Showing posts with label zipper. Show all posts
Showing posts with label zipper. Show all posts

Friday, June 24, 2016

Pyramid zipper coin purse

Earlier in the year, I went to a craft fair here in Brisbane, where I bought  a little kit to make this tetrahedron zipper pouch. When I saw it, my geeky side (I used to be a high school maths teacher) loved the idea - only a long zipper and a strip of fabric to make a little purse. The fabric strip is sewn along the zipper and as you close the zipper, a purse is formed!


And then of course, my 3-year old and 5-year old spotted it, and being zipper-obsessed as most kids are, begged me to make them both one.

The fabric strip was great, but it was fiddly to deal with the lining, so I perused the internet and came up with the perfect solution for a kids version - ribbon! Follow the link to Craft Passion where you'll find some great pictures and very useful instructions.

So I bought some ribbons... how cute are they?!?!


And some very long zippers, and got to work with the colours chosen by my children.



My kids are not really into coins, but the purses are the perfect size for storing tiny little treasures, like that one favourite car, dinosaur, or hairclip, or for just zipping and unzipping for fun.

Thursday, October 31, 2013

Part IV: Finished quiet book - Colours/Colors

By coincidence this book turned out to also be an animals book: a blue whale, green frogs, yellow chick, orange fish (goldfish), pink pig and red crab.






The blue page has a whale that unbuttons from the book. It can be removed, and also swiveled around on the button to flip up its tail.


The orange fish can be caught with the magnetic fishing rod and the pink pig finger puppet attaches at the back with velcro.


The green frogs are attached with snap fasteners and are an activity in size matching. The yellow chick lives in an egg that can be opened with a zipper.


The red crab is a velcro matching puzzle of sorts.

See more here:
https://www.etsy.com/au/shop/RichesandRoses

And see my other books here:
http://richesandroses.blogspot.com.au/2013/10/part-iii-shapes-quiet-book.html
http://richesandroses.blogspot.com.au/2013/10/part-ii-alphabet-quiet-book.html
http://richesandroses.blogspot.com.au/2013/10/finished-four-new-sets-of-quiet-books.html

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Part III - Shapes Quiet Book

Here is the third kind of Quiet Book that I finished over the last week. It's the Shapes activity book.


The Triangle page has a cute little tent which opens with a zipper to a little sleeping bag, also opening with a zipper.


Next is the Rectangle page which uses velcro to match colours and sizes. Next time I might do a sky background and make it look like a cityscape.

The Square page has the pieces of a house that stick on with velcro. Just the square pieces can be taken off.


The Circle page has a bus with wheels that come off (velcro again, but next time I'll use buttons to add some variety). The Oval page is the cute little chicken in a egg page that I've used in a couple of my other books.


The Diamond page is a little puzzle.


You can find my other two books here:
http://richesandroses.blogspot.com.au/2013/10/part-ii-alphabet-quiet-book.html
http://richesandroses.blogspot.com.au/2013/10/finished-four-new-sets-of-quiet-books.html

And a closer look at the Shapes book in my Etsy shop:
https://www.etsy.com/au/listing/167005046/toddler-quiet-book-shapes-theme?


Sunday, October 27, 2013

Part II - Alphabet Quiet Book

This is another of the Quiet Books that I finished at the weekend. I'm really happy with the variety of activities to do on the different pages.


A is for Apple...
The colours on this page came up really nicely. The apples are fastened on with velcro. Beneath each apple is the same shape to make it easy to match the sizes. 



B is for Balloon...
I've used velcro again here to fasten on the balloons in a colour matching activity. In the past I've also used coloured buttons and metal snap fasteners.

C is for Cat...
This is a simple page, but nice for practicing tying knots or bows.


D is for Dog...
My daughter has one of these pages in her quiet book and she loves opening and closing the buckle. Great for fine motor skills.

E is for Egg...
I love zipper pages. I think it's because my daughter has always enjoyed playing with the zipper page in her quiet book. Such a simple idea to us, but for little ones, they love opening the zipper and finding a little surprise inside to take out and put back in.


F is for Fish...
Magnetic fishing is always so much fun.


Stay tuned for some "How to" posts in the near future :)

See more at https://www.etsy.com/au/listing/167014595/toddler-quiet-book-alphabet-theme?


Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Spring is near

Continuing on with trying to be crafty with Mia, we tried out threading with the coloured pasta. Although difficult still, Mia loved sitting together and threading. Then she just went mad for pouring and putting coloured pasta all over the place. She loved it and could have played for hours like this.



Then we made a sheep. Mia's a huge fan of sticking - I think her childcare centre has been teaching them about sticky stuff recently. We kept to using clear contact because it's just so easy and I can sit back and watch her create without worrying that she's going to eat any glue.
And then a Father's Day present. I'd seen this idea months ago on Pinterest and thought it was very cute. So we made some homemade paints again with water, cornflour and food colouring. I thought I'd try this recipe and see if it lasted longer than the last time we made paints - the last recipe had a lot of sugar in it too - but it lasted much the same time. Actually I think I prefer the paint with sugar in it, because some of this crumbled and fell off when it was dry.



Finally I finished the smaller version of the quiet book - these ones have been made as gifts and for sale. The hours and hours of work that goes into one of these babies can never be set at a price that anyone's willing to pay, so I tried to keep it simple and limited myself to 6 activity pages - the best six. These have been Mia's favourites so far in her book.


            
Quiet book cover
Monkey with snap fasteners



      
Tie the shoe
Barn and animal finger puppets
                    

       
Count the beads
Tent, sleeping bag and doll with zippers
       
Mr Potato head with velcro
Pocket for all the pieces, plus some pieces for a Mrs Potato Head 
     

And some sewing for our baby who's now only 10 weeks away - a hanging wall storage and some wall art for above the cot.

I quilted the back section of the wall hanging and then made the pockets with square corners, lined with a very stiff interfacing. I'm still not sure if the pockets will sag after a while, especially if they're not stuffed full at the bottoms and have heavy stuff in them.
I found the idea for this one thanks to Martha Stewart, although the original idea was three larger frames. I bought a cheap white frame and a bunch of scrapbooking card stock and chose my book: Dr Seuss' Oh the Places You'll Go! The finished product looked quite effective - I especially like the black section with white writing and the orange giraffe. It stands out a lot more than the other two sections.



I made this one a while back, but never photographed it until now. I had made one as a birthday gift for a friend's baby, and had a second shirt so I thought I'd make one for Mia also. It turned out really cute and is an easy way to brighten up a plain t-shirt. I used heat and bond paper to attach the circles to the t-shirt fabric and then just sewed a tight zig zag stitch around each one to secure it on.