Purpose of this Blog...

You may have noticed that not all books are equal in capturing children's imaginations and in cultivating those innocent, tender souls. My goal is to help you find the ones that do!
(Painting by Mary Cassatt: "Mrs Cassatt Reading to her Grandchildren" -1888)




Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Book Making Ideas for Kids Part 2

If you read my previous post about making books with kids, you'll see some of the types of projects I did with my own children in our homeschooling days, including journaling, pop-up books, and alphabet books. 

Today I want to share some super creative "make your own" book ideas...

Accordian Style Book-in-a-Box
source: Martha Stewart
I love this idea! Here's a simple way for kids to store their sticker, button, or stamp collections: Accordion-fold a strip of paper, and glue the first and last pages to the inside of a box's lid and bottom. Keep some pages empty so the collection can grow.

Flip Books 
(source: Martha Stewart)
Make a stack of 20 or more index cards held together with "bulldog clips". Hand illustrate the cards (or use rubber stamps, stickers, or cut-out paper). The objects that are supposed to "move" should be shifted by 1/8 to 3/8 inch from card to card. If it looks too jumpy, make additional cards whose images show smaller changes, and insert them in between every other page. To put all the pages in the right order for viewing, the book should begin with the last page: You flip from back to front.  More detailed instructions and video here.

Paper Bag Books
source: Rosy-Posy

Paper bag books are another great way to showcase nature or sticker collections, paper dolls, homeschool projects, and much more. Here's a Video how-to for making paper bag books:



You can find lots more DIY book ideas on this website: Making Books.

Books about Making Books!
The Pocket Paper Engineer, Carol Barton


Making Books That Fly, Fold, Wrap, Hide, Pop-up, Twist and Turn, Gwen Diehn


Making Mini Books, Kathleen McCafferty

6 comments:

  1. I really love the book in a box idea!

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    1. When I was young, I loved saving special stickers and cards. I couldn't bear to throw them away (or use them!), and would've loved to have a way like this to store them/show them to friends.

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    1. I had never heard of the paper bag books - so unique - and they don't look too hard to make.

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  3. What a great idea!!! ♥ Our piano teacher has 2 kids (ages 3 and 4) and I think this is a fun activity that I can do with them and my 9 year old, while my 11 year old has piano lessons this afternoon! Thank you for sharing.

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    1. Great idea - it's so fun to have fun and easy projects like these that you can take along or pull out for a rainy day! You'll have to post photos if you make some. I'd love to see the kids' handiwork. :)

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