E

E is for elephants, eagle and...

elevator.

E was actually the first letter I did. I got this grand idea of making an elevator, because if you haven't figured it out yet, something on each page had to be interactive (there is one exception that will be explained when it makes its appearance). I like my elevator and I think it worked out nicely.

 Now, that I am looking back at the work I did on my first page, as opposed to the last one, I can't believe the stupid little details I was adding. It really isn't much but I actually two-toned the inside of the elevator to show the floor and the wall. I should have been chanting, 25 more, 25 more, 25 more....

The elevator is just a loop of ribbon through two button holes. Super simple.

D

D is for door, dots...

...dragon and dog (a dalmatian).

Yesterday, I was talking about finding fun things in the scrap-booking isle and among those things I found the hinges for the door (the hinges on G are better, just you wait). Of course, I found these hinges after I had already sewed on the door, by hand. So I had to cut that out and then attach the hinges. Of all the redos in this book, it wasn't so bad.

I have had this happy little mutt, sitting in a collection of patches, for years. He was just waiting for a proper application and I do believe he has found his spot in this world.

Shannon and I both collect things. I have to work fairly hard to keep uncluttered and fail repeatedly. I am always happy when an item in my collections come to good use.

The dragon was actually an afterthought and so I didn't actually get it ironed on. The problem with this is that it is actually sitting behind me on the shelf and no longer in the book. Everything else I tried really hard to make sure that it would stay were it was meant to. My shelf isn't big enough for everything in the book. 

It is hard to tell from the pictures but the door is made by cutting a piece of clear vinyl then covered in the brown fabric with a window hole cut in it. Once the fabric is over the vinyl I did a zig zag stitch around the window hole to finish the edges and hold it in place. It creates a stiffer door and also a nice little clear window. 

C

C is for chicken, cherry and clock.

I thought that the clock would be a good add to help the girls start to learn how to tell time. Sor far it looks as if I am right. Claire always asks me what time it is and wants me to make her clock the same as the clock in the living room.

I searched all through the buttons and sewing notions. Then one day, during a miraculous event called shopping without children, I was able to cruise the store more slowly. During this adventure I found that there are a lot of good ideas in the scrap-booking isles. You will another of these great notions next in D.

The numbers were drawn on with a laundry pen. This is a better option than regular permanent markers as they don't bleed much. 

B

B is for blue, button...

book..

bear and bird.

B has a lot of possibilities but knowing how limited some of the pages were going to be, (how many items can you think of for X?) I decided to keep all the pages rather simple.

Simple does not mean easy. I was not following patterns. This means that I glued and sewed each and every one of those buttons twice because I didn't get the front of the book the right size the first time. That is a lot of gluing and sewing. Try it sometime I think you might agree.

Let me give you this little tip. When gluing down all those tiny little buttons have a pair of tweezers that have a very pointy tip that fit into the button holes. I think my tweezers saved my sanity. I have fat fingers (the proof of this is in the above photo, check out those sausages), and without the tweezers my fat little digits would have been pushing around the buttons I just glued down while trying to place the next button.

I think that B might be one of my favorite pages. Except maybe for M or G or maybe even P or Q, oh I don't know!

A

For all you smart people who knew it was an alphabet book (thanks to the clues of the ABC's on the cover material and the hint of 26 days) here is a look at the material on the inside cover.

I found this toward the end of the constant searching of Walmart, JoAnne's, Beverly's and any other store that dared carry material or notions. I had to have it, rationalizing to myself that it would help my girls learn how to write in cursive. The truth being they would probably get in trouble when it came time to do cursive in school, as it seems every teacher teaches a different method of writing specific characters.

I am going to go through the book in order of the alphabet but I will have you know that that is not the way it was created. If I remember correctly I started with E and I definitely remember that I was last.

So with no further ado here is the broad look at A:

A is for apron, airplane, apple and...

acorn!

I love this airplane material. It reminds me of an old painting we used to have hanging in our house and now sits forlornly in the closet. Rejected by the fact that there are no little boy rooms to decorate.

What's In The Bag?

Here in lies a surprise for all. This small little package has taken months, but every stitch was made by me.

Over the next 26 posts (is that a clue?) I will be showing you what is in it, bit by bit. I don't have patterns for all of it but I will try to guide you through how I made everything so that you can use your own creativity to make your own with your own flair if you so choose.

This is the beginning of it all. The accumulation of me making things.