Beach Bag & Flip-Flop Matching Quiet Book Page

I will be making a number of beach and summer themed quiet book pages between now and May when we take a road trip to the beach. My next page will be Isty Bitsy Spider, but I’m trying to decide what to do after that: ice cream parlor or bonfire and s’mores. What do you think?

This is a two page spread that features both matching and my spin on the classic purse quiet book page. I wanted to make one, but I also wanted to make it gender neutral. When you open the bag, you’ll find sunglasses, an iPhone and a little snack of watermelon (Jax’s favorite!). The bag also holds all the flip flops from the matching page.

I had leftover flip flop buttons from the ocean i-spy page, so I decided to use them as the inspiration for the matching game. The flip flops are magnetic so they can stick easily to the footprints in the sand. If you don’t have the buttons, or wanted to do something different, you could make the footprints colored, or outline them with a color. You could even make two of each shoe and have them waiting in the sand for the other half of their pairs. I got my buttons from A.C Moore. They were $1.99 in the store.

So for this page, I used: The pattern, natural felt for the background (I used 9″ x 12″, but you could use two 9″ x 9″ squares and mount them on white felt), felt (in pink multi-dot, hot pink, red, orange, yellow, light green, green, aqua, purple, light gray, dark gray, white and tan – lots of scraps!), stiff glitter felt in lime green, tinted vinyl (mine was blue, from my scrap stash), clear vinyl, batting or stuffing, flip flop buttons and ribbons.

Sand Footprints: Sew the footprints down to the page with a magnet under each one. Sew around the magnet to hold it in place. Sew each button beside a footprint.

Flip Flops: I included all the pattern pieces I used to make flip flops that match the buttons. Decorate the top of your flip flop first. Sew a vertical line of stitches to attach center of the strap. Sew a magnet to the inside of the sole of the shoe, using a scrap of felt to hold it in place. Sew the top and bottom together around the edges, catching both sides of the straps in your stitches.

Beach Bag: Sew Velcro or snaps to the top of the bag lining pieces, making sure they line up. Pin a length of ribbon of strip of felt like a handle between the outer piece of the bag and one of the lining pieces. Sew across the top. Pin the other bag lining piece to the page and sew across the top. Pin the handle side of the bag on top of the side on the page and sew around the sides and bottom.

Glasses: Very simple! Layer your tinted vinyl between the two front frame pieces and sew them together. Sew each pair of frame arms together, them sew them to the front at the temples.

Watermelon: Sew the seeds to each red piece, then pin the red to the green. Sew a length of white ribbon over the edge of the red where it meets the green to make the rind (you could also cut some white felt and layer it between the red and green). Sew the front and back together, adding batting or stuffing if you want some dimension.

For the iPhone, please read the instructions from the iPhone and pocket watch page.

This page makes me even more ready to head to the beach! Hurry up, May!!