors at the craft store plain, and I was sad :( That would have been so much easier.

Same idea as the I Spy page, but I put pictures in, that can be rotated when I feel like she's getting bored of the pictures I've got in there.

She got magnets on the back side, and each piece of clothing has a magnet as well.

Probably my favorite page is the cow page. I was originally going to cut out the spots from the white leathery stuff and put different textured black stuff in the holes. But then I saw this one page in someone else's busy book that had little flaps with numbers, and underneath was that # of small items. So i merged the two ideas, and I love it. I'm sad my barn is crooked, but hey. What can you do? Each flap has something different underneath. Here's what's under the 7:

for the rest I just used the smallest random things I could find. Like the 2 has a pair of googly eyes under it, the 10 has 10 mini brads, and the 8 has these little black buttons. You get the idea.

Tic tac toe. Ugh this page sucked! anyways, it's got a magnet behind each of the 9 cubes, and each of the 10 game pieces (you guessed it, paper with (no cardboard) and contact paper on the outside) has a magnet as well. Then you just store them all in the zippered pouch when you're not playing, so you don't lose all the pieces. Oh, and I hand stitched around every single one of those petals on the flower. Just FYI :)

Crayon roll-I didn't make the 'back' like you would a traditional crayon roll. I just used the page itself as the back, and sewed the pocked onto it. The little envelope is made out of sew in heavy interfacing and then I cut paper to the size of my envelope and hot glued the top together to make a little note pad.

The back cover. Just to point out-all my pages are made from felt (by the yard-I think). Or wool felt. I dunno. All I know is, I bought a whole bunch of it because I was going to make one of those super long trench coat things out of it, (along with the heavy sew in interfacing that I used on some of the pages, and that I put in between the cover pages to make it a little sturdier) and then I changed my mind and went with a dark gray with a sew in interfacing. Which I still haven't finished, for those of you who saw me working on it at sewing group like forever ago. The Outside covers are just plain old regular felt that I bought in squares at Hobby Lobby, but it worked out ok because I had the stiff interfacing to keep it from being so floppy.
So there it is! Took me forever, cost waaaaay to much, but it's cute! I plan to wrap it up for Amaia so she can open it at the hospital. Which is in 2 DAYS BY THE WAY!!!
Yea yea, I told every one I wasn't going to make it my c-section date. Boy did I shove my foot in my mouth. But it works out because I got tons of stuff done (like Amaia's party, this busy book, laundry, vacuumed the car!...) that I really needed to get done. And I still have more to do, so she better not even think about it!


























































Well I did it. I started this project beginning of July, took a hiatus for about a week right before Amaia's party (so I could work on stuff for that) and 'finished' it yesterday. I put that in quotes, because as I was going through my pictures

3 comments:

  1. SOOOOOO fun! you should totally make some and sell them, I would for sure buy one! you are very crafty, something I didnt know about you!! very good job!!

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  2. Hey Emily! So, I absolutely love this little book! I would really like to make one for Braedon, but I am definitely not as crafty as you are. HAHA! Was it really expensive to make? I find that when I make things, they are always more expensive than just buying them... but making it makes it so much more fun!! I have an idea of something I am going to make for Braedon and I think I am going to do something like you did with the pictures. ( Like the I Spy thing.) Was that clear stuff just a clear vinyl like a shower curtain type thing? I found some of that at the fabric store when I was looking for laminated fabric for a diaper bag I am going to make.. or is it something else? I absolutely love keeping up on your blog. I hope you don't mind if I borrow some of your ideas?! How do you come up with all this clever stuff?!?!

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  3. Hi Emily,
    I was just looking for the busy book ideas and came across your blog (which I really enjoyed). I am working on my travel website and one of my blogs is talking about how to keep kids busy during the trips. I would like to use some of your busy book pictures in my blog, is this possible? (I am new to the blogging world and I am not sure yet of which pictures I am allowed to use and which ones I am not).
    Thank you
    Grace

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