Corinne loved her quiet book! I was thrilled and took lots of photos for my mother and Lisa, both of whom worked on the book with me.
Opening the gift bag.
The cover and the matching pillow I always make out of leftover cover fabric.
The title page - the lamb's ribbon collar has a bell that really rings on it.
Corinne takes a look. Over the next couple of days, she fiddled with that bell quite a bit to make it tinkle.
The jack-o-lantern opens and has more face pieces in it. They're held on with velcro. And for Dumbo, you use your finger for his trunk.
Of course, the stuffed bunny from another page works, too.
Buttoning the flowers into the vase has been included in every book that I've made. (Corinne's is number eleven.)
And the tipi opens up to show Chief Illiniwek inside, a nod to Kyle and his love of Illini basketball.
My mother drew the traditional tipi decorations. It's the story of a young boy who grows up to be chief. She didn't need any reference pictures, simply freehanding them.
We designed two new pages. The princess was a Native American girl that we felt was outdated and inaccurate, so we turned her into Rapunzel. And Granny Slash thought that Corinne needed a page reflecting her Florida heritage, so she free-handed a coconut tree. I used a pattern for a travel trunk, with a lid that opens, modified it to fit our needs, and we added monkeys to the tree.
They can be put into the trunk and hidden or be hung all over the tree.
I could not find apples (to reflect Kyle's family heritage of owning an apple orchard) so I used cherries (which reflect another family heritage - Great Grandma Honeywell's cherry pie.) And the Rock-a-bye, Bunny is a page I have never done, although I've had the pattern since making my first book.
Corinne loved carrying that tiny bunny around and putting it back in its bed. Here she picks cherries off the tree and places them in the basket.
Most of my children and grandchildren have the whale page, only this time we made it a girl whale because we found some googly eyes with eyelashes. My mother drew the little fish frolicking around her.
And, she designed and knitted a scarf for the snowman. We made three sets of hats, trying to find the best color, deciding that black complemented the scarf best.
The whale's mouth opens and has little appliques inside - a turtle, chick, horse, robot, Illini football helmet, etc.
What's a chick dong inside a whale??
Let's see what else is inside.
Always, always, the last page is intended to continue keeping the child entertained, even though the quiet book has been "read." I put in a purse (for girls) or a pocket (for boys) that holds a pad of paper and then make a pencil holder for a pencil or crayon.
Addie peeks inside the purse with her sister.
So, the big question was, would Corinne like her book?
She sure did!
