Halloween Busy Book

So, I'm a fan of busy books (or quiet books as they're known these days) because they are so fun with ENDLESS possibilities. Plus I had one as a child and I remember the fun I had with it. Recently I've been collecting ideas to make one, but haven't decided on quite what theme I want to do as of yet. However, I ran across some adorable halloween themed ones on Etsy which prompted me to want to do one for Tot only with some more age appropriate activities (the one I saw was more of a texture touch book).

I had seen a few posts here and there around the web on making a quiet book out of dollar store pot holders as the pages. I decided that would be ideal for this little quick project I had in mind. (Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha) As anyone who has attempted to MAKE a busy book can tell you, there is nothing quick or little about these projects. They are VERY time consuming to make, and there is a LOT of work and attention to detail involved. However, in my naivety, I happily set out and designed what I wanted, and purchased supplies. The one GREAT thing about them is that most of the supplies are inexpensive, so it really can be a feasible project for anytime.

I bought a few potholders and then measured and cut the felt background to the inside dimensions of the potholder.

As it happens, this yellow potholder which is the only one I measured happens to be smaller than any of the other ones, so none of my pages line up with only the binding showing. However, I decided not to stress about it, and Tot doesn't care one way or the other anyway.

So here are my pages as they turned out:

Page 1 Build a Jack-O-Lantern
Features: Pattern recognition with face pieces, and motor skills with the zipper

 

 The little face pieces are stored in the zippered pocket (pumpkin) and since there's a variety there is plenty of space for creative play.

 

 

Tot made a "monster" pumpkin with three eyes and laughed and laughed about it. Silly one!


Page 2 Candy Corn Counting
Features: Number recognition and counting

The candy corns lift up to reveal the number there are. It was surprisingly hard to coordinate the three different colors all around the edges (sewn with blanket stitch) however, I pulled it off cleanly enough that you probably didn't look twice at it!

 

Page 3 Spider web weave
Features: Motor skills weaving the ribbons on the spider web

The ribbons can be woven multiple ways. I was originally going to have them round more like a spider web, but decided against it since I was using ribbon, which I wanted for its texture. I would probably go with felt next time as the ribbon is very slippery and slides out of the weave with ease.


Page 4 Haunted House
Features: Fun peek-a-boo, motor skills with snaps

This was easily the most complicated and time consuming page. The doors/windows of the house open up to reveal ghosts to peek-a-boo with. The two big ghosts and bat snap on/off and can be switched around.

 

It took a little bit of thought to get all the layers on and sewn correctly with all the pieces laying flat. But, it was worth it as it's a very cool page!


Page 5 Owl
Features: Motor skills with snaps/pockets

The mom owl has a pocket wing on the left and her right wing lifts up to reveal a place to snap on either of the two baby owls.

 

Tot's favorite thing about this page are the baby owls, she carries them around saying: "It's so cute!"


Page 6 Wardrobe
Features: Motor skills with buttons/pockets

The doors button shut and there are pocket drawers inside to hold the wardrobe for the next page's paper dolls.

They do make the page pretty fat, but I'm not too worried about them falling out as they tend to stick to each other and the dresser as felt sticks to felt well.


Page 7 Fabric Paper Dolls
Features: Motor skills with velcro, dressing, outfit coordination

The dolls velcro on and off the page for easy creative play. I was originally going to velcro the whole wardrobe, but found that the felt back stuck easily to the pellon so I didn't bother with it.

These dolls were the one thing I didn't design myself. They were found here. I colored them onto Pellon with fabric markers, and then cut them out and gave them a felt backing.

 

The felt and pellon stick together quite well, and can be moved and jiggled and played with without worry.


Page 8 Ghost
Features: Motor skills with glove

The big ghost has an opening for little hands at the bottom so they can slide on and off like a glove. This has led to some amusing and learning opportunity discussions about the Holy Ghost for us.

Only 8 pages, but it took about 20 hours to put everything together. (That is NOT counting the time spent in the stores trying to find the right colors of felt and embroidery thread!)

What would I do different?
Well, I learned multiple things of course, the biggest being that I need to use fabric pencils so I don't have to freehand all the embroidery in my mind while sewing. Also I would get iron on pellon to use for the fabric paper dolls so I didn't have to sew it all to the felt and cut everything twice. HOWEVER, I'm extremely pleased with how it turned out and now I am simply trying to find a way to bind it that I'm happy with. Also, as I designed and purchased supplies for this one, I got one for a Christmas theme as well, so look for that coming soon!