Ellie's Quiet Book

So I'm sure all of you (my 4 loyal blog readers, aka family members) have been dying to see my completed headache, err, quiet book. Well, it's close enough to being done that I thought I'd finally post some pics for you. :) I still have to make a cover and sew one of the pages together, but other than that (oh, and putting the eyelets in all the pages...geesh, I have more to do than I thought!) it's finished!!!!!

I decided I wanted to make this months ago and searched everywhere online for ideas. I wanted it to be an ABC quiet book- one page for each letter- 26 total!  I found quite a few blogs and sites that had different versions/ideas for quiet books. So I compiled all the ideas I liked from those sites and some of my own and made a little notebook with ideas for each letter. There were certain things I really wanted to include, but already had that letter covered, so we had to get creative. ;) So instead of it being a "dog" for "D" it ended up being a "puppy" for "P" and stuff like that. I knew I wanted to have a few things included like snaps, zippers, buttons etc so I found ways to incorporate those in there too. The most creative letter (and my favorite) was the "X" page. All the pages I saw had "x-ray" with bones and stuff, but I really didn't like that idea much. So my genius of a mother came up with "Xtraterrestrial." tee hee hee. Close enough, right?

This has been SO much work. I can't even begin to tell you how many hours mom and I have spent on this thing! But I can say that all the time has been worth it. I love how it turned out and just need to finish the cover and sew one more page together and it's finished! A miracle! A project I started months ago and actually finished (almost- so close I can taste it)! Usually when I start something that long ago and don't finish it in a timely manner, I can kiss completing it, goodbye! But I am mostly proud of the fact that it's not just another one of my projects that never got done, that forever sits in a heap in my "crap/craft" closet to collect dust. Go me (and mom)!

So here it is- Ellie's ABC quiet book, for your viewing pleasure. I included little descriptions of each page, if you're interested. Oh, I also included my mom's crazy (crazy as in "what have you been smoking" crazy...) ideas for various letters- just for fun.

The little apples are attached with snaps, so you can remove them all and put them in the little basket. The butterfly just looks pretty. Mom wanted to have a bottom that you could practice wiping. I hope she doesn't manage to pull one of the bottons off- because they re all connected! :) The cupcakes can be removed and you can even count their sprinkles or put them in order or whatever. Or you can just gaze at their shiny backs (not shown). Ooooh. The doll comes with various outfits and you can dress up her-flip flops and all. She doesn't have a face and it bugs Joe. Should I put a face on her, or should she be the faceless doll? Hmmmm. Decisions. I say no face because that means the page is done! ;) Joey drew me the little elephant and you can flap his ear and tail. The flowers can be buttoned on and off. The little garden was my idea, but mom put it all together and sewed all the cute veggies! They are leeks, cauliflower and carrots- complete with a little garden bunny. LOVE how this page came together!! So fun and different than anything I saw anywhere. Mom wanted to do a graveyard- where you could pull all the zombies out of the ground. lol

This littlel girl also lacks a face...not sure if I want to add one though either. Thoughts? You can braid or pull or suck on her hair (the latter is probably Ellie's preference at this point...) I wanted to do a shoe so you could lace and tie it, but I really wanted to do the snowman too, and could only do one "S". I found a cute little ice skate in my searching for ideas and thought that would work great. So you can tie the ice skate. Then for J, I thought it would be fun to do a little Jack-O-Lantern. He's like the doll in that you can decorate him with different eyes and mouths. I had an extra set of these baby key chains so thought it would be fun to do a page with it. It's still missing a string to attach all of them together. You can pull them out of the little pockets and match the shapes. The Lady bug lets you do a little surgery. You can open him up and pull his spots out!! See, we aren't making this book just to be fun, but educational as well. ;)  You can pull the letters out of the mailbox and put the flag up on it too. Not sure if I should write anything on the little envelopes though. I'm assuming that Ellie won't be my only kid, so I can't address them ALL to her...  My mom mastered the N page with the most adorable little nest ever!! Her initial idea was a nose where you could pick the boogers out. Or a cat that you could neuter...I'll just leave it at that and not give you a description. :) You can pull the eggs down to reveal cute little hungry chicks. Maybe I should include some gummy worms on this page so you can feed them. ;)

On the "O" page you can pull the little treasure chest open to see more jewels. Oooh. ;) The puppy is attached by a real chain and leather collar. Pretty fancy eh? He's cute and I got the puppy piece at JoAnn for 30 cents! Woot! Mom wanted to do a prison here where you could put all the bad guys in prison. (what did I tell you!- she is so funny! lol) The Quilt page can be turned down to reveal a little doll (or in this case, a treat!) I wanted to make sure it didn't just get skipped over cause it's a boring 'ol quilt- gotta keep it interesting with food! I'm still missing some little gold coins for the black pot under the rainbow- if anyone finds some, let me know- I want them! :)  Mom wanted you to be able to scrape the roadkill off the road. :) The snowman is like the doll and you can decorate him with sticks, boots and a scarf. My mom had this cute little pocket and we thought of ways we could work it in, when I realized I had one of Joe's old telephones (Hope he doesn't need a spare ever again- it's permanently attached...) Mom wanted to do taxidermy for T where you could stuff all the dead animals. lol. The little umbrella is covered by a layer of plastic to make it look more "wet." The violin page was mostly just to create some tricky sewing for my mom. I made the pattern all by myself (go me!) and it was tedious. But not as tedious as it was to sew on (thanks mom!)

The "W" page has a washing machine you can take the clothes in and out of and then hang them on the clothes line to dry (aren't those clothes pins SO cute!! Those were thanks to my many years of paper scrapbooking and all the leftover stuff I have from it) or put them in the clothes basket (which was a ROYAL pain to cut all those holes out of!). The X pages is my favorite! It was my mom's ingenious idea to do the Xtraterrestrials. They come in a spaceship and you can open the lid to reveal all the little aliens! I love the material and the little aliens- so cute!!  The "Y" page has a mirror so you can look at your distorted self (gotta love those little plastic mirrors). And the last page is the zoo page. We got all these little finger puppets at IKEA and figured they'd be perfect. I'm still missing a few...I have to go find them in Ellie's pile of toys somewhere.


So there you have it- longest blog post EVER! But cute pictures, right? I am just excited with how well it all came together and am excited for Ellie to play with it...someday (because right now, she's not allowed to touch- all she wants to do is eat it and throw it on the floor...you'd think she didn't appreciate how long it took to make or something!). And no worries, I have little patterns for each page, and a giant stack of felt left so if pieces to get lost, I can make new ones.

If anyone wants help making their own- don't ask me. I've done my time. ;) This better last through ALL of my kids (however many I may have).