I can't believe we have reached the end of our 50 day activity challenge - my aim to complete 50 activities with Isabelle between September and Christmas 2014. You can see the full list of activities here.The last activity is one which took me a long time to create. Longer than any of the other activities and, actually, it's a bit of a cheat because Isabelle hasn't actually received it yet. For our final active day I made a felt busy book for Isabelle, which she will receive as we sit down on our flight to England to keep her interested and amused for that hour.
My friend Alex introduced me to the world of felt busy books after she made one for her little boy. After lots of Pinterest research, I knew I wanted to do the same. I'm not the most crafty person so I was worried I would struggle, and it really did take me a long time even though it is relatively simple. I sustained many burns from the glue gun along the way, but I'm so pleased with how it turned out!
I'll give you a brief run down of how I made the book itself, and then what went inside.
For the book pages, I used a "That's not my..." board book as a template to draw around, on to some green felt I had left over from making our Christmas tree. That gave me roughly even sized pages, which I thought would be big enough for various things to be
attached.
After I had made the different activities on each page it was time to bind the whole thing together. I used a hot glue gun to do this, and it seems to have held it together really well - though time will tell how well it stands up to a toddler. I put the pages into the order in which I wanted them, then flipped them upside down so that the last page was on top. Taking one page at a time, I applied a line of hot glue down the left hand edge of the page, before carefully placing the next page on top and pressing into the glue. Then, the same again, so I built the book up from the last page gluing them all together on the left hand side.
That left me with 7 pages together, but it looked very rough and ready. I cut out another piece of green felt, again using the "That's not my..." book as a template, but this time I made it double the width, and incorporated extra to cover the 'spine' of the book. A large amount of hot glue was applied down the spine of the pages, before the cover was attached. I also glued the front cover to the first page in the same method as above to give it a nicer finish.
After having a look online at other busy books, and thinking about what Isabelle likes, I decided to include the following pages:
1. Car track
2. Shape jigsaw
3. Ladybird zip
4. Build a flower
5. Bead 'abacus'
6. Build a face
7. Farm scene
Along with simple felt shapes to move around, I included ribbon, beads, zips and string to ensure there were a variety of textures and different activities for her. I also put her name onto the front cover with a heart to brighten it up, and make it truly hers.
I'm so pleased with how the busy book turned out. Crafting is not my natural state at all, and it took me so much longer than it should have done to make this book. It isn't as spectacular as those I have seen online, and it is definitely a bit rough round the edges (literally!) but I am still really happy with it. Hopefully, it will be something Isabelle dips in and out of to keep her entertained in various places (such as on today's flight) for a little while at a time. It offers her the chance to use different skills and strengths, and will hopefully help her develop her various skills - such as color recognition and matching and fine motor skills.
I'll post a little update on how she liked the book when we arrive in Norfolk!
That, ladies and gentlemen, concludes our 50 active days!! However, come January, I am hoping to take part in a 31 Day Challenge along with a group of other mummies and bloggers - so keep your eyes peeled for more activities!
