Did you know that my full time “real” job is working as an Art Director and graphic designer? Yep, along with painting, sanding and crafting, I spend most of my days playing around with Photoshop.
Well today I thought I would show you one of my favorite little tricks with your family photos… make a personal Kids Coloring Book!
Here’s what you’ll need:
- 10 or so family photos
- Photoshop or Photoshop Elements
- Printer with black ink
First thing you need to do is find 10+/- photos that you’d like to use. Some ideas might be photos of your kids on vacation, your pets, your kiddo’s favorite stuffed animals or toys.
Crop down the photos to 8 inches wide by 10.5 inches tall. This will help all your pages be in unison and give you a nice, clean quarter-inch border around each page when you print on letter-sized paper.
Next you’re going to find the Photocopy filter in Photoshop. Before you begin, make sure your color palette is set to black and white. Then go to Filter > Sketch > Photocopy.
A new window will pop up with your photo adjusted. You can play around with the Detail and Darkness to get the perfect effect. When finished adjusting, click OK.
And here’s the final result…
Pretty cool, right? Just make sure you adjust each photo separately since the darks and lights are different in every photograph. Also, if you have a little gray spotting that you’d like to get rid of, just use an eraser to clean it up!
Once you’re done adjusting all of your photos and you’ve saved them to your desktop, print them out in black ink on your computer’s printer. If you’d like, create a fun family cover and staple the book together.
And you can even download the cover art for free! Just save the file below to your desktop and edit in your graphics program. The font I used for my daughter’s book is called Blockhead and I downloaded it for free from Dafont.com.
Yep, pretty cool {and cheap} project. Great for long car rides or rainy days! Or maybe even a fun gift idea…
HOPE YOU ENJOY!
Linking up here:
Serenity Now, The DIY Showoff, Between Naps on the Porch, Carolyn’s Homework, Sugar Bee Crafts, Uncommon Slice of Surburbia, Shabby Chic Cottage, Somewhat Simple, Beyond the Picket Fence, House of Hepworths, The 36th Avenue, At the Picket Fence, Today’s Creative Blog, Not Just a Housewife, Tatertots & Jello, Shabby Nest
That’s such a cool idea! I’ve been thinking of making a quiet time box for my son and this would be fun to put in there!
I’ve been making these for a couple of years for my daughter and love going back through them ;)
A very interesting idea!