Personalized Paper Doll Quiet Books

I was going through old posts on my family blog today and discovered this fun project I did for Maggie a few years ago.  It's a personalized paper doll quiet book.  This book was very easy to make and could be used not only for entertainment but would be a great way to help with speech therapy, or even learning how to match and dress oneself.

How I made my book:

1.  I used my Cricut cartridge, Paper Doll Dress Up to create all of the images, however you could always just cut out pieces by hand if you do not have a Cricut.

2.  I created the main doll by cutting out a doll and trying to make it look as much like Mags as possible, long brown hair, blue eyes etc.  I also used different outfits on the cartridge to make an undershirt and underpants.  {The fewer naked dolls we have around here the better.  Why are there always so many naked Barbies at my house??}  I also decorated the background page by cutting out grass and flowers.

3.  I then used patterned paper and cut out a few dresses.  You could also cut out shoes, socks, pants, shirts, hats, headbands, wands etc.  This cartridge basically has everything.

4.  I then used my personal laminator to laminate all the pieces.  I laminated the entire page of the main doll and each dress individually.

5.  Glued the main page into a cheapy file folder.

6.  On the back of each of the dresses is a piece of sticky tack.  This allows for the pieces to be placed on the doll and stay in place.


Super simple little book that can provide lots of entertainment for your little one!

If you're looking for more ideas for paper dolls be sure to check out my tutorial for

Actual Size Paper Dolls

 

Or check out all of my other Quiet Books

 

 

Felt Board: Under The Sea

Friday morning Maggie and I were looking for something to do.  Baby had just laid down to take a nap so I decided it was time to work on a fun project together.  We made a felt board!  It was so simple and 100% free since I had all of the felt scraps on hand.  Maggie has been playing with it non-stop since.

I took the side off of a huge diaper box and covered it with a sheet of white felt.  I cut the felt to be slightly larger than the cardboard, wrapped it around each side and secured it with a thin strip of hot glue. 

I used white so I could make lots of felt scenes in the future but today was all about the ocean so I cut out a large piece of blue felt for my ocean waves.

I sat with my pile of felt scraps and Maggie dictated to me what she wanted.  Nemo Daddy, Nemo, Dori, Shark, Ariel, and eyes she was very concerned that I was going to forget their eyes.  I even cut out some generic fish and let her color them.  I pieced them together using hot glue.

Each piece was cut by hand without a pattern and in a hurry so some pieces look a little funky.  A 3 year old waits for no one.  But you know what?  It doesn't have to be perfect. 

Do you like my hand-less Ariel ghost?  Haha.

She enjoys it and we spent some quality time together making it. 

That's the only part that needs to be perfect.

When I asked her what her favorite piece was do you know what she told me?

"Ariel!" 

Yes.  Ariel, the hand-less ghost was the catch of the day.

You can imagine my surprise when I saw this later in the evening -

"Maggie!!  What in the world happened to Ariel?!  She's decapitated!"

To which she grabbed the shark and said, "Num, num, num, num (think Jaws theme music) chomp, chomp, chomp, chomp, chomp!"

Well, at least she's got imagination.

So Grateful Sunday - Katie's Nursery Song Pocket Flip Book

This is Katie.

She's the best.

 I think she might be the Utes biggest fan.

(Sorry, Katie I had to steal your Facebook picture.)

Katie and I have been friends for several years now and my life is so much better because of it.  I've taught all her kids at Church and we served in a Young Women Presidency together.  We've had a lot of good times together.  She's super mom.  Somehow she can handle 4 kids and a husband with a busy doctor's schedule, about a million neighbor kids at any time, and a billion other things and does it all with a smile.  She's so relaxed and just plain cool.  She takes every opportunity that comes her way gladly and because of her enjoy life attitude, she's traveled all over the world and done all kinds of amazing things.  I love to hear about all of her fun adventures.

  She makes me laugh, she's always dependable, she's a great example of a mom, she's held my hand through 3 Twilight movie midnight showings and even putting up with my squeals and constant giggling.  Ha!  Like I said, she's the best.

Recently, Katie has been the nursery (kids 18mo-3 years) song leader at Church.  The kids love her.  Especially my daughter.  Maggie has a hard time with words but songs just speak to her little heart and she loves them.  In nursery Katie has a flip chart that she uses to show the kids which song they are going to sing next.  It's easy for the kids to identify and they love it.

Recently Katie made each child their own pocket flip book.  Maggie has been in heaven and hasn't put hers down!  She flips the pages and sings the songs to herself.  I love to watch her.

Katie took the pictures from her flip book and printed them on photo paper.  On the back she hand wrote the names of the songs.  Finally she punched a hole in the cards and put them on a ring.  I know it had to have taken her some time to do one for each child.  It was a labor of love.

Here are just a few examples of the pictures.  Head, shoulders, knees and toes, If you're happy and you know it, The wise man and the foolish man, and the last one doubles for two - Jesus wants me for a sunbeam & I'm trying to be like Jesus.

