When we were kids, we made the sweetest keepsake book for our grandparents. We took a children’s book that our family loved and recreated it! Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney was the perfect book to use!
Memory Lane
As kids, it was so much fun to take part in making a gift. It only took us one night to get the pictures and we had a blast doing it! Many of us have the same memories about how silly it was to all lay in our parents’ bed, pretending to sleep. It was so hard not to giggle! Or creating a dog pile on the ground. How do you stay still while laughing?
As we look back on this book we made as a family, we are all impressed with how each picture turned out. The original pictures were taken on film. That means no digital preview to make sure that everyone was looking, smiling, eyes open, or doing the correct pose. Also, if our parents are in them, 12-year-old Sarah took the pictures. Each picture itself became a sweet memory for each of us.
Recreating a Cherished Keepsake Book
Now that we are grown, those books are a cherished keepsake. We all love the memories we have from making it! A few years back, we decided to recreate it for our mom using our own families! We are going to tell you all about making these picture books as a family right here!
Steps to Create Your Own Keepsake Book
Read the Book with Your Kids
Start with reading the book as a family. When we did this as kids, our parents gathered us and read the story first. When we made it with our families, we each read this story with our families.
Plan Your Poses and Pages
Next, admire the pictures. Go through the book page by page. Look at the pictures and study the words. How can you illustrate this page with one picture? ‘Guess How Much I Love You’ has really easy pictures to recreate. The words also give a few other ideas.
Capture the Recreated Poses
This is the most memorable part for the kids and when they can really get involved. Have fun posing in your pre-planned poses. You can do whole family shots, kids only, parents only, or any other combination of people. Make sure you breathe a huge sigh of relief that we have digital cameras now and you can take as many shots as you want to get the perfect pose. However, it is also important to remember that the quirkiness in each picture helps capture this moment in time. Embrace that silly smile and that wiggly two year old.
Assemble Your Keepsake Book
After taking your pictures, it’s time to assemble your book. Our original book was scrapbooked. It was a scrapbooking trend that was going on. Our mom printed the words on cardstock and added them on one page with the pictures opposite. The book was assembled in a photo album-type scrapbook.
For our grandparents, she did just a photo album with 4x6 pictures on one side and a 4x6 card full of words on the other. She also changed the words from ‘nutbrown hare’ to ‘nutbrown bear’ because we were in bear nightgowns.
When we recreated it, we decided to stick to a similar style as the original picture book. Instead of using stamps and paper, Lindzi redrew nutbrown hare pictures from the actual book to embellish our pages. Another option for assembly is to add your pictures and words to a photo book-making service such as Shutterfly or Google Photos.
You have the sweetest book full of memories that is not only a great gift but a family keepsake that you can read over and over again!
Other Book Ideas to Recreate
There are other books you and your family can recreate too. Lindzi’s family dressed as the characters from ‘Where The Wild Things Are’ by Maurice Sendak for Halloween. Then, she created a book using pictures of them in their costumes. A simple book that they can continue reading as a family!
Planning Halloween costumes as book characters with the intent to also create a book is such a fun idea! Creating a book gives your costumes more meaning. It also adds two uses for it!
Some Halloween costumes for book characters that we think would be awesome are:
- Room On The Broom by Julia Donaldson
- Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne
- Green Eggs And Ham by Dr. Seuss
- Any Classic Fairytale (3 Little Pigs, Jack and the Beanstalk, etc.)
You can check out our blog post, 25 Last-Minute Halloween Costumes, for ideas of quick and easy costumes to add an extra dash of fun and memories to your keepsake book.
Here are some ideas of other books you could do as a family to make a family keepsake.
- The Night Before Christmas by Clement Moore
- No, David! by David Shannon (perfect for little kids)
- Amelia Bedelia by Peggy Parish (imagine how much fun the pictures would be)
- How to Catch a… (monster, Santa, Easter bunny, etc.) by Adam Wallace
- Love You Forever by Robert Munsch
Any book can become a family keepsake. Just think of some of your children’s favorite books! With a dash of creativity, you can create one too! Whether it is ‘Guess How Much I Love You’ or your child’s favorite book; making a book into something extra special is always with it!
We can’t wait to see what you create! Be sure to tag us @DIYFamilyTime on Instagram.
What a sweet keepsake! And I LOVE the idea of creating a little book from Halloween pictures every year. I wish I would have done that from the start.
Thank you so much! We’re delighted you love the keepsake idea. It’s never too late to start creating a Halloween picture book each year.