“Why would I spend money on that when I could just make it?”
If you are a crafty person at all, you have likely thought that at some point. I have plenty of craft supplies to prove that I have definitely thought that!
This post is the result of one such thought.
My son has an old hand me down baby friendly photo album from when he was tiny. It is soft, water resistant, and includes photos of baby Leopold with various members of our family. Finley (my 18 month old) recently discovered this book and absolutely loves looking at it!
She will point to the people she recognizes and ask me to tell her who each one is, over and over again. Obviously she needed her own!
I tried looking on Google for one I could order, but pretty much all of them start at $30. I’m sure you’re limited on what you can add and how many pictures but I didn’t study it that closely. Nope. I can make that myself.
After a bit of brainstorming I gathered my supplies and got to work!
Here’s what you need to make your own baby board book:
- Old board book (if you don’t have one you want to part with yet, try Goodwill!) You can also order blank ones on Amazon!
- Scrapbook paper
- Photos of baby and family members
- Mod Podge + Paintbrush or sponge for application
- Scissors
- Any decorative items. Try to keep them flat so your book will still close! Glitter, washi tape, stickers, etc all work great.
I just got a printer so I was able to print off some extra photos and labels as well as the borders for each page. I designed the borders in Canva (free to use).
The only book I had that I wasn’t attached to and that was the proper size was this googly eye board book. I had to take a few extra steps to get the book ready, like cutting the eyes out and then covering each of the holes with cardstock and taping that down flat.
Next you may need to add some scrapbook paper to help cover whatever is in the book. The pages I printed off didn’t fit the book exactly, and the paper was a bit thin and see through. I cut enough pages to the right sizes and then cut out my printed borders.
All you really have left to do is paste it all together!
Mod Podge is truly a miracle product. I love it oh so much. Use it liberally and don’t be shy with it! I bought a new bottle for this project and used the entire thing. Brush it on the board book, lay down your scrapbook paper and try to get all the air bubbles out. Then add another layer of Mod Podge before adding your border page. Another layer, then photos, and then one final layer to seal the photos to the page. If you would like, you can go back once it’s done and add just one more layer to everything…for good measure.
You want to let the Mod Podge dry for a few hours between each page. This project took me a couple of days to complete just because I had to wait for it to dry. I set it up under the ceiling fan in my room and it didn’t take too long. I also used items found in my bedroom to separate each page so they could dry some more once it was all done. The more drying time, the better!
This was a super fun little project to pass the time and utilize some of my photo prints! I think I will make another board book for my son in the next few weeks.
I went back after I took these photos and colored the outside edges of each page in rainbow order. Red, orange, yellow, green. I also trimmed the scrapbook paper down as close as I could get it and added some more Mod Podge to the spaces in between the paper. Anything to keep it from being a ripping temptation!
And there you have it, your very own personalized baby board book! Have fun with it!
A bonus tip if you’re reading this from quarantine and don’t want to wait for Amazon to send you supplies: Check your local Michael’s store! Mine has a feature where you can order online and do curbside pickup!!
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