My People

Last year I started a project, only I didn’t manage to get very far – I selected a handful of images. Given that our nearest and dearest live far away, I wanted to find a way for the Doodle to get familiar with her special people. I didn’t want the strangers to seem so strange the few times they meet up in a year. I wanted to make the Doodle a book with pictures of all of the important people in her life.

I found a site that allowed you to create your own board books, but the Canadian shipping rate made it a little too pricy for me. I didn’t think it was worth $40+ to make a board book.

I put the idea aside, and it slipped my mind for around a year, until the holidays were upon us.  This post on inexpensive handmade toddler gifts popped up in my reader, and I was totally inspired.

Instead of making a board book, or a bound book via one of the numerous book sites out there, I opted to add some copy, print out photos, laminate and bind with a key ring.

I had pinned this idea for a photo wall and repurposed the template to make each page 5×5 with a white border. I then edited each image by adding in the name of the person featured and drew in an arrow pointing to them.

It was a little last minute, so I printed these out on paper (and if I had to do it again, I’d use thicker paper or cardstock), laminated each image using a xyron I had at home, then punched a hole and put it together on a key ring.

It was definitely a hit on Christmas morning. The Doodle was able to name every person in her special book.

The only thing I’d do differently is the binding.  The Doodle loves the book, but has already managed to rip several pages out. I used to do some book binding, so I think I could figure out a way to stitch the pages together and still have the book open up flat.

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