Spring Flowers Page
When I assembled the book I put this page right across from the Sun Beam page, so these spring flowers get plenty of sun.
The petals can button on and off, and when they need watering the cloud unzips to let down some “rain”.
My husband thought I should add some birds or bees to the page as well. I’m thinking the cloud is big enough to hold more stuff, so later down the road I may make some more objects to accompany this page . . . loose objects that can be played with and stored in the cloud when not in use.
Forest Tree Page
At first glance this page doesn’t look like much, but that’s because everything is hiding! Once you start exploring the page you find that it is actually very entertaining!
The three eggs in the nest all hatch and little baby birds can be taken out to play with.
There are two flaps on the tree that open up to reveals an owl and a squirrel.
The grass, also, can all be pulled aside to reveal different pictures underneath:
Hidden in the grass on one page is a mushroom, a frog, a duck, and an ant.
On the other page there is a bee, a lady bug, an acorn, a snail, a flower, and a butterfly all hiding in the grass.
And last (but not least) . . . the cocoon opens!! And out comes a beautiful butterfly!
The best part about this butterfly is that the wings are valcroed on, so they can easily be removed. So you can have just a plane (but very cute) caterpillar and when he goes into the cocoon he can turn into a butterfly!
Zoo Animals Page
This page has lots of things to entertain:
* Elephant’s nose is elastic so it can stretch and pull out.
* Panda bear plays peek-a-boo
* Watch out for the alligator hiding behind the bush!
* Monkey swings back and forth along a string (his arms)
* Lion’s mane is an assortment of different ribbons and laces with different colors and textures.
* Giraffe is hiding his head in a tree (a flap lifts to reveal him)
* And Hippo’s mouth can open nice and wide!
(I had meant for the Koala bear to be able to climb up and down the vine, but it turns out he was too heavy for the yarn I used, so he doesn’t really do anything. If I do this page again I would use a stronger cord for him to hang on so he could move up and down on it.)
Underwater Ocean Page
This page is pretty simple. It’s just a basic undersea background with water, seaweed, rocks, and sand. All the fish and “water creatures” are loose so they can be played with. The starfish and jellyfish are both finger puppets.
The sandy “ground” on the ocean floor is a large pocket to provide a place to store all the fish.
I hope you’ve enjoyed viewing this project.
If you want to see my other busy book projects you can view them here:
Keturah’s Busy Book
I made this busy book for our daughter’s first birthday. I really liked the idea of making gifts for our daughter instead of purchasing gifts from a store. Our family was also planning to travel a few days after her birthday, so I thought a busy book would be the most ideal gift, since it could help to keep her occupied some during our travels.
For a 1-year-old it is difficult to keep their attention on any one thing for very long, so I really tried to make this book have a lot of different things that could draw her attention. I tried the best I could to make sure there were a lot of different textures on the pages, since she is all into exploring textures right now. I also wanted a lot of “loose” things that she could hold, handle, or play with, in order to keep those little hands busy. And, of course, it has a lot of color, since bright colors are important to babies.
In the actual making of this book I did a few things differently from the last busy book – things that have made this one much easier to make, and much nicer, I think.
For one thing, the book is made primarily out of felt. All the pages and most of the images are constructed from felt and sewn on with embroidery thread. I found the felt to be much easier to work with, much faster to put together, and much more durable. It also holds its shape well, which means I didn’t have to do any complicated book bindings – I just did a simple whip-stitch around the edges, made 3 holes in each page, and tied them together. Nice and simple!
For a 1-
In the actual making of this book I did a few things differently from the last busy book – things that have made this one much easier to make, and much nicer, I think.
For one thing, the book is made primarily out of felt. All the pages and most of the images are constructed from felt and sewn on with embroidery thread. I found the felt to be much easier to work with, much faster to put together, and much more durable. It also holds its shape well, which means I didn’t have to do any complicated book bindings – I just did a simple whip-
Bee Hive Page
The bee hive on this page is a pocket of sorts. There is a string that comes out of the opening and weaves under all the leaves on the page. For the bees, I took three beads (2 yellow and 1 black) and crazy glued the beads together. The “bees” are strung on the string and can move along the page and underneath the leaves going in-between the beehive and the flower at the top of the page.
Shapes Page
This page has removable shapes that button and unbutton from the page. Obviously buttoning is the motor skill taught on this page, but this page is also used for teaching about colors (matching different shades of the same colors), learning the different shapes, and also learning about items that are “bigger” or “smaller”.
Star Maze Page
This is a standard maze page as seen quite frequently on Pinterest. There is a marble sewn between the pages that can be moved through the maze. A great motor skill activity.
Sun Beam Page
This is my daughters favorite page! Perfect for a 1-year-old. The sun beams are strips of ribbons or shoe laces that have beads and buttons tied on the ends. If you pull on one end of a string the other end gets shorter as it pulls through the page. The buttons and beads keep the strings from pulling all the way through.
My daughter especially loves the big buttons and beads on the ends of the strings. She’s still in the stage of tasting things and putting things in her mouth, and somehow the texture of the different buttons are very intriguing to her. They’re all made of different materials, too – plastic, metal, and wood.
