Activities: Homemade books 2

Stories, songs and activities are ways of passing time and passing on culture.  The Activities posts record ways of sharing language, experiences and creating memories. 

Re-using old board-books:  This is a great project for so many different reasons.  This idea came from the Soule Mama's wonderful website, which has been a constant source of inspiration and thoughtfulness for me over the last 6 years.  I began reading her blog before I had a child of my own, but since Puce has arrived, I find it even richer.  I highly recommend her book The Creative Family: How to Encourage Imagination and Nurture Family Connections.

Back to the project.  We were going to make a book for Monsieur R's birthday, so we went through Puce's baby books and found an old board-book that was definitely on it's last legs...

I used fine sandpaper to rough the pages and give a suitable surface to paint on. Puce then painted over the pages using white acrylic.  Aaaah how I miss those tiled floors that I cursed so much in France.  Little did I realise how perfect they were for any activities involving paint, plasticine, playdough, glitter...carpet is no way as user-friendly...

Once the pages had dried, it was free-reign for cutting, sticking and glittering.  

Not only does this project re-use old supplies (old board-book, old magazines, small bits of tissue and wrapping paper...), but it provides a support for keeping it all in one place.  My current problem is that I have run out of wall and fridge space for displaying artwork...this solves that problem.

In order to make it a "story book", I drew squares on a piece of A4 and let Puce come up with a "Papa-themed" story, a bit like a cartoon.  The original idea behind this was a "trial run" for creating a story in the book, but the pictures turned out so well we just cut them out and stuck them in.

The result was a fantastic, unique gift for Papa, a tired old book given a new lease of life and some great, creative fun.  Puce still enjoys looking at this book today, proud of her creation, and it makes everyone smile to re-read the story, some parts in French, others in English.