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 
I saw this book of hers, and am currently putting together objects to make my baby’s first book! I’d LOVE free printing. 🙂
And I love the feelings idea – keeping it on file for later… 🙂
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I realize that Hank is a ways from preschool yet, but if you are considering making more books for him in the future I recommend a “daily routine” book for him to help with the transition. The idea is to photograph the stages of a typical day at preschool- wake up, breakfast, drive to school, drop off, circle time, play time, snack, nap, story time, pick up and go home. You take photos of him and the school and the teacher. The book can live in his cubby and he can look at it for reassurance when he’s missing you or feeling upset- where am I in the day now? What comes next? Mom comes to get me in the end, right? It can be a great way for children to self comfort throuh the transition of being away from home/Mom during the preschool day.
Love your blog!
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I would make a picture book of all the fun things we did this summer!
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Ooh! Ooh! I think I would make a book for big brother about the arrival of little brother (any day now)…..such a great idea about feelings/frustrations for toddlers too.
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I would make a book for my husband of special moments with our son. He always says there aren’t enough photos of the two of them together, so I would enjoy collecting what we have in order to 1. prove him wrong or 2. realize I need to take more. And then of course there would be a great book to give him as he returns to the new fall teaching quarter.
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Ohhh! I would love to make a book for my daughter showing her first year. She turns 1 in September!
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Oooh, hope I get a free one. My sister has already told me that for Christmas she only wants more photobooks from me. A few years ago I “helped” my then 7 year-old nephew make a book for his little brother. We both took pictures of little brother’s favorite things and used some favorite pictures of each family member. The 7 year-old dictated the captions. It turned out great and gets read now almost every day. I’ve already started choosing photos and trying to figure out how many books I can afford to make.
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A number book, 1 – 12, for my son’s first year. A picture to identify each month and a large number on the facing page! How delightful! Shutterfly is great!
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I would love to do a book of my son’s first year (which will be over in a week!).
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I would love to make a book with pictures from the first year of my son’s life. And an ABC book. And a counting book… I could keep going… Pick me! 🙂
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I’ve been living in Pittsburgh for 2 years now, and my entire family is in Virginia. I would like to make a book about this city to send to them. :]
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My son’s first birthday is August 27th, and I’d love to do a photo book of the past year.
We struggled with infertility for seven years, and I’m so grateful he finally found us. I already know what the first page would say:
“Once upon a midnight star,
I made a wish and you came true.”
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Love it! I’d love to make a memory book of my favorite photos of my kids.
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I’d love to make a book re: my wedding, which was a couple weeks ago.
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I would make the sequel to my son’s first Shutterfly photobook, entitled “The Early Years”. This one would be on “The Toddler Years”, and winning a free code would help motivate me to get off my butt and actually make it before he becomes an adult.
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I’d make a wedding album!
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My youngest is about to turn one and her older sister is two and a half, time seems to be whizzing by! Reading is MEGA important in our family and I would love to make the girls a book that we could read filled with pictures of them-something that would be super special. Your book with the emotion pairings is a great idea!
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Your book for Hank is creative, inspiring and so awesome. I’ve been wanting to print out a book with some of my favorite photo (that I’ve shoot) and some quotes and facts that I’ve come to adore. This would be the perfect opportunity to do that as well as come in handy in the future should I need to show someone my “portfolio” hard copy, rather than just having a bunch of prints.
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We just had a baby three months ago, so I would make a book of pictures of people who love her, whom she doesn’t get to see very often.
Great ideas!
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I would make a book to celebrate the summer that just ended. It was fun and relaxing and I truly gave myself some time off. I don’t want to forget how important that is!
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I would love to make my 1.5 year old son a book about his family members. Most of my family is in Alaska and my husband’s family is all in Puerto Rico. I don’t want him to forget our loved ones just because we’re in Ohio!
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I’d love to make a book of our photos from our travels. My husband and I have been together for 3 years, and have been lucky enough to travel quite a bit in that time. It’s fun to look back, and fun to look ahead to places we want to go next.
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What an adorable idea! After lots of thought, I would make a book for my husband. He’s an ultramarathon runner who’s going to run his first 100 mile race in 11 days (He does this all in a row. He’s hoping to complete it in less than 24 hours. Its so insane!). I’d like to make a book documenting all the races he did that led up to this point. Its a lot. I think it would be something good for our kids/family to see!
