Frog’s Book Nook – an Embroidered Felt Art Diorama

When I was a child, I loved books and pictures with lots of details you could dive into visually and seek out all the hidden bits. It’s like being an explorer where only you see those tiny details. Now all grown up, I want to create the kind of scenes in 3-D that are just like those images I loved as a child, but using felt and embroidery. Frog’s Book Nook is my first attempt and I really like the result. I have exploded the parts out beyond the frame and there is lots of fun little details to enjoy. Parts are still mobile and I can style my frog to enjoy his new home.

This is quite a large project and takes a while but is quite cost effective. To make the construction easier, I have broken it into modules so that the whole project can be all worked on together, or only the parts you like. I have made individual modules as stand alone Instructables projects with their own materials lists, detailed photos and pattern sheets. This final Instructables project takes all the one’s you have made separately, and pulls them all the others together. I also walk you through making the parts that are unique to just this project. I will also share some swaps you could use to save some of the effort in this project.

This is a modular project.

Here’s my order of work, or alternatively where to find the modules should you only want to make some parts:

• Start with the frog. That way you have a pal you work with for all the rest!: https://www.instructables.com/Cute-Felt-Frog-Pal-W...

• Then make the Forever Flower Bouquet parts. They take a while, but you can have a lovely bunch of flowers to enjoy while you work on the next sections: https://www.instructables.com/Forever-Flowers-a-S...

• Then make the sky background. This looks nice and can sit on your workbench as a lovely landscape to look at while you work, or would make a lovely piece on its own: https://www.instructables.com/SeascapeSkyscape-Em...

• This is how to lace the sky backdrop onto a box board insert to go into your frame: https://www.instructables.com/Frame-an-Embroidery...

And now you are ready to start this project!!!!

I will just list the materials and the pattern sheets used for the parts unique to this project here, but again steps are modular so that you can just make individual bits like the frog song book, the vine or the epiphytes, or make it all and enjoy!

Shadow frame insert:

• Frame. I used IKEA Vastanhed 20 * 25cm frame in white
• Scraps of felt in matching colours to shades of pale blue to the background sky panel already completed
• Felt in matching brown colour to your tree branch. I needed about 25cm * 12cm for this section, but the total brown felt I used was around 1/3 metre
• Embroidery thread to suit colours of felt. I used DMC light blue 813, very light sky blue 747, medium blue green 809, and a lot of scrap lengths of pale blue and variegated pale blue threads
• 1 – 2 chalk pencils to mark lines. I used both a yellow and pink chalk pencil because I wanted to leave the chalk marks behind after I finished stitching
• Embroidery needle
• Small scissors
• Old scissors to cut felt
• Pins
• Iron for sticking down interfacing and an A4 cotton fabric scrap for pressing
• Heavy duty thread. I used Gutermann Extra Strong Thread 000 100m in blue and brown. This thread is strong enough to tension without breaking

Tree trunk:

• Medium weight garden tie wire pack
• 2 lengths of 24 gauge florist wire
• duck tape in any colour
• dark brown felt – the same as on the shadow box frame. I used about 30cm * 1m in total for all the diorama
• scrap strips of wadding about 2 cm wide. I used about 50cm square worth of wadding strips
• surgical paper tape
• Embroidery thread - DMC dark coffee brown 801 and DMC medium topaz 783
• Pliers or wire cutters
• hook shaped upholstery needle

Epiphytes:

• Scraps of three tones of green felt
• Embroidery threads in matching colours – I used DMC very dark jade 561, DMC very dark emerald green 909 and DMC medium parrot green 906
• Matt clear acrylic varnish
• Old brush

Fruit vine:

• 1 length of 24 gauge florist wire about 30cm long
• Strip of green felt measuring 9mm * 30cm
• Pre-cut 1.5cm felt circles from a multi colour pack in bright orange and yellow. Each fruit is made from three circles sewn together, and I made 5 fruits (3 in yellow and 2 in orange), so I used 15 circles
• Embroidery threads in DMC medium parrot green 906, and 2 shades of orange and yellow
• Pearl coloured large seed beads (5)
• Rotary cutter and metal ruler

Frog Song book:

• Scraps of dark brown and fawn coloured felt. You could use the same felt as the trunk for one of these if you have scraps
• 2 * 2cm diameter pre-cut felt circles in gold. I had left overs from earlier steps on other projects
• Embroidery threads to match the felt colours plus a burnt orange colour for the highlights. I used DMC dark coffee brown 801, DMC light orange 742, DMC light straw yellow 3822, and DMC dark burnt orange 900
• Scrap of fusible webbing about 30 cm * 15cm
• Tiny scrap of Solvy sticky soluble transfer paper (like 10cm square!). If you don’t have any, you can also use a chalk pencil or even 2B pencil to draw up the words.
• Little piece of cotton fabric printed with tiny musical notes or any other content you would like to see in the song book. Mine was an old print I found in my stash. When I googled it, I found lots of options for sale.
• Scalpel (optional but useful for cutting)
• Varnish or nail polish to seal edges of pages
• Pencil

Frog’s Book Nook has been built into a store bought IKEA frame.
Because it is my first attempt I didn’t want to spend big on materials, but I do have to say the frame is not super great quality, especially the little metal strips you bend in at the back. Some of them fell out from wear and tear as I worked so I ended up having to Duck Tape the frame closed as the end. I like the frames dimensions and the shadow bow part works really well, so it’s a trade-off.

