This past summer we planned a fairly big trip which involved an 11 hour plane ride. Z was 20 months at the time and could sit still for about 12 seconds total. I'd seen several postings about busy books around and thought it would be the perfect solution for the trip.
It was not.
She hated the book. Perhaps it was too advanced for her. Perhaps she resented all the time I poured into it and when I asked her to play by herself. I don't know, but whenever I showed it to her she'd start crying or she'd throw it across the room. It was a little heartbreaking at the time, but then it became kind of funny. She's grown to like it now and breaks it out to take all the bits off. She hasn't ever shown an interest in putting them back.
This is how I began my collection of felt. I used white denim as the base for the pages because I had it. I tried to spice it up with little embroidered designs here and there.
Button on Flowers.
This is one of the pages that I saw others had done and thought it was brilliant. The red pot is a pocket to hold the flowers.
Velcro Shapes and Fasteners
Counting and Tie a Shoe
Close up of the counting page
I made the first three primary colors and the next three secondary colors to try
This page is about finding things.
Some of the things hidden around. A hang glider hides behind the kite, and there's a plane behind the cloud. Fish are under a pull-away layer of water. The ducks are attached by fishing line, so they can "swim" in the water. The leaves of the tree hide various birds. The black hole in the trunk hides a squirrel.
Textures and Snap on Balloons
The textures were
Eddie's Garden
Z loves a book called Eddie's Garden, so this was my homage to the illustrator. The carrots snap on, as do the peas and the pumpkin. The corn, the chard and the sunflower are velcro, and there's a little rabbit hidden near the peas.
A little pocket to hold all the bits that fall off.
