Create a Quiet Book for $15

What if I shared with you how you can make something for under $15 that will entertain your children for hours? I can show you step by step how to make your very own Quiet Book, or some people like to call them Busy Books.  Why spend $100 onlilne buying one, when you can make one for only $15.  All you need is a glue gun and craft supplies that you probably have stored in a closet or drawer.  You don’t have to be Martha Stewart to create this.  You don’t even need to know how to sew, because there is no sewing involved! Just some simple tracing and cutting.  I’ll show you step by step how to make one.  This is going to be a lifesaver for you during long plane trips or car rides.

A Quiet Book is made of felt pages that have different activities to entertain small children.  It helps children stay focused and engaged in developing fine motor skills, sensory, and problem solving.  I started making quiet books when my youngest two were a year old.  We were taking a road trip to Florida and I needed something to help keep them entertain.  I looked online and realized quiet books were very pricey, so I went to the closest dollar store and craft store to get supplies.

Step 1- See what craft supplies you have around the house.  Googley eyes, mini pom poms, wooden craft sticks…etc.  If you don’t have any, then it’s time to go shopping.  I got everything from the dollar store and Michaels.  I had the puffy paint already, but you can pick up glitter glue from the dollar store and that works fine.  Buy a pack with different colors.  Collect some pictures of the family that you don’t mind cutting. I created a flip the flap page with family pictures.  Also, make sure you are buying craft supplies for your child’s age group.  I am making one for three-year old’s.  If your child is very young don’t use items that they can choke on.

I bought most of the supplies from the dollar store and the felt I bought from a craft store for $.39 each.

Step 2.  Plan your pages.  I spent hours on pinterest trying to find simple patterns.  A lot of pages involved sewing, so I just came up with more simple patterns for my pages.  I’m just using basic shapes, cutting them out, arranging them on the felt and gluing it down.  Your book pages can be as big as your felt sheet.  If you don’t want it that big, just measure each page and cut them evenly to the size you want. (I do not have any patterns for my pages, but if you have any questions or need help with certain shapes, leave a comment below and I’ll try and help you out).  Leave one page in the front and back blank.  This will be the “cover” with the fabric roll that you bought.

One pile that you cut will be the pages for the book, the other pile you will use to cut out shapes and help design the book pages. Save all your scraps because you will use them to make shapes for pages.

Step 3- Cut out all your shapes and start arranging your pages.  I pre-cut everything before gluing.  This way I know where everything belongs and it won’t take long to glue in place.  Let everything dry overnight. After you glued everything, pat yourself on the back, lay everything out in a place where toddlers can’t reach and let it dry.  This process took overnight for me.

Step 4- Glue everything. Lay out all of your pages, pre-cut shapes, accessories, and Velcro strips for the pages and glue everything in place.  I’ve been using the same glue gun for over 15 years, it doesn’t matter which one you use.

Step 5- Stack your felt pages on top of one another.  Create one stack, make sure your edges are even.  Just like a book.  You need to leave a little space on one edge so that this will be where you bind all the pages together.

Step 6- Bind your book.  Glue all the pages one by one on the left side of your book. When you finish, let it dry.

Step 7- Roll out your fabric roll.  Open up your book and cover your book.  Now cut around, leaving an inch so that you can roll it, and glue it on the other side of your felt cover page and back page.  Let it dry for a few hours.

Step 9.  Personalize the cover, if you want to.  I used my puffy paint and wrote my kids names on their book.  If you have any felt left over, you can cut out letters or shapes and glue them on the cover.

I waited until we were on our road trip to give them the quiet book. They loved having their own special book.  Now I make one for them every year, and they play with them throughout the year.  I hope this step by step blog inspires you to make one.  If you have any questions, or if you want to show off your own quiet book, send me a comment below.