Last week, a good friend (whose daughter entered their family through adoption) and I finished making life books for our kids. A project, discussed many times in the past six months, which basically took us three nights to complete. And I love it!
After seriously pondering what sort of paper/binding we would use for this book, I stumbled across blank, white board books for sale at Michaels. (Who knew you could buy blank board books?!). With that discovery we decided to make very simple preschool friendly books with one picture and a bit of text on each page.
The most daunting task was trying to figure out the text. How do you explain placement in two preschool friendly sentences? My friend and I spent an entire evening together writing simple sentences and picking pictures to tell a story.
Then we agonized over how to put the book together. Would double sided tape be sufficient to hold pictures in place? Heaven forbid we'd actually need to hand write the text! And how long would this book last in the hands of a child?
Then the discovery...
Contact paper. Brilliant.
After a late night run to Home Depot to purchase clear contact paper, as I had mistakenly bought frosty paper (they should really label it more clearly!), it took us two late evenings with Starbucks in hand to complete the books.
No hand writing. We printed out the text and pasted it in place.
No worries about little fingers touching pictures and the longevity of the book.
Contact paper really saved the day. (I'm actually not joking here...this was a major turning point in our book making!).
I absolutely love how the books turned out. Although our adoption stories are different, it was an absolute pleasure to design, write, and complete such an important book with such a good friend. T's life book will be one among many in his basket of board books. One that I hope we'll read together many times in the next few years.
And in the end, if the book falls apart I suppose that is a good thing, as then baby T will become familiar with his story and a very important woman who plays a central role.
6 comments:
Very cool! And yes, contact paper is pretty useful stuff!
They look great. The contact is a great idea.
Great job- love it! Wish we could peek at some pages! :)
Wow, that's a super idea on how to do the first one. I'll have to remember that. I too wonderered how a lifebook could really be baby and toddler friendly. Very cool!
wow, that is brilliant. contact paper.
when I started ours, I was thinking it was something that she would enjoy later. even what we wrote on the inside cover is a longer story for later. I really should make something for now that she could begin to understand soon. thanks!
What a great idea! I've never seen a pre-school friendly version before. Awesome!
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