Making Christmas- Make Your Own Christmas Picture Book

My son and I are in the process of making our own picture book to give as gifts this holiday season. Without giving away too much , we’ve adapted an existing picture book and made it our own. We’re writing the story together and P is drawing the illustrations.

How to Make Your Own Picture Book Gift

1. Pick a story to emulate or better yet, write an original story.

2. Work together as a family to dream up great pictures and ideas.

3. Have your little artist draw the pictures or take photos to complement the text.

4. Scan the illustrations and create your own storyboard and layout using a program like Publisher or Word (or something more sophisticated if you have it and your child has the patience!).

5. Publish your work.

• Print it from home or a print shop and assemble the books together.
• Create a PDF file of your work and send digital copies to friends and family.
• Use a photo book site like Picaboo, Shutterfly, or Mixbook (my personal favorites). Obviously more pricey, but there tend to be plenty of daily deals for these sites around the holidays and a nicely bound, one of a kind, picture book would make a great Christmas gift.

6. Narrate your work. You can make your gift even more personal by recording  your child reading the book you created together. See my earlier post My Little red Sanyo (Or How to Interview your Child) to get started recording your child’s voice. Burn the recording to CDs, glue a paper CD pocket on the inside cover of the book, slip in the CD, and you’ve created a book on CD!

P loves that he’s going to be “published” and I love that he’s getting a taste of what authors and illustrators do, but the best part of this activity is working together. It’s a bonus Christmas present for me.