Quiet / Busy Book - Trucks and Denim

Trucks and Denim

It's the ultimate upcycling - denim, cut from an old pair of jeans, beautifully softened, then padded for a cover of a quiet / busy book...

 There's a pocket on the front cover to store the trucks, but don't worry they won't get lost - they're attached by colourful cords.

 Are these pockets for trucks? Or are they tunnels, or a terraced road along a mountainside... let the imagination do the rest...

 Drive the trucks between the trees, along the mud road.

 Drive them into the tunnel... or truck shed... whatever you want it to be... make up your own story with your baby.

 But what's this... a flap, a shed...?

 Use the chunky button to lift the flap and find out...

 All bound up in a soft book by Lost in a Book. Because babies need books too.

Christmas quiet / busy book

I made a Christmas pudding yesterday - but not the sort you can eat...

This is the front cover of my first Christmas quiet / busy book. The pudding is a flap - can anyone guess what might be under the flap? I'll post more pictures later, because this book isn't quite finished. I ran out of time and inspiration for the last page yesterday,  and I also need to go shopping for a few bits and bobs in festive colours...

New from Lost in a Book - putting books into tiny hands - Quiet / Busy Books - handmade and each one unique..

Because babies like to pull at things, chew things, and feel different textures...

A Quiet / Busy Book has all these things, bound into a soft book. It's a treasure trove of bits and bobs: button and zips, ribbons and cords, all safely stitched between soft but strong pages, to be discovered and grabbed!

All handmade and everyone different, these books will be going with me to this year's Christmas fairs. 

Book signings and Christmas fairs... and sheep

It's that time of year again, and dates for Christmas fairs are filling up, mostly in November and into December, I probably should get back into sheep production to save a last minute rush - last year I seemed to spend every night in November knitting extra sheep to keep up with demand, and this year I have a few other hand made items in mind...

Sheep on the loose... this is what happens when Downboy the sheepdog isn't around

Author rambling on...

So what does a quiet / busy book have in common with a regular book...?

• Both need a heap of imagination to write
• Both will entertain 
• Both have pages to turn

So how are they different...?

Quiet / busy books:

• Must be strong enough to withstand a baby, and never underestimate that...
• Can have all kinds of stuff stitched into them to stimulate a baby
• Must be chewable and washable
• A very tactile way of creating a book, by rummaging through fabrics and objects
• Not as easy to mass produce

Regular books:

• Must be strong enough to withstand reasonable use
• The content relies on words and pictures to entertain
• Will not take kindly to being chewed or washed
• An equally creative process needed to create, but less to do with things you can touch, more rummaging around in the imagination and daydreaming...
• Easily mass produced

Quiet / Busy Book

 Ok here you are as promised - pics of my first ever quiet/busy book:

I emptied a heap of ransom stuff onto the table, and got creative...

The cover of the book was from fabric I bought specially, as was the wadding, the cord to tie it with was from my sewing box.

Babies love to pull at random things - including zips.

I bought the giraffe motif, but the favourite page was the mad collection of a cords from my sewing box .

I bought the hippo motif and big buttons, the other fabrics came form my sewing box.

Back cover, with cord to tie, or just hold and wave about in excited manner  :)

So there we have it, my first busy book - and will there be more? Well I'd love to hear your views - if I made a few of these and took them along to book signings, would you be interested in buying one? and what do you think would be a fare price for a hand made one-off such as this, where every one would be different?