easy cheap diy board book

the birds board book is finally done. it didnt take long at all to make, and I'm pretty happy with the results. hopefully the kid(s) will like it too, and it also helped me learn better methods, which I will soon use for the catechism book that got all this started.

for the images for this book, I found various bird pictures via google image search. the advanced search esepecially helped, as I could get the hi-res full-color jpgs I was looking for. I was going to try to take the pics myself, but our little point-n-shoot wouldnt get very nice results. plus it took me less than an hour to find the ones I wanted online. so once I had the pics, I started up photoshop and did a 4"x6" psd, using a color from the bird as the background. besides putting the name of the bird on the top, I ad-libbed a description of some sort for each one.

then I saved the psds as jpgs and uploaded them to sams for printing. at only 11 cents a print, it cant be beat. I've heard that they're getting antsy about copyright stuff, so I had it shipped to the house instead of in-store, figuring the shipped method is automated. I'm not sure if they would have given me trouble at the store or not? I figure this project is a "fair use" of the images people were giving away (since they were on the web after all). but a drawback of that decision is that they came back glossy, although this wasnt unexpected. apparently they do matte in the stores, and that ends up looking nicer in the final product.

so the pictures arrived, and I trimmed off an inch on each side, as the book I was using is a 5"x5" square (and only $1 from barebooks.com). then I glued them in the pages (with non-toxic gluestick) and put contact paper over top. this last step is where I learned some lessons. with the dog book I did for Caleb's birthday, there was more white space than colored, so little mistakes with the contact paper werent as noticable. but now with solid colors, little bubbles show up. so I learned to take it slower with the contact paper, going from one corner up. and I think the matte finish (on 2 of the prints I forgot to upload and had them done in-store) handles the contact paper better too.

so here are the results of my easy-and-cheap do-it-yourself board book. if anyone would like jpgs of the pages, I've included links here. 10 of the 12 would apply for just about anywhere (the cover references Chattanooga, and the House Finch page refers to our favorite visitors by name). if you have photoshop and would like the psds, or if you just want the bird jpgs, just let me know.

Front cover (Nuthatch)
Cardinal
Chickadee
Goldfinch
Mourning Dove
House Sparrow
Carolina Wren
Titmouse
Woodpecker
Mockingbird
House Finch
Hummingbird