All About Quiet Books

    I know this adorable almost two year old. He's a curious little guy who loves toy cars, his brother, and learning new words. I've enjoyed getting to know him over the past year. A month ago, I realized this little boy's birthday was coming up and decided to make him something. I had seen some ideas for quiet books at the Orem Summerfest and decided I would try to make my own. I have always loved crafting. Over the years, I have sewn two quilts, pajama pants, pillows, and a few other random things. I scrapbook sometimes too. Thanks to Pinterest, I found some amazing pictures and ideas to make a cute quiet book for the little guy. Here's some pictures.

Front Cover- weave pattern

Road Page
(for the original idea and template, click here)
(Note: To make the toy car stay in the pocket better, I would put it so the car is sitting in it vertically instead of horizontally. )

Farm Page 
The barn opens up to show animal finger puppets inside.
(for the original idea and template, click here) 

finger puppets for the farm

Mr. & Mrs. Potato Head Page
(for the original idea and template, click here) 

one way Mr. Potato Head could look, with lots of other pieces

Beach Page
(for where I found my inspiration, click here)
Note: All pieces are hand drawn. 

what the castle looks like when it's put together 

Insect Page
(for where I got my inspiration from and the template for the bugs, click here)
Note: Tree and jar are both hand drawn. 

Tool Matching Page
(for the template for the tools, click here)

Train Counting and Light Page
(for the light page, click here - Note: I did not use the template. It was too small)
(for my inspiration for the counting page, click here- Note: All of this page was hand drawn)

Back Cover - weaving page

Thanks to All the Quiet Things ,  Baby Abilities Blogspot, The Quiet Book ,  and Sunshine, Lollipops, and Rainbows. These blogs have AMAZING ideas for quiet books.

Things I Have Learned:

1) You don't have to be able to sew to make a quiet book. The only thing I sewed on my quiet book was the jar page. Everything else is put together by glue.

2) The best glue for felt is "Felt Glue". Funny right? I didn't even know that existed. You can find it at Hobby Lobby for about $5 a bottle. To order it, click here.

3) You don't have to velcro everything in quiet book pages. Felt sticks really well to felt so I didn't use a lot of velcro. The only pages with velcro are the train and traffic light.

4) The absolute BEST way to bind your quiet book is grommets. Originally, I had planned on gluing the pages, or sewing button holes and then tying it, but those options were very time consuming. Then, someone suggested grommets. You can get a grommet kit for about $8 at home depot here. I recommend using the 3/8 size hole. For eight pages, I needed two extra refill kits which can also be found at home depot. For a video on how to insert the grommets, click here. After putting in the grommets, I ordered 3 inch rings from amazon and inserted them to bind the book together. I also tied a ribbon through both the front and back page grommets to hold it even better together.

5) Making a quiet book is very time consuming, but the happiness and excitement on the child's face when they receive it is totally worth the wait.