How to Make a Homemade Children's Book With Laminated Pages

Personalized gifts provide one way to make the recipient feel special and appreciated. Children who receive a homemade book, especially when the book is about the child, attach special feelings to the book. The book may contain a story written by the recipient about the child or a favorite story the child and the writer share. Laminating the book protects the pages from messy fingers and makes the book more durable.

Write the story for the book. Include information about the child such as his name, birthday and names of family members and pets. Tell a story about the day the child was born, a baseball game when the child played well or a trip the child took. Make the story personal and include elements the child enjoys.

Type the story into the computer and print it out or print it on copy paper. Leave enough room on each page to add illustrations or pictures that accompany the story. Set the pages up for two columns with a generous gutter so the book will approximate the size of a paperback book. Print the paper on card stock or heavy weight paper if the book is for a small child so the book will be sturdier.

Add illustration to your book. Draw pictures, use pictures cut from magazines or use photos of the child and the people close to him. Glue the pictures or photos on the pages with your story. Alternatively, place the illustrations on facing pages instead of on the page with text.

Assemble the pages so that each has a front and a back side. Glue page one onto the back of the front cover. Glue page three onto the back of page two. Continue this process until you have all of the pages assembled in order. Clip the pages together and flip through them to make sure they're in order.

Press contact paper onto the front and back of each page and cut off the excess plastic border, leaving a small edge so the pages stay sealed. Alternatively, you can take the pages to a teacher supply store or an office supply place and have them run the pages through their laminating machine.

Punch holes in the left margin of every top-facing page. To bind the pages, have a comb or spiral binding put on the book at a copy shop or place them in a small half-size binder. If you use a binder, run an extra copy of the front and back cover and slip the front cover into the front pocket of the binder and the back cover into the binder’s back cover.