Thanks again for the inspiration Maggie.
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hmmm….for some reason your photos aren’t uploading for me. anyone else experiencing this problem?
i would make a book that illustrates the various ways i’ve learned to stay upbeat and enjoy my nonmaterial blessings since i was laid off from my nonprofit job in february.
going from having an expendable income and little free time versus virtually no income and nothing but time is like walking on a route you usually drive–the world opens itself up for you in entirely different ways. there are plenty of sleepless what the f*** am i going to do nights, but this is countered by nonmaterial blessings i never would have experienced otherwise.
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am I the only one that can’t see the pictures?!?!?
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I might just make a book similar to Sarah’s. I love the idea. That or chronicle the 1,600 mile road trip I just took with my husband. Whew!
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I would finally make a wedding album. I have the photos, but I’ve slacked on this for 3 and a half years!
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Id love to win this for a friend who has a new baby. I’m sure she’d do something really cool with a photobook for her little one!
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I reallyreallyreally need to get around to making Lily’s six to twelve month picture book.
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I’d love to make a book covering the work I did for my summer internship. It would be a great tool for presentations!
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so many great ideas, so little time… i think a fun “color-ing book” using photos of everyday (or not) things to illustrate colors… a little red barn for red, amazing deep blue colorado sky for blue, bright yellow sunflower for yellow… even more fun if the little monkeys are part of the photo-gathering expeditions.
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We just moved back from Australia where we lived for 2 years. I would make a book of our fav moments “down under”!
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I’ve been with my partner for over 7 years and we don’t have a single photo album (almost all of our photos are on our computers). So, I’d make a “best of” album, including photos from our high school prom night to his proposal in Florence.
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What an amazing idea! I LOVE your book!
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I would make a book for my twin daughters (11). It would express how wonderful they are and why I think they are so great. An empowering book!
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Love this! Very cool. I have a few ideas up my sleeve as to what kind of book to do. Love what you’ve done for Hank. 🙂
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I’d love to make some books for my Kindergartners who are struggling with learning to read!
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I would make a personalized words book like the one Sarah made. I have a kindergarten friend who doesn’t seem in the least bit interested in reading…maybe a book with personalized pictures would trigger something.
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I’d make a book about my daughters’ first year with their puppy! I’ve got some adorable shots that need to be viewed somewhere other than my computer!
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Well, I don’t have kids so that’s out of the question. But I’ve been thinking about giving my parents a book made out of pictures featuring our life as a family. Since I’m the only child and I’ll soon be moving out (don’t ask, it’s a Hispanic thing), maybe that will lessen the empty nest syndrome.
If not that, a book that illustrates my boyfriend and I’s relationship for the additional 3 out of 4 years we’d been together. I made him a book for our first anniversary, but haven’t repeated it since.
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I love this! What a fabulous idea. It would be great to have a book like this in my preschool classroom. We’re all about social-emotional development!
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I’d make a book for my one year old daughter of all the family that lives so far away. Each set of grandparents (4 in total) live in a different state and the few times we’ve seen them, she cries and cries over these “strangers” in our house. I’d love for her to have a book she can look at with all the grandma’s and grandpa’s that love her so much!
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I counsel young kids and would love to use this to provide a personalized feelings and coping book as a parting gift at the end of treatment!
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I love this. The pictures and corresponding text you chose are fantastic. Also, I can’t believe how big he is already! (You don’t know me, and neither does Hank, of course, but I remember when he was born. Could it be that long ago already?? Time flies. Anyway, he is adorable.)
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How lovely! I love to make a good book!
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I would love to make my husband a book of our first year of marriage. Our 1st anniversary will be on September 3rd!
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Since my new baby niece lives in Cleveland and everyone she knows is in Chicago. I’d love to send her a book with pictures of everyone in Chicago telling her how much they love her.
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I would like to win a code to make a book for my child’s 2nd Mom, the woman who watches him daily so we can work. She treats him like part of the family and she’s giving it all up to go back to school and become a nurse at 35! She has a blog I’d LOVE to make a book out of for her so she can remember my son and the lives of all the children (and parents!) That she touched by opening her heart as well as her home.
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I’d make a photo album from our family vacation on Cape Cod for my mother-in-laws 70th birthday. I got some great photos of the grandkids!
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