Quiet Book – Preparing the Pellon

My friend’s son’s birthday is coming up in a month and I have been trying to find something really good to make for him. After many hours spent trolling the images of Pinterest, I have decided to make him a quiet book.

When reading the tutorial at Serving Pink Lemonade, She mentioned her mother painting on pellon. I though this was a great idea, as it would be way easier to paint it details than appliqueing them. I searched the web for something that would give me an idea of how to go about painting pellon.

Absolutely nothing that was helpful.

So I tested some acrylic paints that I had, Folk Art (I use them normally for One Stroke Painting), on some left over pellon that I had. I tested different colours to see how they turned out and tried to make a shape, to see how easy it would be to paint in detailed designs.

It actually turned out quite well. It took a large amount of paint to cover an area, as the pellon is sponge like in design and the paint was absorbed into the tunnels between the fibers. It wasn’t super easy to paint in details, but neither was it impossible. Once dry, the paint didn’t scratch off.

Adding a second coat, green and brown to the part painted white, only worked out so-so. Once the paint dried, I tried scrapping it off and the second coat did come off somewhat.

So I will only use one coat of paint and make sure to paint in details such as the pupil of the eyes get painting in before I paint in the white of the eye.

I purchased a large amount of pellon, about 5 yards (it’s approximate because I took the remaining amount on the bolt, which was a bit under 5 yards). I also purchased a large amount of felt that was on sale, as there are some things I want to put in where I will not be able to paint in or use pellon for, and a ¼” hole punch and a large number of ¼” metal eyelets and an eyelet tool.

I cut the pellon into 12” x 9 ¾” pages.

I took one page and marked a vertical line 1” in from the edge on a long side of the page, then marked 3 horizontal lines, one at 1 ½” from the top, 6” from the top and 1 ½” from the bottom. I punched three holes, one where each of the horizontal lines intersected the vertical line. Then, using the eyelets and tool, inserted an eyelet into each of the punch holes. This page is now my template for where to make the holes on all my pages.

Using a thin marking tool, I placed my template on to one of my cut pages, made a mark through the eyelets and then punched out the holes in the page. I repeated for all the other pages.

I then placed all the pages in a pile and put them under a heavy basket to try and flatten them, as there were bends in the pages from where the pellon had been wrapped on the bolt at the store.

Stay tuned for the different pages that I’m making for the book and check out my Pinterest board for many more ideas and links.