The frame consists of the usual parts – glass, outside edge and backing, but this frame also has an inside “Shadow Box” insert piece that you can slide out and decorate to make your diorama really flow. The first thing I did was discard the glass. This piece jumps out of the frame so no glass needed!

After making the background skyscape (find materials, pattern sheets and full instructions here: https://www.instructables.com/SeascapeSkyscape-Embroidery-Using-Only-One-Stitch-/

I wanted the sky to flow onto the “shadow” part of the frame and be truly three dimensional, with the top and right side of the frame being the sky and the bottom and left side of the frame being tree branch. I also wanted to use the tree branch parts of the frame to have a surface I could sew the felt branches to. So I made a felt cover for the “shadow” insert in the frame.

Here’s my first swap. If the embroidery of the sky looks like lots of work, you could just swap for a plain colour piece of felt to the right size and use it on both the background and shadow frame. You could also paint both the background panel and the sky side and top of the shadow box, perhaps painting in some clouds. The only parts that really have to be felt are the bottom of the shadow insert and the left side because the branches are sewn to them.

The felt cover is definitely worth it though, so plunge on!

Measure the dimensions of your shadow insert inside surfaces. Mine measured: 1.5 inches deep * 7.5 inches on the short sides and 9.5 inches on the long sides. I added a small excess of ¼ inch around the edges for seam allowances – not too much so the insert would not fit back into the frame and not too little so it doesn’t cover the insert fronts.

Cut four pieces of felt – two in pale blue – one measuring 2 inches * 8 inches and a second measuring 2 inches * 10 inches, and two in brown felt – one measuring 2 inches * 8 inches and a second measuring 2 inches * 10 inches

Cut 4 matching pieces of light weight iron on interfacing.

Using your iron and the pressing sheet, press the four iron on interfacing pieces to the rear of the felt panels.

Set the 2 brown sections aside.

Place the shadow insert on top of your background sky panel, and take the 2 blue sections of felt and prop or tape them lightly against the shadow surround. You are going to work out if you can carry your background design onto the shadow. I worked out 2 areas I could carry the design onto the sides where I had some scrap bits of felt from the background. I drew up these shapes by eye just based on where the overlap on the background matched up. There was none on the top section.

Pin the felt pieces cut for the shadow frame and work rows of blanket stitch to catch the layers down. Continue to work blanket stitch over the side and top panel as you did for the background – marking sections in chalk pencil and then varying your thread as you work. Because these are thin sections of felt, they wont take too long.

Once complete you will have 4 felt sections to attach top, bottom and to the sides of the shadow box. Lay all 4 sections into the frame to work out the top of the layout and then pin each of the sections together. I pinned all seams right sides together. Using your strong thread join three of the joins together in backstitch. If you want to speed this up you are welcome to grab your sewing machine. Leave the fourth corner at this stage to make it easier to tension the felt into the frame. You will now have formed a lumpy “c” shape of felt.

Match one of the edges of felt against the inside edge of your shadow frame. I find it easiest to start with one of the sections that has already been seamed at each end.

Thread your needle with strong thread and work a zigzag pattern of stitches across the back edge of the shadow frame top to bottom in either blue or brown thread. Work one section at a time and take your time to tension the thread.

When you reach the last 2 sides that need to be joined at one end, complete this final sides seam in backstitch right sides together first.

You will now have a shadow frame that will fit snugly into your frame and continue the background.

You can put it together temporarily but you will need to keep taking the frame apart to work out pieces.

he tree trunk is formed out of wire covered in strips of wadding and duck tape, than covered in felt and embroidery. The trunk has branches growing out of it that end in leaves and flowers. These leaves and flower branches were made in the forever floral bouquet here:

https://www.instructables.com/Forever-Flowers-a-Stitched-Felt-Flower-Bouquet/

Here is my second swap. I loved making the leaves and flowers, but you can buy some lovely fake flowers and greenery. If you want to speed up your make, have a look at how I have laid out my leaves and flowers and then buy some to give the same look. These will be attached into the project in the same way as my stems, using duck tape.

