Rainow Bead Quiet Book Page

You may remember from last year that I contributed to a quiet book with some of my fellow Momstown Burlington moms. Once our work was complete as a group, I decided to add a few more pages that I thought Miss O would enjoy. One of these was a page designed to look like a rainbow using puffy felt clouds and strands of bright, colourful beads. The page also includes two removable happy clouds.

 

Items Required

• 1 sheet blue felt
• 1 sheet white felt
• pony beads in a rainbow of colours (I chose to include pink)
• matching ribbon or plastic lacing for each bead colour
• fiberfill
• blue thread & grey thread & white thread (I prefer using two strands from a piece of embroidery floss – stronger and thicker)
• needle
• 2 small squares of velcro

How-To

Cut out clouds for two corners of your page from your white felt. I drew these freehand onto the felt then cut them out, ensuring the opposite side was facing up so as not to see any marker I may have missed when cutting.

Next, cut out two mini clouds from your excess white felt. Each cloud will require a front and a back, so be sure to cut through two layers of felt at once to ensure they line up. Stitch eyes and a mouth onto one piece of each cloud using your blue thread (eyes) and grey thread (mouth). I used french knots for the eyes (much easier than it sounds – find yourself a video tutorial on YouTube) and basic backstitching for the mouth. Stitch a piece of velcro onto the back of each cloud – use the stiff piece for the clouds and save the softer pieces for the page. Once your clouds have velcro & faces, stitch them together. Leave a small hole to stuff with fiberfill and then stitch closed.

Cut your ribbon or plastic lacing into pieces long enough to hide the ends underneath your clouds. Tie a knot on one end of each and string on your beads. Tie a knot on the other end once complete. Pin your ribbon/lacing to the page.

Put a few stitches over and around the knots to secure them to the page. It doesn’t matter how messy it looks as it will be covered by the cloud. Once your ends are secure, stitch on your clouds leaving a hole near the end to stuff your clouds with fiberfill. Once stuffed, be sure to sew up the hole. As I stitched on the clouds, I liked to make sure that a stitch went through the plastic lacing just for a bit of extra security.

Stitch your soft pieces of velcro on the page wherever you would like your mini happy clouds to sit.

Voila! You have a fun bead page for your little one. It’s a different take on the classic ladder-style page. Miss O loves pulling the little clouds off of the page. She also loves pushing the beads from the top cloud to the bottom cloud and back again. It’s such a colourful page that attracts the eye. It’s sure to become a favourite!