31 Days of Books: Family Book

*This post was originally published on 9/23/10

On Made by Me Monday this week, I promised I'd give you a closer look into these "Family Books" I've made for the kids.  Since our family lives so far away, it was important to me that our kids have some familiarity with them when they visit.  At the very least to have a face that goes with the name.  And these little books have opened up hours of conversation centered around family, love, traditions, and reliving memories.

I got ahold of some blank board books from Oriental Trading company.  If you'd like to be even more frugal, shop your local thrift store or yard sales for used board books.  They can easily be recovered as well.

I found with the boughten books that the pages weren't a standard size.  So although I measured twice and cut once, some of my pages would be short on an edge or two.  That's fixable and we'll get to it later.  But if it truly bothers you, you're going to want to measure every page to make sure you get a perfect fit.

I cut my papers and modge podged them to each page.  You'll have to do this project over the course of several days as each set of pages has to fully dry before moving on.  Make sure you're drying your pages with the book open.

After the pages dried, I laid out the order of the pages.  Mommy and Daddy first, sibling and a special cousin, Grandma and Great-Grandma, Nana and Papa, and several pages of Aunts and Uncles.  Since my kids don't have a lot of cousins yet, that was our list.  Just brainstorm and come up with the major family members that you want your kids to remember.

On each page, I printed a picture and matted it in a coordinating color.  Then cut out letters with my Cricut.  The picture and matte were adhered with scrapbooking tabs, the letters with a Xyron tape, and the ribbon and flower with glue dots.  I also traced around the letters and matting with a coordinating pen to make them really stand out.  The ribbon was used as a decorative element to cover when the pages were mis-sized.  Any cut little decorative element adds a special touch.

Finally I modge podged the entire page again to seal it.  Again, allow the pages to dry thoroughly and leave the book open to prevent sticking.  Sealing the entire book is a great idea, especially if you're giving it to a small child who will be handling it a lot.  These books go everywhere with my kids and I have yet to have something fall out of them.

I'd love to see what other ideas you come up with using these little books.  What special memorabilia would you create?

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