Quiet book: Lost sheep

When looking up pages for Koala's quiet book, I discovered that a lot of people use the quiet books to entertain their children during church so there were quite a few Bible pages. One Bible quiet book page was to find the lost sheep. 

I took this idea and decided to make a background like this forest page. 

I liked how the page had different layers and got the idea that each layer could be a hiding spot for the sheep.

 I started off with the bottom layer and made a mountain. I sewed the bottom and side but left an open pocket where the sheep could hide. I reinforced the mountain with Pellon to make it more sturdy. I added the tree and once again left open a pocket where the leaves were. Then I added the bush and pine tree. Next was the grassy hill and last was the rock that rolls away using a brad. Each piece was reinforced with Pellon and then sewed to the page leaving a pocket for where the sheep can fit in. Most of my other pages I hand sewed but it was easier to use my sewing machine for this page.

This bottom picture shows the rock rolled away. 

For the sheep, I saw this cute sheep on Pinterest. 

Even though a template was given, I ended up making my own by tracing a picture of the sheep from my computer screen. I hand sewed the sheep and stuffed a little bit of cotton in it to give it a little depth. 

Here's a picture of the six possible hiding places for the sheep. 

I really liked how this page turned out. Koala doesn't really play with it by herself because it's more of a page to play with someone. But when we were on the plane for our trip, we played with it for a while. I would hide the sheep and she would find it. 

She still will briefly play with it now when she's flipping through the book. She'll say 'where's the sheep?' and then find it from where I put it from the last time she used it. Then once she finds it, she moves onto the next page. 

Craft Organization

Now that I'm using the sewing machine a lot more and I have a lot more craft supplies for my bibs and quiet book, I needed to find a way to organize it all. My computer desk was cluttered with felt and thread, etc. and my dining room had the sewing machine and all the fabric, velcro, etc for the bibs.

I started off by buying these magnetic spice rack  containers to store my odds and ends like googly eyes, grommets, etc. 

I bought the rack that came with 6 containers from Bed, Bath and Beyond (using a coupon of course!) and then some extra containers on Amazon.

I also used these jars that I had laying around to store my scrap material and my trash and I kept the jars on the work area near me for easy access. (I think these jars are from IKEA. I bought them years ago but I think they still sell them.)

It sounds lazy but it's a lot easier sticking a small piece of thread in that little jar than trying to get it to fall into the garbage can on the floor.  

I also organized all my fabric for my bibs. Before, I had them stacked in a storage tote and had to dig through the pile to find the fabric I wanted. I searched Pinterest for ways to organize fabric and liked the idea of folding them onto cardboard (inspired by this blog).

I saw/read that comic board cardboard was a good option for this so I bought some off Amazon and wrapped my fabric around them and stored them in a cardboard box that I planned on decorating. 

I still felt I needed more organization and a place to store the sewing machine. I don't quite remember how but one day while on Pinterest, (I think I was searching sewing tables or organization) I came across the Sewing Box that I saw on this blog.

I really liked it but it was $1300! 

I later searched for other options and decided to check out IKEA since they have affordable furniture and I came across the Hemnes Secretary desk.

I thought it would be perfect to store the sewing machine and I could just pull it out onto the ledge part when I need it. Plus there was plenty of storage for all my supplies and fabrics! 

After putting it off for a long time, I finally made the drive to the nearest IKEA and picked up the desk.  It had been a while since I'd been to IKEA so I totally forgot how much stuff they carry. I not only picked up the desk but I bought a bunch of organization stuff for my craft desk. 

I picked up this tiered planter that I planned to use for storing random items on my desk. 

I also got a magnetic board for my spice rack containers. Originally, I wanted to hang it in the desk but I couldn't figure a good way to hang it and worried that the doors wouldn't shut properly. So I just stacked them on the magnetic board which makes it easier to slide in and out of the one shelf. 

I bought some Kasset boxes for random larger items. I actually already had these Kasset boxes in black but decided to buy some white ones since the desk was white. 

And I also picked up the Kasset magazine racks which I thought would be easier to organize the fabric by style/color and would look nicer. 

The magazine racks were taller than the boards but they still worked nicely to organize my fabric. 

After putting together my desk and putting all my supplies in, I looked at it and it looked so sterile because everything was white. I thought about using my black Kasset boxes so that I had black and white boxes but when browsing Pinterest (seriously, Pinterest is a great place to get ideas!), I came across this blog that showed how she decorated IKEA boxes to look like Kate Spade boxes using electrical tape. Genius! 

I decided to decorate the white boxes to make my desk look cuter and less sterile. The electrical tape was cheap and it didn't take very long to decorate the box and magazine racks. 

I followed the advice of the blog and put a piece of electrical tape in the corners as a guide for where to line up the next stripe. (Left picture)

Magazine rack 

I decorated some of the boxes with stripes, some with polka dots and some I left plain white. I decided to use black dot sticker which I bought on Amazon. These 1 inch dots were perfect for the boxes- although it was a lot more than I needed.

Dot magazine rack, Dot box, and magazine rack with bin fabric

I also decorated the planter too. 

The last thing I wanted was to find a small tray or box to fit in the small shelves on the left side of the sewing machine. 

Unfortunately I couldn't find anything that fit the dimensions that I needed so I decided to make a box. I found that the Cheerios box I had from Costco fit perfectly in the space. 

1. I cut off the one large side and made it into a tray. 

2. Then I covered the sides of the box with a long strip of wrapping paper that I folded in half to also cover the inside (I turned the wrapping paper over so that the box was white.) 

3. The finished sides. 

4. I cut a piece of paper the size of the large side of the box and stuck it on the bottom of the inside of the 'tray.' Then I covered the outside with polka dots. 

I only needed to make two since I had my spice rack tins in one spot. 

(Note: I actually discovered that the tray doesn't fit in the middle shelf when the secretary desk is closed because the one part of the desk goes into that shelf. So instead of putting a tray there, I have my sewing box in there that holds all my thread).

I love how everything turned out and how organized everything is now. Now if only I could get the rest of my office organized... ☺️

Quiet book: Corduroy

One of Koala's favorite books to read is Corduroy- a classic that I remember from when I was little. I thought that making a button page based on this book would be perfect. 

The idea behind the page was to have buttons for Corduroy's straps so that Koala would learn how to button things. Unfortunately, in terms of functionality, I feel like this page is a bit of a fail. The page looks exactly how I wanted it to- like the cover of the book.

 I actually traced the cover off my computer screen so that the letters, etc were exactly like the book. 

Even though Corduroy only has one button in the book, I put buttons on both straps to give the page more than just one thing for Koala to do. 

The straps lift up and can be buttoned and unbuttoned. 

But the button holes on the straps are too small for Koala to button. Maybe she'll use the page when she gets older but for now, it's just a pretty page that doesn't get much use. #fail