If you'd like the words to these songs or music for any other children's songs and hymns you can get them HERE.

We love Katie's gift and will treasure it for a long, long time.  Last week I sadly had to say goodbye to her and her great family as fantastic career opportunities opened up, and the state of Utah has stolen them from us.  Good luck on settling into your new place and know that we miss you!

Speech Therapy: Two Syllable Words

Maggie is my 3 year old with Speech Delay, she's pretty far behind in her speech in comparison to most kids her age.  She's in speech therapy and has been improving so much.  She even has a few sentences here and there.  Why just today she told me to, "Get in timeout now!"  Lovely. 

This weeks homework was to practice two syllable words.  I think there was a legitimate term for what the words are exactly but I forgot.  But basically words that are two syllables that go beyond "mama"/"dada" stuff.

I wanted to incorporate Maggie's favorite two syllable word into this one.  

"Suh-pies!"

In case you couldn't tell that's "Surprise".  She like to hide in plain sight, jump up and shout it at me. 

I'm "suh-pised" every time.  :)

 

 We lift up the top of the present, say "surprise", ask "what is it?" and then practice saying the name of the picture.  It's been a lot of fun and making a game out of it makes her want to keep going.  Once all the pictures are out we then say "night night dirty", "night night teddy" "night night pony" and then put them all away.

 How I did it:

I laminated a piece of blue paper.  Separately I created a present the box and the lid out of scrapbook paper.  I laminated each piece separately.  I then used my sewing machine to sew around the 3 outer edges of the box to secure it to the blue paper, leaving the top open to store cards.  I sewed the lid on around the bow.  I also laminated each card.  On the back of the cards I wrote the name of the picture and a breakdown of the sounds.

What a "suh-pies that two syllable words could be this much fun!

Speech Therapy: Action Words

This weeks assignment from the speech therapist was to practice action words.  My first thought was "Lights!  Camera!  Action!"

So introducing the movie themed, "not so quiet book"!

The flash cards her therapist gave me were not as pretty as the animal ones but they really reminded me of Sesame Street.  You know, the only show in the world to have current episodes with the occasional clip of a kid from the 80's. 

Psssttt... Sesame Street, just so ya' know - the feathered bangs are a total giveaway. 

We know you're using stock footage.  You can't even find clothes that outdated at thrift stores anymore. 

Don't be hurt.  I still love you.  I just thought you should know.

 How I did it:

I used my Mickey and Friends Cricut cartridge to cut out the green sign and the movie reel.  Because it reminded me of Sesame Street, I remembered an ad I saw in one of my magazines that had the Sesame Street characters so I glued their faces in the movie reel.  I used my Cricut cartridge, All Mixed Up to write the word "ACTION!".  I then laminated the entire page (leaving out the clapper board pieces).

I ten cut out the pieces of a clapper board by hand and laminated them separately.  I sewed the large portion to the main page and attached the small part with a scrap booking brad so she could easily move the top up and down.

She pulls down the top, makes the "cha cha" sound and says, "Action!"  We then pull out a flash card, say the name of the action, "Jump!" and then perform the action.  We then repeat the whole thing.  It's been a fun game and we both really enjoy playing along.  She also loves saying the names of her favorite characters from the show.  So much more fun and effective than just flipping cards!

Speech Therapy: Barn Yard Animals

My daughter Maggie is in speech therapy.  She just has a really hard time with speech.  She's been diagnosed with speech delay.  She's extremely bright and there's a lot going on in her mind she just doesn't or can't let it out yet.  She has improved TONS since she started in January but she still doesn't say much for her age, so we work hard on practicing her words each day.

This week her speech therapist gave us the goal to practice saying barn yard animals names, not just the sounds they make.  She gave me some gorgeous flashcards to work with.  Of course I couldn't just leave them alone, I had to get creative!

I rounded the edges and laminated each flash card using my personal laminating machine.

I wanted a place to store the cards but I also wanted it to be fun and interactive so I created this barn.  I free hand cut the barn body, grass, sun and a little chicken and then laminated the whole page.  I created a stable fence and doors that I laminated separately.

I used my sewing machine to sew the fence onto the page.  (Yes, your machine can sew more than just fabric!)  All of the flashcards fit nicely into the fence.  I left a little of the lamination on each of the doors and sewed the clear lamination straight onto the page.  Sewing the lamination and not the paper door itself helped the doors open more easily. 

A little surprise chicken in the loft. 

 

Maggie has loved her new barn.  We "knock, knock, knock" on the doors, tell them to "open" and get excited when we see "horsey" and "cow".  We line them up and make them play.  Then we put them back to bed, "night night doggie". It's been good practice and a lot more fun than flipping flash cards.

Our point in this is to be anything but quiet, but this would also make a great quiet book. 

So simple.  Now go make your own!