Quiet Book Week - Ammon Defends the Sheep

 I love, love, love this page. I mean honestly it doesn't get much cooler than chopping of peoples arms! I originally found this page over on Laura's blog, and I used her pattern. I also got inspiration here.

 I made a few changes to Laura's page. First, I made both Ammon and the Sheep detachable. I thought it would be cool for Ammon to come off the page a chop off some arms.

 The arms are fastened on with snaps. I did however sew my clubs onto the robbers arms. This way they can swing them at Ammon.

 Once again, just like Goliath, Ammon was inspired by Jakob. I had completed Laura's Ammon and when I was showing Jakob the final product he said; "Love, this won't do! Everyone knows Ammon is ripped and half naked! I'm sorry I can't accept this as Ammon. You'll have to redo him." So he toted me over to the computer to prove that in most of the pictures Ammon is in fact shirtless. If you know Jakob at all you can totally imagine him doing this. Jakob drew out a pattern for me and now we have "Buff Ammon." "Weak sauce Ammon" as Jakob calls him became Nephi.

 Obviously you can't be "Buff Ammon" without a six pack and pectorals. Good golly my Husband makes me smile. 

 I also quite enjoy his skirt/ belt. While I did make him Jakob 100% supervised, right down to the color selection. 

 Back side of Ammon.

 It was a little bit tough to explain to Vi why Ammon was chopping off arms and why it was the "Right" thing to do. Perhaps this page is better suited for boys. :)

Quiet Book Week - Alma the Younger

 I got this idea here. While she didn't have a pattern to follow I pretty much copied it exactly. We did destroy one of those baby shaker toys to get the rattler out of it. This page is perfect for younger kids.

 I didn't feel that anyone had to come off of this page so that made thing a lot faster. I really like the muted tones of Alma's outfit. I discovered these towards the end of my quiet book making experience. I really like how it adds some subtle diversity.

Though I haven't mentioned it I'd like to now draw your attention to the pack ground. It is made out of cotton instead of felt. Half way through my book I realized that adding felt to my backgrounds was adding a lot of additional bulk I didn't want or need. I started making them out of 100% cotton and it made thing much better. It also adds some uniformity which I really like!

Quiet Book Week - Build Nephi's Boat

 Time to jump into the Book of Mormon. This is another one of my original pages. I went to Google and printed off a boat. I then traced it and added Velcro on the back. I then stitched on all of the lines on the machine. Once I had finished all of the lines I cut it into puzzle pieces around the Velcro.The stitching made each piece very stable which is important when they are going to be handled a lot.

 I really liked the idea of having a puzzle for the kids to do. This will be great for when the children are older as the puzzle is a little bit difficult. The sail comes off as well.

Since this is a church book it seemed necessary to add "Help Nephi Build a Boat." Otherwise it would have been rather random. :)

Quiet Book Week - Lehi's Vision

 I got inspiration from several locations for Nephi's Dream/ Lehi's Vision. I got the pattern for Nephi here. I really liked this layout. I got the tree from a picture of a few branches that I can no longer find on Google.

 I hand stitched the leaves and the wood grains onto the tree. I've said it before and I'll say it again, it's all about the details.

 Nephi slides along the Iron Rod which is made out of silver ribbon. 

Please ignore the Bumblebee transformer dark and spacious building. I know it looks ridiculous :).  This is a simple but cute page which will be good for while the kiddos are little. 

Quiet Book Week - The Nativity

 **UPDATE 8/14/2013**
 I've been having some issues with allowing a link for you all to get my patterns. I am so sorry for the inconvenience. 
 I now have the pattern and some makeshift assembly instructions available for purchase in my Etsy shop. (https://www.etsy.com/listing/159679311/nativity-quietbook-pattern) or you can click the link at the top of the page below my banner. Thank you to all for your support!! I truly appreciate it!

 This is my first page that was 100% my own.  While searching the internet for page ideas I realized I couldn't do a church book without Baby Jesus and there wasn't really anything out there that I loved. I really wanted to have a nativity where the children could take off the people and act it out. It took forever to make... seriously. I drew up the pattern (approx 2 + hours) which is no easy task. Making sure everything is drawn proportionately was draining.   

 The three wise men. Each little guy took an hour to assemble. I can't even begin to honestly count how many hours these pages took. It was a labor of love and I am very pleased with the final outcome. 

 I am always telling you that they are "finished both front and back." This is what I mean by that. 

 Joseph, Mary and baby Jesus. Please do not make fun of Baby Jesus, It isn't his fault he looks like a peanut. Poor guy.

 Sheep, Shepard and Angel.

 Baby Jesus can sleep inside of the manger.

 I really like how the palm tree turned out. I also really liked the cobble stone road. They have several different patterned pieces at Joann's. I added Velcro so everyone could move around.

I think one day I may make a camel, another sheep, donkey and an ox but we'll see. I am so happy with the end result!

Quiet Book Week - Peter Fishing

Have you ever been in primary and the teacher brings out the fishing rod? Those kids go insane! They love fishing and when I saw the original fishing page I had to have one! She has an excellent step by step tutorial to follow!

 Violet spent the most time playing with this page. Can you blame her?

 I made a few differences on my page from the original. First I put faces on all ten fish. 

 Let me tell you, you will be so sick of fish by the end if it all but it's totally worth it. Don't they look adorable? 

 I then numbered them one to ten. It was all free hand so some numbers like 9 are a little sketchy.

 I would also recommend using an incredibly STRONG magnet. The one I used can catch all 10 fish if we wanted and it makes a world of difference. This is another favorite of mine! So fun, so cute!

Quiet Book Week - Daniel In the Lions Den

**UPDATE 8/14/2013**

 I've been having some issues with allowing a link for you all to get my patterns. I am so sorry for the inconvenience. 
 I now have the pattern and some makeshift assembly instructions available for purchase in my Etsy shop. (https://www.etsy.com/listing/159671092/daniel-the-lions-den-quietbook-pattern) or you can click the link at the top of the page below my banner. Thank you to all for your support!! I truly appreciate it! 

 

While I received inspiration for this page from a few sites This was essentially my own design. I drew up a pattern and incorporated several different ideas. I got the door concept here (you have to scroll down a bit) and the idea for finger puppets here. I used the lions heads off of this pattern and I made the Angel and David on my own. Making up your own patterns is a lot of work! I am so thankful to have had a guide to follow for most of my pages.

I just {loved} the finger puppets! They are so fun and add a lot of flavor to a page that would have been rather boring. Here's my niece Violet modeling them for me! 

 Just like all of my other pages I hand stitched the faces on everyone. I made one Lion angry and one Lion happy. 

I wasn't really sure how to make it look like Daniel was in a den. I was really stressing over this. I wanted everything out of fabric instead of markers so I created a little king to peek from behind the stone. He's super cute! :)

So pleased with the end result!

Quiet Book Week - David & Goliath

I once again used Laura's pattern here. I did however make a few adjustments. 

I made David detachable so he was free to slay Goliath without swinging the entire book around. This is more like a novel than a book and I really didn't want to worry about flying pieces.

Have I mentioned how funny my husband is lately? If you head over to Laura's blog you will see the original Goliath, which I made and glued down when I asked my husband what he thought. He then looked at me wide eyed and said. "Love, that is totally not going to work! Goliath is a "giant" he needs to be buff!" So he drew some buff arms for him. I didn't add the shield or sword either because they cut off his arms and lets be honest... they look pretty cool. 

 This was the last page I did and I'm very pleased with how it turned out!