Easy Peasy Tea Party Printed Quiet Book Page

This easy peasy quiet book page comes with a little disclaimer. I used a regular printer and fed some Korean hard felt through it rather than paper. I printed around ten pages worth, and they all printed fine. Not long after doing this however, my printer would no longer print correctly, and I had to get another one. 

It is certainly better if you can use the sublimation printing method to print on felt instead! See my post Sublimation Printing on Felt - Test. The colours would turn out much better too, no doubt. Although I think it is okay anyway, especially for a page like this. My Mum says it makes it look antique.

What little girl doesn't enjoy a tea party? I certainly enjoyed many on a cot blanket (think pretend picnic blanket) with my sister and all our dolls and teddies. This little girl has a puppy and kitty to spoil, and they are all totally adorable.

I found this ‘Little Miss Alice & Her Dolly – a commercial Paper doll book’ vintage paper doll set on Pinterest - and there you can find many others as well. I have saved quite a few that might work well for quiet books to my board Felt Sublimation and Printables, which needs a bit of re-organising. The link to the Marges8's Blog posts where you can find the image is here.

Tahlia demonstrates how to mess up a quiet book for a gift

I simply cut slits where indicated for the puppy and kitten to sit at the table and sewed around the outside edge of the felt section depicting the table, leaving the top open to form a pocket to store the dolly, puppy and kitten.

Finished!

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Have you made something similar yourself? Let me know how it went. And which background do you like best for the vintage dolly tea-party?

Genesis 37 - Joseph's Coat Quiet Book Page

In Genesis 37, Joseph is given a special coat by his father - his brothers get jealous and sell him as a slave.

Memory Verse: “Then they said to one another, “Look, this dreamer is coming! Come therefore, let us now kill him and cast him into some pit; and we shall say, ‘Some wild beast has devoured him.’ We shall see what will become of his dreams!”” Genesis 37:19-20

Materials needed to create the Joseph's Coat quiet book page:

• A4 felt background sheet - I used green
• felt scrap in brown for the back of the pit pocket
• hot glue and glue gun
• Betty Lukens Felt book 01 Bible Stories available at Koorong
• sewing thread to best match the page
• scissors!

Cut out all the pieces for this page, and the page itself from the set. The Betty Lukens FAQ section has posted a cutting tips PDF.

Cut out a section of brown felt to cover above the pit pocket to as far down the page as you can manage whilst leaving room to sew the page onto the background felt sheet. Hot glue it in position along the top edge of the pit and down both sides and the bottom to form a pocket for the small Joseph.

Sew the page onto the background felt along three sides, leaving the top edge open to form a pocket. Pop the pieces inside (or better yet, play with them)!

Finished!

The pocket is not big enough so Joseph looks like he could easily get out!

Difficulty Level = Easy, plus No Sew version.

A very easy quiet book page!
Just use hot glue wherever sewing is recommended for a no sew version.

Key Learning Areas and Skills

• Genesis 37 - jealousy can lead to devastating results
• Imaginative play - tell the story of Joseph - his dreams, his coat of many colours, and how he was treated badly by his brothers and sold as a slave to Egypt
• Dress up - dress Joseph in his coat of many colours
• Colours - name all the colours on Joseph's coat
• Inserting - insert Joseph into the pit pocket
• Fine Motor Skills - all quiet books encourage fine motor skill development
• Hand-eye Co-ordination - all quiet books encourage hand-eye co-ordination

Read the Chapter

Genesis 37

Devotional

What a difficult life for a young man to find himself in suddenly! One minute the favourite son of a wealthy man, the next a slave in a foreign country. Nevertheless it seems that his father had brought him up with good values despite his favouritism because we find Joseph sticking to his God and his morals through some very tough circumstances.

Whilst scripture doesn't say what the heinous crime that Joseph dobs his brothers in to their father for, the rabbis have recorded it in chapter 38 of the Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer. While you might not believe everything written in this document, the reason Jacob sends Joseph to check on his brothers and the flocks makes sense in this context. Apparently Zilpah and Bilhah's sons were eating the flesh of the animals in the flocks whilst the animals were still alive. Pretty gruesome no matter how you interpret that. And quite a no-no for a group of people who were bound by kosher law to drain the blood before roasting the meat. If they were in that much of a hurry to eat that they didn't bother to kill the animal, I can only imagine what passed through their lips. Eww.

