I like to make things, especially for presents. On my husband's side of the family there are a lot of kids. He is one of 7 and my kids are 2 of 17 grand kids. It is a little too overwhelming for me to wrap my head around gifts for that many people, so a few years ago I kind of decided that I would do a baby present when they are born and a 1 year present. This month there are 2 nephews turning 1, so I wanted to make activity books for them. After I got about a week into the first one, I realized how long it would take me to get 2 done and had to revamp my idea for the second nephew. I haven't even started it yet, so I'll save it for another post. This is a little activity book made around his name, Owen.
The first page has vinyl pockets that I envisioned putting his family pictures in, but I didn't have any current ones, so I added basic colors and they can add what they want later. I made the large envelope to hold the extras papers or pictures like animals, letters, numbers, whatever they want him to learn, or at some point maybe crayons or other small toys. I will let the mom customize them her way.
Next is the ocean scene with a removable shark and fish. There are snaps around the page that they can put the pieces in different places. There are a lot of textures for him to feel and the treasure chest opens to see gold coins (gold sequins). The grass is grosgrain ribbon hand sewn with bumps in it to look wavy and the ends melted to prevent fraying. The words are printed on fabric made for your printer I had bought years ago to sew a picture blanket for my sister and still had some laying around.
The next page is the bird house. The eggs are removable with buttons and the bird can be tucked away in the bird house (or the eggs too). The bird is sewn to be used on either side with little wings that flap.
The last is a race track with a little race car to zoom around. It is attached to the page with velcro. He could also zoom around other cars, or the other animals from the book!!
I mostly wanted something that could be fun with lots of colors, and textures and letters and different activities for fine motor skills. I used a very stiff pellon which makes the pages stiff like a real book and the removable pieces are double sided so they can be played with on the page or separately and all are made with the same material so they aren't floppy like the felt kind you see around. This is the first book I have made like this, so it was a learning curve. Lots of sketching, making things and throwing them away and lots of hand sewing, which is not my thing, but I liked the way it turned out. Of course I am much more critical of my work and can see so many things I want to change, but that's a slippery slope that leads to never finishing anything!!! It's not very long, but hopefully long enough to keep him entertained for a few minutes and small enough to tuck in a bag or have in the car. I made a few similar pages (but kept them lose so they could both pay with them and not have to fight over the same book) for my kids almost 2 years ago and they still fight over who gets which one when I pull them out. Their favorite is the race track and our ocean scene (I put some pics of them below if you are curious). I hope this is as successful.
For Earth Day Amelia wanted to make a recycled craft to bring for show and tell. We decided on these little water bottle fish.
These are made from a clear plastic cup and curling ribbon and crepe paper. Amelia's was embellished a little more with glitter ribbon and these silver discs. I highly recommend it for an easy, scrap busting craft for kids.
