Looking for the perfect gift for Christmas or for a grandparent’s birthday? Photo books, calendars, mugs and t-shirts have been around for a while. It’s lovely to compile a child’s photos into a custom photo book, but why not go a step further? Help a child create an original story and drawings that will engage a parent, grandparent, or a special teacher in the child’s world.
How to Make a Custom Bound Photo Book Using a Child’s Art
A custom photo book begins with the child involved. How can a family create a special photo gift?
- Get the child or children to tell a story for the special person who will receive the book, and write down the story.
- Create art that suits the story.
- Take photos of the art with a digital camera or scan it into the computer. Make sure that it is high resolution, since some photo book programs will reject pictures that are of inadequate resolution.
- Alter the photos if necessary. Crop them with a photo cropping program, or use a web site like Pixenate to crop and resize the photos.
- Choose a photo book publishing program.
- Upload the photos to the program. Choose a layout that suits each photo.
- Add text to the book.
- Choose a cover style and book size.
- Proofread the book, then send it off to the published. Although some photo book companies are very fast, leave six to eight weeks to receive the published book so that no one is disappointed.
Turn into a Photo Book Creator: Online Photo Memory Book Publishers
There are numerous photo book, brag book and memory book web sites out there in the digital world. How is a parent to choose between them? Here are some highlights of different online photo book publishers:
- Lulu is a self-publishing house that allows authors to publish everything from a children’s book to a novel. Lulu allows the author to post the book in web stores and sell it as an on-demand publication. For an older child or teen who is keen to develop and illustrate a story and create more than one copy, Lulu is a good place to go.
- Photo InPress has downloadable software that is very simple and offers multiple page layouts. It’s also quite inexpensive, starting at under $20 for a small photo book, and shipping is very fast.
- Chapters offers a 10-page photo book for $10. Smilebox offers a 26-page mini book, also for $10.
- Picaboo offers scrapbook-like backgrounds for photos or a child’s art.
- Inkubook allows users to upload their custom scrapbook layouts.
Creating a hardcover or soft cover photo book with a child and printing that book for others is a way to give a unique and imaginative gift to a special person in that child’s life. Do a photo book with a child every year and watch the art and the stories change over the years. Photo books are wonderful mementos for a family to keep and look at again and again.
Tricia Edgar - Tricia Edgar is a gardener, environmental educator, and science writer from the Pacific Northwest.
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