The gorgeous personalized children’s book above is by Sarah of Party Perfect. She used objects familiar to her baby to help teach first words. Ever since I saw it, I’ve been thinking about how nice it would be to make a photo book specifically for Hank.
I wanted an idea that would have the maximum impact if it was personalized. Because Hank seems intrigued by feelings lately, I decided to go with that. I’d really like him to learn early on how to identify his emotions and then do something constructive with them, and he already loves to talk about how his toys are “so happy” or “really cross” (thanks Thomas the Tank Engine).
I love the end result. Here are some examples of what I put together:
Shutterfly bought some ads on Mighty Girl, and they let me try their photobook service to lay out my book and print it. It actually ended up taking more time to choose the photos than to make the book. If you’d like to try it yourself, Shutterfly is offering codes to twelve Mighty Girl readers to let them print books for free. You can enter the drawing by leaving a comment about what you’d like to make.
The contest will run through August 24, and I’ll announce winners here. One entry per person please, I’ll have to delete duplicates for fairness. Good luck!
Mighty Girl 
My daughter’s third birthday will coincide with the birth of her baby brother, so I want to make a book of her infant years to show her that she was once a tiny baby too. I’d probably tie in the alphabet somehow…
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I’d make a book about our fun summer – Disney, Yosemite, swimming, bike rides, good times!
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It would be about my relationship with my husband — starting with photos from when we went to college together, up through meeting each others’ families, and through our wedding and anniversaries.
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I’ve done two 365 projects, one for each of my children. I’ve always wanted to turn them into a book and this just might be my chance to do it!
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What perfect timing! My little one’s first birthday is coming up (sniff, sniff, but also: hurray!), and I’ve been planning to make him a personalized alphabet book with pictures of himself. A is for apple (him eating an apple), B is for ball (him playing with a ball), etc. Wish me luck!
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i would like to make a book of my family vacations
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Maggie, your book is fantastic; I would buy that that book for little kids I know.
I have been planning to make a book, too. I’ve been building dioramas containing scenes from the life of a unusual woman I feel has been overlooked in history. I’m going to photograph the dioramas, and add text.
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I’ve been meaning to make a “lifebook” for my newly-adopted son about his birthfamily and his time in foster care.
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This summer my 23 year old sister finished RN school, moved from NY to California took her boards and got a job and with her 2 year old son. She did it so her little boy would have a better life. I would make him a book of the family he left in NY and the adventures he’s had with his mommy this year.
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I’d make one about my summer vacation with 5 kids under 6 and my dad’s awful new wife. It would include photos of many kinds of cocktails and their recipes.
(not really, just pictures of the kids being silly and my wonderful husband, sister, and brothers in law)
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I would like to plagiarize your book, but replace “Hank” with “Ben”. But that would be wrong. So, a counting book for my son, using photos from family birthday parties to count from 1-20.
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I’ve been talking about making a book about our family vacations for years. The photos just sit in my hard drive indefinitely. It’s very sad.
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I would love to make a book for my new baby girl who is due in a few months!
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my book would be a birthday present for my daughter who turns 21 in October – a brief history of her amazing life so far…
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I’d like to make one of our awesome trip to Halifax, Nova Scotia!
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We live 1000 miles from all our closest relatives. I’d like to make a family book for The Boy and his soon-to-arrive baby brother, so they know who those weird people talking to them on the phone are.
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I would make a book for my mother of her three grandchildren. She does so much for her children and grandchildren it would be nice to surprise her with a book like this!
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What a beautiful idea, your book came out great.
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My 15-month-old has a large extended family and many loving grandparents and step-grandparents, but they all live hours and hours away. I’d like to create a photo book for her loved ones so that she begins to recognize their faces even when she doesn’t see them all that often.
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I’d love to make a book for my in-laws. They just sponsored a lovely trip to the beach as a family reunion and we all had a magical time.
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I would love to make a wedding album. It has been 3.5 years and I still don’t have one.
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Beautiful!
I recently made an ABC book for my son’s 2nd birthday with his favorite things. My older son is about to start kindergarten (!) and I’d love to make a book about of his years of preschool (I took pics of his art projects b/c we couldn’t keep everything)….and then start some tradition of making mini books for each year of school…since I don’t get around to printing out pics much anymore!
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I’ll make a book for my husband full of his favorite racing pictures.
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I would love to make a book from our honeymoon pictures. We just celebrated our two year anniversary…the time is now.
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I am getting married in 2 1/2 weeks and my future father-in-law is the photographer. I’d love to make a book of photos from the results!
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I’d make a book about all our far-flung family, so my kids could know who’s who.
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What a great idea! We’ve recently begun homeschooling the kids and I’d love to make a book chronicling their first year. 🙂
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i’d like to make a family tree book. we are such a small family. so i think it would have much impact on my son and our family.
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LOVE this! Ugh, you’re such a darling mom. I just got married in January and I’d love to make a book of all the memories my now-husband and I have made together over the past 3 years. I never get around to printing digitals. Love this idea.
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“The Many Adventures of Little Bear” chronicling what my son’s special toy does while Owen is at school…
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I love your book for Hank! What a great idea!
I would make a book of all the grandkids for my mom and give it to her for her upcoming birthday.
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Every year I make a summer vacation book for my three boys, they love it. School just started today so I will be needing to start that soon 😉
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I’d like to make a book for my son who just turned four weeks yesterday. We take about 100 pictures of him a day (a result of both new parents and a new camera); a book would be rad.
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i would make a book as a thank you gift for my friends and hosts on my trip to europe!
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I’d love to make a baby book for our little bundle-to-be, showing him all the relatives and pets by name. I think this idea is adorable!
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I would like to make a photo album of my wedding! We tried to save a little cash on our day and didn’t get an album or even really good shots. We have been married 4 years now and we still don’t have an album, BUT coincidentally, I already made something on Shutterfly, but we can’t afford it right now. So if you were to grant me the code to get a free one, that would be amazing. Our next anniversary is Sept 17th… that would be a lovely gift for both of us
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5 days a week I send our far away family an email containing a photo and a blurb about what our little mister’s been up to. I’d make a book outta that.
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I would like to make a book of my first family vacation taken with my new step dad and step sisters.
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I’d make a kids’ book (for the future/our friends) starring photos of our dog, who is quite a character.
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I will make a book of my friend’s building renovation. Thank you!
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I would love to make a book of our family’s most recent vacation to Turkey!
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I would like to make a book of my baby’s first year in pictures!
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The book would be photos from our baby’s first year. We must have taken 5,000 photos of her, so I’d better start editing!
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Oh, probably a cookbook. Kind of boring. Kind of placid.
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I would like to make a book of our trip to California this past spring! wahoo.
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I would love to make a book of family photos for my mom’s 80th birthday this year.
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a book of my 4 yr old and of my pregnant belly for my father who will have open heart bypass surgery tomorrow.
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i would like to make a book of pictures of our big family trip to ireland, when we got engaged. it was the first time our respective families met and our first step towards (what i hope is) forever. sadly, those photos are currently at the bottom of the rough seas of a dead hard drive, if that makes sense. if data retrieval works, i am printing everything. EVERYTHING.
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I would make a book of photos of my brother and his girlfriend as an engagement present!
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I’ve been wanting to make a photo book of the visit we made to see some trains. It was a really good day for our little guy.
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