Monday, November 30, 2009

Do it yourself photo books

Alisa isn't much into looking at books with cartoons and would rather look at pictures with real people/objects etc... 
so I decided to try and make her her very own book with some of the things she treasures, since the *real* baby books you can buy at the store don't have many recognizable objects *to her* in them...
here is my proto-type I plan on making them ~prettier~ in the future! although I do love the simplicity of this one...and it kind of has a cool look to it. definitely nothing you could purchase in a store...


here's is my-I wouldn't say "pattern"-but my-assistance I guess at making your very own.




First thing is First...
  1. Take the pictures you want to use for your book (this book had 10 photos, and 2 more for the title page and back page) 
  2. pretty them up (I suggest making them a bit brighter if needed) Print them off (I printed them off using the *wallet sized* option on my printer screen...
  3. cut them out, place them on cardboard (I used an old cheerios cereal box)and trace about 1/2 inch around the edges of the picture (see in photo below) 
  4. Using box tape (well, it's what I used) tape the photos, one to each side, to the cardboard cutout.







   5.  place the cardboard on the fabric of your choice (in my case...a pillow case that was just waiting
        to be urned into something)
  6.  Trace about an inch longer on the top, left side, and bottom of the picture.  On the back leave
        about 3-4 inches (You can trim it up later, but trust me, makes for easier sewing) 
    *see photo below*


   7.   Place photo into the hole and pin the edges of the fabric to hold it in place (it slips easy)



   8.   Sew along the edges, making sure you are going through the cardboard all the way around
         (I used a large zig zag in a slightly different color)


  9.  After you have gone around the picture, go around again about 1/4 inch 
        (pretty much at the edge of the cardboard)






*Oh so pretty*

  10.   Okay, now after you have all of your pages complete,including your title page...trim them all up
           nice and pretty...place them in the order you would like them to be in *tick tock tick tock*

          Make sure they are lined up , and then, stick them under your machine and straight stitch from
         the top of the page to the bottom...do that about 3 times.

  11.   Now trim off the back edge, and anything else you may have missed, and voilla
         you have a beautiful homemade book for your child.

 

When I  gave my daughter her book (17 months old) she  loved it right away, she started  saying the words of the pictures in her book. and some of them she actually got up and found the matching object to the picture.  It's neat.  I plan on making more and more of them.

 

2 comments:

  1. I think your infant photo book is a cute idea. Laminating the pics might be a good idea (easy to clean)and somehow making a slip in pocket so the photos can be removed and fabric book can be washed.

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  2. that's an awesome idea...sorry I'm never on here anymore, I started a new blog, if you're interested.
    http://daynal.blogspot.com/

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