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Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Tutorial Tuesday: Association Photobook

***Once again it is Tutorial Tuesday and, once again, I don't know what to name my "creation". After checking out this Tutorial, I'd love to hear your name suggestions! also, please excuse the poor quality of these photos--they're all taken with my phone and are unfortunately blurry***



This week I made a photobook for Cutie Face. It has been unnaturally cold in Atlanta and it made me pause to think about what life will be like in the winter--will we be able to take the twice daily walks that we take now? Probably not!

This thought left me feeling a little blue--not only would we be worse for the wear, physically, but Cutie Face also wouldn't get her daily outdoor stimulation that she currently gets from viewing new sights and sounds on each walk.

So, I decided to take pictures of a lot of the things we pass every day and things that I also would like her to learn the names of. She and I went on a photo shoot on Sunday and took pictures around our neighborhood--hence the "Association Photobook" name--everything in this book is a picture of an object, building, etc. that she sees on our daily walks.

Here is what you'll need:

  • I used posterboard to back my photos because I wanted something thick and sturdy
  • Glue Stick or Rubber Cement
  • Scissors
  • Hole punch (not pictured)
  • Book Rings (not pictured)
  • Pictures
I took 48 pictures of:
  • Buildings (school, house, apartment, stores, restaurants, gas station, fire station, post office, etc.)
  • Objects on street (mailboxes, trash cans, phone booths, construction cones, fences, sidewalk, flag poles etc.)
  • People and animals on the street (mailmen, walkers, dogs, squirrels, bikers, runners, baby joggers, etc.)
  • Transportation (car, bus, taxi, firetruck, police car. Thankfully, we didn't see an ambulance!)
  • Street/Traffic Signs (red, yellow, and green lights, walking man, stop hand, stop sign, crosswalk)
  • Park items (playground, grass, flowers, trees, slide, swing, bench, water fountain, etc.)
  • I'm sure you all can think of a lot more! and, think outside the box--do an association photobook for church if your child is afraid of Sunday school or do a book of their grandparents' houses and relatives' faces for when they go to visit!

First I cut my posterboard into fourths. My posterboard started out half the size of normal posterboard and came in a package of 5.

Organize your photos in the order you'd like them to be in the completed book. This took me a long time because I really wanted the book to "flow".

Unfortunately, I failed to think through the pictures and had lots of vertical pictures mixed with lots of horizontal pictures (see picture above). if I did it all over again, I'd most likely make all of them horizontal, though all of them vertical wouldn't be bad, either (see picture below).

I pasted all the pictures on the cut up pieces of posterboard USING BOTH SIDES, FRONT AND BACK. (see...doesn't it look better with all horizontal pictures?)

Once everything was pasted, I wrote descriptive captions (i laugh because the two that you see below say "stop" and "go" and aren't very descriptive! oh well!) under each picture.

I like to do everything in stages--paste them all and then caption them all (just like i put on both socks and then both shoes!) but feel free to caption as you paste!

Then I numbered each page so that I could remember the order<--this was a crucial step for me! I took them to Staples (they did a great job!) and had them laminate the pictures. It cost ~$9 to get all 24 pages laminated.
Cut all the pages out and put them in order

Place two strategic holes in each page using your hole puncher. I would punch a page, then use the punched holes as a template for the next page.

Make sure your pages are in order and then line them up with the holes

Thread a book ring through each opening. I think i chose book rings that were too big so I'm either going to get smaller ones or just add more pages!

Ta-Da! Finished book! (see what i mean about the gigundo book ring?)

Let your kiddo play with his or her new book!


All in all, this book probably cost about the same as getting one custom made on Snapfish or Shutterfly BUT there are a few crucial differences that make it a bit better--
  • the pages are whatever size you choose
  • the pages are laminated and HARD, much like a board book so that they wipe clean after messy fingers touch them
  • the spiral book rings make the books easy to turn and you can add or take away pages easily
I hope you enjoyed this tutorial! I really loved taking Cutie Face on a walk after showing her this book (in fact, we even took the book with us on the walk!) and showing her the corresponding objects outside that were also on her book's pages.

16 people think...:

Andrea said...

This is a really great idea, thanks! You don't give your crafty self enough credit. :)

Kristin said...

How about "Around the neighborhood with Cutie Face?" :)

ADOREABLE! Def going to make one myself!

Kristin- Im having a blog party! Stop by :)
http://thisisthestoryofagirlll.blogspot.com/2009/10/ok-blog-world.html

Sherrie said...

Very clever! I love it! What a great Tuesday Theme.

Talia's travel blog said...

I love it! One of my ex-pat friends here has been making her daughter a 'memory book' of her time in Leiden and I need to start Talia's soon.

Lauren said...

I *LOVE* this!! I'll be doing this in one way or another for sure. I'll probably post an entry about it when I do. :) My first thought for this is a book for Wild Man, who has been coming to worship with us lately - it would be so wonderful to have a customized quiet book of Bible stories to help keep him occupied during the sermon!

Mostly Mom said...

Such a cute idea!!

Unknown said...

What an amazing idea!! I love it :-)

Natalie said...

You are so creative! Great idea!

The Newly Mrs. said...

and you claim you aren't creative! ;-) i love the idea...nice job. the great thing is you can add pages, too, so as the seasons change you can have different views of things.

DIY Crush Blog said...

I LOOOOVVVVEEE this idea!!!! So creative! Great job! :)

Suzi K said...

That is such a good idea!! I just need a new printer.:)

Unknown said...

Oh my goodness! Your book is so so creative! You are such a creative mommy! You totally inspire me! And I love your run post above. What a great verse. God is so great!

Mostly Mom said...

Nice feature on One Pretty Thing!!! Good for you! :)

A Psych Mommy said...

You are such a good mama! What a great way to teach object labels and build literacy skills!

Felicia said...

I love it Allie! YOu did a great job!

Jillian said...

Love it!! Great day!