a "been-there" mom of six offers encouragement
to wives, young mothers, and those not so young,
and simple common-sense approaches to
the "ings" of life:
child-rearing (hints and helps), homemaking (all areas),
cooking (simple, cheap, and do-it-yourself)
making (toys and gifts), preparing (for the unexpected),
maintaining (sanity and peace in this increasingly crazy world) and more---
all aspects of making the most of making do on little---
and having fun in the process.

Friday, November 29, 2013

"Wrapping Up" Weaving Page 10

Before I show you my more time-consuming weaving pages, I want to tell you what I am hoping to do for the remaining pages in this category.  I can't show you because I don't have what I need yet.  I think you will be able to picture it.  Felt pieces are available in a variety of animal skin prints. I want to use this variety for my weaving strips.  The "discovery" page a group  of various wild animals---protected by what else?  a sheet protector.

#5 A Colorful and Textured  Variation of #1



This time I added sticky-back foam flowers in colors to match the felt background.
I added additional security by using thread to fastening down the flowers, creating petals in the process.
#6 is visual, tactile, and might make you think you are seeing things-----or not
Pretty much the same weaving strips as the others. I could have just
skipped right to the discovery but this was scanned before I thought of that!
This discovery is a take-off of another popular quiet book page---one I wasn't sure I wanted to undertake but my curiosity, fueled by the popularity of "I spy" on other blog sites, got the best of me.

This "discovery" page is a modified version of quiet book I Spy pages.
Nothing like this existed when I made our kids' original books.  
You can find many variations and instructions, with ideas for many add-in possibilities, for full page "I Spy" pages on the internet.

For my  reduced version I used two heavy-duty zip lock bags, one inside the other, hopefully thick enough to keep it from ever "leaking."

I filled the interior bag with rice, assorted beads and a variety of little flattish-type objects (again, guarding as best I can against including anything that would tend to puncture the bag). The baseball, snake, large lady bug, turtle and lizard are foam sticky-back stickers that I stuck to the outside of the inner bag before I placed that bag in the second bag. (If you look closely you might spy a soft plastic black widow spider peeking out from under the lizard). I zipped each closed, pushing out as much air as I could and stitched felt pieces along the top and bottom. I sewed the top of the bag to the felt background but left the bottom of it loose with just a small piece of Velcro on the backside of the bottom binding to secure the bag  at the bottom.

and finally . . .

#7 weaving "doesn't take the cake" (another old saying that, when I think about it, don't even know what it means exactly but do know I am using it correctly) but it does top the pie

Yes, the white object at the bottom needs some refining.
No, it  is not a shoe!
Look again and take a guess.
What  could go alone with a pie?

And the discovery . . .
Did you guess a pie server?

The pie filling is a piece of scrap-book paper. There were quite a few green leaves/stems on the page so I cut out extra strawberries and covered as many  as I could. Next I covered the filling with another trusty page protector, stitched across it to create the sections, with one section cut free.

I backed the removable slice by stitching on a felt crust a which had the sticking half of Velcro sewed to it,
so it would stay in the pie. Added the pinking sheared pie edging --- and went to find something sweet to eat!

The needs-refining pie server is two pieces of glittery craft foam stitched together to make it somewhat stiff. The glittery-ness makes it stick to the felt but I added the elastic strap to keep it more securely in place.

Watch for my last pages --- the combo middle pages --- next week.

'til we stitch ---- or eat ---- again

         I'm Simply, Gail