“Nova’s New Hair” Homemade Children’s Book

I am so so so excited to share today’s DIY with you. I have had this idea for a while, and am so happy I finally did it! It was a good amount of work, but super FUN to do and one of the most sentimental DIYs I have ever made for Nova. Today, I’ll teach you how to make your own homemade children’s book.

This post is sponsored by Canon USA. I love my Pixma iP8720 soooo much and have used it daily for years. I use it for both large-format projects and smaller ones where I can print multiple photos on one sheet. For this project, I used iron-on printer paper and printed the same photo of Nova over and over again. I put 2 photos per sheet (5×7 inches each).

After I printed all the photos, I cut them out and ironed them on canvas. The biggest key to getting perfect iron-ons is to wait until they are completely cooled to pull the paper away.

Note: It is best to flip an image before you print it on iron-on paper as it will appear backwards after you iron it on. On this photo, I didn’t do that and the word (only halfway in the photo) on the door mat looks a little silly … but I wasn’t too worried about it since Nova can’t read yet. That said, if your project has any words or text on the image, you 100% need to flip it before printing.

After that, I cut out each of the photos and began the process of hand stitching and glueing fun hairstyles onto each photo. This was SO much fun! I spent about three days on them. There are endless ways to add texture to the photos.

To customize your own book, you can totally make a hairstyle book like mine, but don’t feel limited to that! You can add textured details to ANY photos for a cute toddler-friendly book.

After that, I glued the photos onto felt pages. (I used this glue and the felt is generic from any craft store.)

Then, I sewed together all the pages so they would be really secure inside of the book.

Next, I added a front and back cover using felt and fabric glue. Last, I added a spine using a different color felt and fabric glue. Let it dry completely before adding a second round of glue to get it as secure as possible.

I hand stitched the title, which took me around three hours, but I love the look of it so it was worth it. It could be done much quicker with a machine.

Here are the hairstyles inside the book. Nova thinks it is SO FUNNY and I had so much fun making it, so it was a win/win. I love that this homemade project will be a part of her childhood memories and a keepsake she can keep later on.

So what do you think?? Would you make one? I would LOVE to hear your ideas for personalizing your own book for the little one in your life! xx – Elsie

Credits//Author and Photography: Elsie Larson. Photos edited with A Color Story Desktop.