It may be that Jacob's favouritism of Joseph was well deserved. And it may be that the coat was a present to try to cheer him up after enduring the harsh treatment of his brothers, who knows? There is a lot of back-story missing I think.

Joseph's clothes give punctuation to his story. I love the Joseph quiet book page that Patricia from Patty Cake Cafe made (with a free template) showing all four of Joseph's "costume changes" as he passes through each stage of his life.

The four stages are:

1. Favoured son
2. Slave in Egypt
3. Prisoner in Egypt
4. Pharaoh's Second-in-command

Image source

The coat of many colours is a bit of a mystery. The fact that Jacob made it kinda says to me that he was still a bit of a Mama's Boy. Weaving was a woman's job.  It takes longer to weave using many colours, so that increases it's value. But was the coat made of many colours? Scholars are not so sure. The word is largely unknown in the Bible, being used only one other time in connection to Tamar the daughter of King David. Some think that this coat was 'girly', and I think I remember reading in Robert Alter's commentary on Genesis that Jacob calls his other sons 'handsome' but Joseph he calls 'beautiful', presumably because he looked like his mother Rachel. While this is all very interesting, I can hardly imagine Joseph's brothers being jealous of a 'girly' robe.

Other scholars I read said that the word more likely refers to the arm-length of the robe. I guess it would also take longer to weave a coat with sleeves in it, so it would also be more valuable. It probably reached to the palms of his hands, and a coat like that was not made for hard work. Perhaps Jacob kept him from hard work in order to keep him from being corrupted by his brothers. Or perhaps he wanted to keep him home to teach him God's word as it had been revealed that Joseph was to be the leader of the family through his dreams.

Whatever the case, Joseph's coat has a story to tell. And I am sure his brothers enjoyed dirtying it up on him. But they couldn't stop God's plan for Joseph. In fact their attempt to rid themselves of him ultimately helped Joseph achieve his greatness. So next time you are in a tough situation, just remember that all things work together for the good of those who love the LORD (Romans 8:28) just as they did for Joseph.

The same is true for the story of Jesus. It is well-known that Joseph is a type of Christ. There are many similarities occurring within the two stories. Whilst Jesus started out as the favoured Son of God in Heaven, like Joseph He lost His glory, descending to Earth and was sold, betrayed, and was unrecognised by His brethren, but will ultimately take up a position of power once again. The Jewish leaders betrayal of Jesus ultimately helped Him achieve God's plan of reconciling man to Himself by providing for our sins, just as Joseph's betrayal ultimately led to reconciliation with and provision for his brothers.

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

Jacob and Sons/Joseph's Coat

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What have you always imagined Joseph's coat looking like?

Genesis 39 - The Temptation of Joseph Quiet Book Page

Genesis 39 demonstrates Joseph's integrity.

Memory Verse: "No one is greater in this house than I am. My master has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?” Genesis 39:9

Materials needed to create The Temptation of Joseph quiet book page:

• A4 felt background sheet - I used black
• sublimation printed Ancient Egypt dress-up dolls by Gabi's Paper Dolls (I only printed some of the female costumes and the dolls) - you can read how I had it done on my Sublimation Printing on Felt - Test post
• Veltex material (also called loop fabric or industrial webbing) in skin colour
• Velcro dot
• hot glue gun and glue
• Double sided iron-on interfacing scrap
• gold coloured material that won't fray - I used pleather but it was difficult to sew due to it's stretchiness (made easier by gluing first)
• clear craft glue if using pleather to make sewing easier - I used polyacetic acid & ethylene resin based glue
• decorative material
• two decorative buttons
• jump ring tassel
• gold ribbon
• gold elastic
• felt in gold/straw colour
• sewing thread to match
• my free template (Egyptian wardrobe only)

First cut out your paper dolls, clothes and wigs, cutting off the tabs as you go. Then use your male paper doll to cut out a section of Veltex and double sided iron-on interfacing to the same shape as his torso/legs.

This one is Tahlia's favourite dress

Arrange your pieces onto the background and iron on the Veltex to the background in the correct position using the interfacing. Sew around the edge to hold in place.

