Family Halloween 2012

Much delayed but here is just a quick picture I wanted to share of our Halloween costumes.  We always host our Young Married's Halloween Party for our church group. We have a such an awesome group of families.  This is my favorite party the whole year because ALL our families come dressed up, so it's really fun to see how people match.  Quite a few of the families do matching themes like we do. This years theme was Basketball.

-Daddy was the coach in his business suit with his playbook.
-Mommy was the shot clock & basketball hoop (my arms were covered with orange sleeves and went through the holes of the backboard. I just draped the net over my arms.) The shot clock I just painted on a black piece of cardstock and added a cardstock loop to go around my head.
-Kara was our Phoenix Suns basketball player - Steve Nash to be precise :)
-Emma was our adorable basketball (I took one of those Carter pumpkin costumes that are always around during Halloween and just stitched on a felt basketball over the pumpkin face)

Hope another family can do this as their theme too.  It was really fun and didn't take too long.  I really only needed to make Emma and I's costume.

Well, happy crafting and God Bless!

Heather Joy

Quiet Book #16: Old Testament Bible

So, my main inspiration for wanting to provide these quiet books for my girls is because my mom had made them for us as kids.  She actually surprised me one time when she came to visit and brought the quiet books for my girls to now use.  I can't tell you the memories that came flooding back with each turn of the page of this book.  If you asked me what was in it beforehand I wouldn't be able to tell you but as I was looking through it the first time in probably two decades I now remembered every detail and a new desire was placed in my heart....to create those same wonderful memories for my girls.  So, with much love I wanted to show you the first of two quiet books from my childhood.  This is the Old Testament quiet book.

Here's the cover:

Here are the Noah's Ark and Tower of Babel pages.

Here they are in action.  Noah's Ark unzips to reveal some animals.  And the Tower of Babel has blocks in the pocket that you take out to build the tower.

Here's the story of Lot & Sodom, and Abraham & Issac.

In this page Sodom is burning and Lot's wife turns around and get's turned into a pillar of salt (white sandpaper).  In the Abraham & Isaac page Isaac is removable and the ram is removed and takes his place as the sacrifice.

These are the Jacob's Ladder & Joseph Colored Coat pages.

On the Jacob's Ladder page the angels all remove on snaps and Joseph's coat buttons on and off.

These pages are about Moses.  The first is him as a baby in the reeds and the other is when he talks to God by the burning bush.

You can flip down the grass reeds to reveal a baby Moses in a little basket.  I'm not sure if there ever really was a baby but ever since I can remember it had just this little printed paper of a baby.  The other page shows the burning bush.  When he was there God told him to remove his shoes because he was on Holy ground, so you can remove the the latch on the sandal.

These pages are about the priests of the temple and the rod of Aaron.

The priest page has a removable jar lid that has a cotton ball with a perfume on it so you can smell it.  Pardon my hand on the next page there was no way to photograph it without holding them open.  But this is the rod of Aaron that blooms from the story in Numbers 17:8.

This next picture is of the story in Numbers 21, where the the Israelites were once again grumbling and complaining God, so he sent some snakes to bite and kill most of them. He told Moses to make a bronze serpent and set it on the pole and anyone who was bit could look to the serpent and live.  (This blog has a cool explanation of the weird but interesting story in the Old Testament).

Well, there you are.  A wonderful an amazingly fun Old Testament Bible Quiet Book for you.  My mom isn't sure what the name of the pattern was she purchased to make this but there was a pattern. But she made this in the 80's so not sure if we'd ever find out where she got the pattern from.  But if anything it will give you ideas to start this wonderful journey of quiet book making! 

Hope to be posting the New Testament Quiet Book my mom also made soon!  So, check back!

Happy crafting and God bless!

Quiet Book #15: Hangman

Here's the next installment of quiet book pages, the hangman page.

First I tackled the page with the hangman pieces, pencil and notebook where they can write their word down, which I thought would be helpful for the younger ones learning how to spell, counting the words and even asking if the word is spelt correctly before having their sibling start the guessing.  Here's what I came up with:

Quiet Book #14: Table Setting & Food Page

This is the Table Setting and Food Page. My goal with this page is to have my kids learn how to set a table and have fun serving mostly healthy imaginary foods.

I started with getting a piece of scrap fabric.  Fringe cut the two short sides. I zig zagged hemmed the two long sides.  Then I just sewed around the sides and bottom, leaving the top open.

 

The food fits into the pocket behind the placemat. I made that by sewing a snap to the back of the fabric and at the adjacent felt piece near the top edge of what I want to be the opening.

Make a place by cutting out two circle of white felt.  I sewed a circle in the middle to make it look like the bottom of the place.  Then I just glued the edge around the circle shut with felt glue.

Then all you have to do is find some images of food and place setting online that you like.  I tried to pick some healthier stuff but still realistic..ex. veggie pizza. :)  Then prepare those as in a tutorial I will show you later, and then slip them in the pocket and you're all done. 

 

Happy crafting and Blessings to you!

Quiet Book #13: Traffic Light

Here's the traffic light tutorial.  This one is pretty easy to figure it out on your own, but in case you need step by step instructions, here we go:


First cut out all your pieces.  You will need 2-3 of each circle and one black traffic light. You will need 3 if you want to have one already on for the kids to match them to.  If you're like me and you want to test your kids a little more, leave out the 3rd circle and have them learn where they go.

Here are the plans, just in case you want to see.  I'm not sure whether I want the 'go, slow, stop' signs to me removable or not.  I was also thinking of putting the traffic light poem on it: "Red on top, green below, red says stop, green says go, yellow says wait even if you're late" but I'm not exactly sure how this is going to fit.  I'm not even sure if I want there to be velcro, or if they could rather just sit on the black.  I'm always trying to keep this book as QUIET as possible.  I guess we'll see how this turns out in the end.


Well, I actually did give in and used black velcro for the lights to stay on.  I thought of trying to make the poem square into a pocket to hold the lights but I had this ready so long and took my sweet time getting that poem together.  So, I finally just got impatient and slapped that velcro on.  So the girls have been playing with it for quite some time before I even got the poem on it.





And here is the end result. I used this poem in my Kindergarten classes when I was an assistant teacher. If you want to know how to do the poem just wait. I'll add a tutorial later on. But it's makes it super easy to add writing on your books without embroidery.

 

Happy crafting and Blessings to you!

Quiet Book #12: Flash Cards Pocket

This is another self explanatory quiet book page. It has no other function than to hold a set of flash cards. I am constantly buying up the dollar section of Target's flash cards. What I love about this page is that it is for all ages. And whenever they get sick of one set or when you're studying a certain thing in your schooling, just swap out the flash cards for a new set.

In making this just be sure to pin it down while you have the flash cards in it so you make sure to allow enough room. You can decorate it up with ribbon or iron on patches but I wanted to keep it simple and use my plethora of ric rack. I just used Velcro for the flap.

Happy crafting and blessing to you!

Quiet Book #10: Apple Tree

Here is a super simple apple tree page. We are big into farm life out here because our friends own a farm and we always get to go pick fresh produce from them. They are the Markley Family Farm. (I also created their website for them) Anyways, we talk about where a lot of our food comes from and so this simple page was formed. All you really need to do is cut the shapes and see on. I chose to just make a simple basket instead of my more complex one from the laundry page I made earlier. Well, not much more to say but happy crafting. And blessing to you!