To start your tree trunk, take your frog (his instructions are here: https://www.instructables.com/Cute-Felt-Frog-Pal-Wire-Form-Posable-Sculpture/) and sit him on the bottom right corner of the frame. Imagine your frog sitting in a deck chair. You are going to make that kind of shape in wire and then cover it with felt so it looks like the perfect seat branch.

Using the garden wire, form a wire seat for your frog. Take a look at the photo to give you an idea of the proportions. Cut the wire and cover the join in wires with duck tape. Now form a seat base to sit on in wire by zigzagging some wire across the seat and attaching this with small pieces of duck tape. Keep testing your frog in the seat in the frame to ensure fit.

I wanted the trunk to form a bit of a curve so that the branches could sit out, so I added 2 loops of 24 gauge florist wire to each end of the seat made from 2 lengths of florist wire. These wires had the added benefit of providing stability to the seat in its location.

Now is the fun part. Take all the leaf and flower stems you made in the bouquet and using the photos as a guide, arrange where you would like each stem to sit in the frame. I place one of the pink bleeding heart blooms at each end of the seat structure. I spread out the remainder of the leaves and stems at each end. The idea is to position each stem where you would like so it crosses the seat at some point. At that point use a small pieces of duck tape to attach the two together. You end up with a weird naked wire frame sprouting lots of foliage!

After all the foliage taped into position, you need to cover all the bare wires with strips of wadding wound around the structure. This is just like you did in the instructions for the frog so you will know what to do, or revisit those instructions for some tips. Secure the wadding down as you work with a little surgical paper tape. It stays soft and works a treat sticking the sections down lightly.

Over the top of the seat section, position and lightly tape a piece of wadding to form a top. The wire “tree” seat is now ready to be covered in brown felt.

This section of work is a bit free form because everyone’s tree trunk is an individual. Regardless, the method will be the same – work from the narrowest branches to the thickest parts of the trunk. Each felt section is formed as a rough rounded shape that you wind over the part of the branch you wish to cover and whip stitch down using matching embroidery thread. Study the photos here. I have done a series, taking a small shape, pinning it into position, then whip stitching it down. You will want to do all the small individual ends first.

Once all the smaller sections are covered, move to larger sections of bark. The method is the same, just the sizes get bigger.

In the bottom right hand corner of the frame, I wanted the set to merge with the brown parts of the shadow box frame. For this part I cut a bigger section of felt with a right hand corner in it (about 25cm square. I used the heavy brown thread to catch the right angle corner of felt to the corner of the frame. This gives a big ‘tongue’ of felt. I then draped this big ‘tongue’ across the trunk and cut the felt ‘tongue’ until it melded with the shape of the branch to make a front of the branch.

This section reached all the way to the front edge of the shadow frame and to catch down this section I used a hook shaped upholstery needle. The need was also handy for other sections of stitching into the trunk. Fill any parts of the wadding wire frame still exposed on the trunk with “bark” felt patches.

Once the whole trunk has been covered in brown felt, you can add some blanket stitched bark shapes in dark gold embroidery thread (DMC 742). I worked these in 2 strands of thread and used the same method of chalk pencil lines and then covered in stitches as I did for the background. This stitching looks great. You can also make sections that look like old branch trimming rings, by cutting our rough circles of brown felt and working circles of gold blanket stitch on them and then attaching them to the trunk with a final ring of blanket stitching. The trunk is complete, but to really add some details why not make some epiphytes in green felt and a hanging vine with fruit for some extra interest!

I really like the felt epiphytes (air plants) in the project and they were actually rather simple to make. I have included a pattern piece. Really I just drew free form seaweed like shapes on the felt scraps and cut them out carefully. Because the pieces were quite thin and small, I made the felt stronger by painting them on the back with a layer of clear matt varnish. This made the felt a bit stiffer and stronger, and once you add the central stitched vein in the leaves, they curl in a wonderful random way. I dried the felt pieces after painting with the varnish by pinning them to a scrap of foam on a fold back clip.

I worked a line of stem stitch (you could also just do split stitch or back stitch) down the middle of each epiphyte leaf in 2 strands of a matching shade of green embroidery thread.

I ended up making 15 epiphyte pieces in the three colours with a variety of leaf numbers.

Once all the epiphyte pieces were ready, I pinned them roughly into shape on the tree trunk to see what the design would look like. Each epiphyte is made up of three different tones of green and stacked over each other. They are caught down one layer at a time with just a few stitches at the base of the stems. They then are free to move and shape. Take a lot at the photos to see where I placed my groups of plants.

The last piece of foliage I added was a vine that has little three piece fruits hanging from it, in the style reminiscent of hanging paper lanterns.

The vine starts with a piece of florist wire that you blanket stitch felt to. To do this, just follow the method I used to make the stem of the multi-toned foliage stems in the forever flower bouquet Instructables here: https://www.instructables.com/Forever-Flowers-a-Stitched-Felt-Flower-Bouquet/

Cut a length of green felt measuring 9mm *30 cm long. Using two strands of matching green embroidery thread work a cover for the stem in blanket stitch. Follow along the photos in the Forever Flower Bouquet to see how it’s done.

