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’ve been wanting to make a photo book about my father (deceased) to share with my two nieces and my nephew who never met him. He was a jolly man who loved children, and I want these children to know that their grandfather would have adored them.
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I love this idea! I always leave here inspired. Thank you, Maggie 🙂
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That book is a brilliant, brilliant idea!
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I LOVE Shutterfly! And I’ve been wanting to make a book about our family members for my kids. We don’t live close to grandparents, uncles and aunts, so a reminder with photos would be wonderful.
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Adorable book! Yes, these things take waaaaaaay longer than you ever expect. I’ve made a few of them. I’d love the chance to do one for free though!
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In two weeks I’m moving to San Francisco from Madison, Wisconsin. I’ve lived in Madison my entire life so the entire contents of Niagra Falls will probably leak down my cheeks as I drive away. I’d love to make a book about my favorite things in Madison, to look at when I feel homesick.
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sounds great – i want in! thank you for sharing 🙂
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i’ve been designing a “life book” to illustrate where my son was adopted from, including many of his birth relatives. He’s 18 months now and i’d like to begin introducing the concept of his birth family to him. a free book from shutterfly would be awesome!
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My babe is really into faces, so I think I’d make a book of all the important people in his life, with their favorite things.
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i love the idea. and hank probably does too.
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i’d finally make that book of honeymoon pictures that i’ve been stalling for a year on. no kids to make books for yet!
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I would love to create a book about my trip to Italy last September where a friend got married and I got engaged!
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I’ve been telling Isabel for nearly 7 years that I’ll make her baby book. I have all the text and photos, but haven’t found the time to put the damned thing together. I will, for her 7th birthday, on Oct 24th.
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I’m getting excited thinking our son would love to make a book of all the photos he has taken. We let him snap shots with our digital camera (his framing skills aren’t bad either). I would love for him to tell us with pictures and words what is important to him at three years old. We’ve recently moved to Norway from Texas, and I think it would be lovely for Alec to have a place where his old home can be remembered and his new home cherished.
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Just in time for my third wedding anniversary, I’d make a photo book of what we’ve done over the last three years!
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I would love to do this for my 2 1/2 year old son who is also very interested in emotions. What an excellent idea.
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I would love to make a book of my new baby once he arrives in the next couple weeks. My husband’s father has a terminal illness that means he won’t be able to travel to meet the new little guy, so sending a book of pictures would be a great way to introduce them.
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Please help me relieve my second-kid-gets-nothing-documented guilt!
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I would like to make a book to remind myself of how far I’ve come…. Hank’s Book of Feelings was inspiring… Maybe it IS ok to try it….
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I am just about to start making our wedding guest book using engagement photos, and shutterfly is one of the sites I am looking into, so this would be perfect!
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I’d love to make a book out of photos from my son’s three-month-old portrait session. (My son was three months old, that is.) We are lucky enough to be friends with Sean Slinsky, an amazing photographer (and beau of an amazing blogger!), so we traded him a portrait session for supplying the music system at his upcoming wedding. Hooray for music, weddings, friends, babies, and photo books!
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I’d make a book about families – so my two munchkins can appreciate their relationship to the rest of our spread out clan.
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