As Milla grows and discovers the world I've grown to love home made books! She has a love of reading and seeing her own face on a page in front of her so they are the perfect tool for establishing routines and expectations that our family has.
You could make a book for anything! Bedtime routines (like in this tutorial), new family members, school time, visiting doctors, or fun ones to tell your own clever stories to kids of any age, gifts for friends or co-workers about themselves. The possibilities are endless!
This tutorial is using a free website called picmonkey.com - it's a really basic website for beginner designers or photo editors. Look it up now and get creating! (i've tried to be as simple as possible, so feel free to email me if you have any burning specific questions on sophieslimATmoo2DOTcoDOTnz)
ONE
Open up picmonkey.com and hover over "design", this will bring down a new menu, click "custom"
Open up picmonkey.com and hover over "design", this will bring down a new menu, click "custom"
In custom you can insert your own size you would like your individual book pages to be. I suggest doing an a5 size. These measurements are "1748 x 2480 pixels". If you'd like a different size page, have a google to find out the pixels (size) it'll be.
TWO
Now that you've got your blank canvas to work with you can play around with all the different features. Pic Monkey works by dragging and dropping, so when you click on a feature, it will most likely appear on your blank canvas for you to move around and resize.
Now that you've got your blank canvas to work with you can play around with all the different features. Pic Monkey works by dragging and dropping, so when you click on a feature, it will most likely appear on your blank canvas for you to move around and resize.
The most fun tools are the Tt and the butterfly down the left hand size. These are your "text" and "overlay" functions.
If you want to insert photos or pictures, click on the butterfly and "add my own" overlay button. This is where you can select photos from your own computer to add in, or select any of picmonkey's pre-made overlays. This is how I got the big green circle that comes in the next picture. You can change colours using the overlay box that pops up when you're moving things around. If you're going to add text on top I suggest you fade your overlay a little bit. Just drag the "fade" option across until you find something you like.
You'll find the text options work in the same way, they're stored under Tt and there's some really fun fonts to choose from! You can also resize, change colours and positions from an editing box that pops up as well.
JUST FOR FUN
This whole process can be as simple or complicated as you like, but most of all its trial and error while you're familiarising yourself with the functions.
This whole process can be as simple or complicated as you like, but most of all its trial and error while you're familiarising yourself with the functions.
If you're feeling adventurous, try clicking on the "eraser" part of the overlay editing box to erase out unwanted backgrounds in your photos, or right click your overlay to find some more options like "bring to the front" to get images on top of each other in the correct order.
THREEOnce you're happy with your first page click on "save" up the top, give it a name and save it to your computer! Wa-La! Your first page in your self published book!
FOUR
Now that you've finished designing each of your pages, print them off, trim them to size and tape or staple together in the correct order! You could even laminate them if you were being extra fancy.
I know that whoever you give this book to they will love it (and they might just think you're a genius!)
Let me know if you give this a try! Leave a comment, or email me with any specific questions you have.
Happy creating!
Love, Sophie
Love, Sophie
Wow how cool! The nursery I work in does this same thing and it's really good for helping to reinforce routines etc. Picmonkey looks fun - I might have to have a play! :)
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