Once the vine is created, lay it against your tree trunk and take 5 felt circles to roughly work out your fruit positions. I positioned mine in the curve of the corner so that the fruits dangle near where the frog will sit. Pin the circles into place to mark the spots to work a finished fruit.

Each individual fruit is formed from three circles of felt. I know this sounds weird, but it looks wonderful when completed. Take the first 2 circles and fold them in half. Use a pin at the top and bottom of each fold to mark the half way points on the circle circumferences. Line up these to circles back to back, and using 2 strands of matching embroidery thread work blanket stitch from top to bottom of the circumference of these circles. At the bottom of the circle, take the third felt circle and fold it in half to mark the halfway points. Line the new circle against the two joined circles and complete stitching the circumference of the felt shape but this time using just one layer of the existing two circles and the new circle. You end up with three circles joined at 2 seams with one seam open. At the top of the felt circle work blanket stitch down this final seam. You now have a 3 sided circle!

The final detail is a pearl seed bead stitched to one end of the fruit and then using a couple of stitches, catch down the fruit to the vine. Repeat the fruit making for all the 5 fruit pieces.

Relay the vine into position on the trunk and use a couple of stitches to catch down the top and bottom of the vine. I tried to nestle mine behind the foliage to disguise the bases of the felt stem.

The new home for Frog is now finished, but to make Frog extra happy, a song book would be a wonderful addition.

I thought a Frog sitting in their favourite nook would love to have something to read. And given how much frogs “sing”, I thought a song book would be a handy read!

The Frog Song book as a little fiddly but works well. If you want to save some effort, or want to try an alternative, you may consider these swaps:

• Make the song book from the pattern, but use cardboard and paper instead
• Print out a book you like (in miniature) from the web
• Frog could hold any mini piece of musical equipment you can locate

To make the Frog Song book, print out the pattern sheet. Using the scrap of fusible webbing about 10cm square, trace or draw the shape of the cover surround. Iron the fusible webbing to dark brown felt. Cut out the felt from both the inside and outside of the felt shape. I found a scalpel helped with the middles of the book cover.

Neatly cut a panel of fawn felt measuring 6cm * 9cm. Iron the dark brown felt surround to the fawn felt, using a pressing sheet.

Work blanket stitch in 2 strands of brown thread around the edges of the inside and outside of the book cover.

From the pattern sheet, transfer the words and musical note to the scrap of Solvy transfer paper and then stick to the inner panel sections of the book cover. You can use a chalk pencil, or even 2B pencil to drawn up the words if you don’t have Solvy but it’s way easier for this size work with it.

Using 2 strands of pale yellow thread DMC 3822, work the words and note in split stitch. Mark where the dots on the front of the book are from the pattern sheet, and work french knots to the front in the same colour.

Take the gold coloured felt circles. You will be making book corners for all the front and back corners from either halves or quarters of the felt circles. The photo is a guide. Use 4 quarters as the outside corners and two halves as the spine corners. Using 2 strands of matching gold thread blanket stitch these corners down.

Using the pattern sheet as a guide, draw in chalk pencil the corner decorations. I worked these in 2 strands of burnt orange DMC 900 as detached chain stitch.

After all the stitchery is complete, rinse the panel to remove the Solvy using the manufacturers instructions.

Once dry, press the cover under a cloth. The front looks great, but you can see from the back, it really needs to be disguised.

Cut three small pieces of fusible webbing about 7cm * 10 cm. Mark each piece with a rectangle measuring 8.5cm * 5.5cm. Iron all three to your musical note fabric, being mindful of the layout of the fabric design so the pages will “read” like book pages.

Carefully cut out all three panels. Take one panel and secure it by iron to the back side of the cover (you may need to trim the size to fit nicely)

Place the remaining two panels down onto the musical note fabric carefully lining up the design, and press to form double sided pages of music. Seal the edges of the pages to limit fraying with a little varnish or clear nail polish.

Align the pages inside the cover (you may need to trim them slightly), and pin the lot together at the spine. Use pins to mark 4 points on the spine for securing the book. Using matching brown thread, pass a stitch from inside to outside and back again to secure the spine in two locations and tie of the know securely.

And that’s it!!!!!! You are finally done.

I have given myself some feedback on this project. Because it was my first attempt at a felt diorama like this, I used a cheap bought frame and it had some drawbacks but was a nice size to work with.

I was not fussy with felt and used a mixture of wool and synthetic as was available in my stash so the quality of the felt was variable.

I got to reduce a lot my stash of felt scraps, embroidery thread scraps and wadding scraps.

This a cost effective project but it does take a while. I think I will enjoy it for a long time to come though!