Potiphar's wife acting like a 'cougar'... - this one is my Grandma's fav dress

Hot glue the feet of the male doll to the background in place over the Veltex. Cut out his undergarment and finish gluing down his legs. Hot glue the Velcro dot to the back of his undergarment and place in position. Then line up the head and glue the remainder of his body down. Hot glue the woman into position.

To make the wardrobe, trace the pieces using the template onto the back of your pleather using pen - this will avoid puncturing the pleather unnecessarily. Cut them out. For the decorative panel, cut the size to the back piece and then trim down slightly so it doesn't show on the edge of the wardrobe when layered. Using the clear craft glue, glue the decorative panel to the gold/straw felt and allow it to dry. Then glue the gold edging on top and allow to dry. Sew the inner section around the decorative panel.

Glue two sections of gold ribbon on the back to form hinges for the front door of the wardrobe. Then glue some pleather to the back of your felt and allow to dry. Sew around the outside edge of your wardrobe door and then cut it out, making sure not to cut off the hinges.

I found I had to shorten the bottom of the wardrobe base by around 5 mm and overlap the door over the lower section of the wardrobe front slightly to fit it on my page. I didn't change the pattern as you may be using a different size page to me.

Glue the pleather wardrobe base to the background page and insert the hinges from the door underneath on one side and insert a short loop of gold elastic with a jump ring tassel threaded onto it on the other side where you want the latch to be. Allow to dry and sew in place, reinforcing the stitching over the hinges and elastic loop.

Glue the remaining pleather pieces to the gold/straw felt and sew along the top edge of the draw and lower section of wardrobe front. Cut the draw out and sew the lower edge in place over the lower section of the wardrobe front. Then sew the lower section of the wardrobe front down over the base on the bottom and sides to form a pocket. To complete the wardrobe, hand sew your buttons on.

Finished!

Difficulty Level = Hard

It will be easier if you use something other than pleather that stretches! If you use pleather, be sure to use the glue.

"Hey Joseph, want to see my secret garden?"

Key Learning Areas and Skills

• Genesis 38 - This page teaches about how we need to be prepared to suffer even when we do the right thing.
• Buttoning - Open and close the wardrobe
• Tucking - Tuck the wigs into the wardrobe draw
• Imaginative Play - dress up Potiphar's wife in all her outfits
• Velcro - rip off Joseph's undergarment (and re-position them)
• Fine Motor Skills - all quiet books encourage fine motor skill development
• Hand-eye Co-ordination - all quiet books encourage hand-eye co-ordination

Read the Chapter

Genesis 39

Devotional

I admire the way that Jacob brought up Joseph. He was only around 17 when he was sold as a salve and yet His devotion to God is to be greatly admired. It must have been difficult to follow God in the situation he found himself in, and it would have been easy to go along with new cultures and customs and tell himself that God had forgotten him, so he may as well do likewise.

"Hey Joseph, do you want some 'trifle'..."

There are a few boundaries Joseph put in place to reduce the chances of finding himself in less than ideal circumstances. You can read about Joseph's 5 Steps to Avoid Temptation: Genesis 39:6-23 on the God Running blog. He had resolved to keep himself from "strange" women (those who did not follow God) as told in the story of Joseph and Asenath, translated by H. F. D. Sparks. He must have envisaged a celibate life, exiled in the land of Egypt. And not only exiled, but imprisoned. Nevertheless, as stated at the end of the blog post mentioned above, God preserved his life in that the punishment due Joseph was death. I noticed that Joseph was sold to Potiphar the Captain of the Guard (Genesis 37:36) - and the same titled person is in charge of the prison. It looks like Potiphar realises that Joseph is innocent because instead of putting Joseph to death, he saves face by putting him in his prison, but eventually puts him in charge of it just as he had done with his household (Genesis 40:3-4). Despite his circumstances, Joseph sticks to his values and God rewards him with freedom, power, and a beautiful convert, Asenath.

There are so many parallels between the story of Joseph and Jesus in the Bible, and I can only see more told through the love story of Joseph and Asenath.

Dreamcoat Part 8 - Potipher

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Hearing from you gives me great encouragement!