Christmas Craft: Make A Mini Keepsake Book



Katie's Nesting Spot inspired us to try our hand at our very own predictable reader. The phrase "This is..." appears on each page. This style of book is great for pre-readers and early readers. Check out Katie's book she made for her daughter, ER. It is about the different colors Christmas lights.

For our book, Lu used Christmas stencils. She had never used a stencil before and really enjoyed using them. I have a feeling she will be asking to use them again!


  • Take some scrap paper, fold, punch two holes in the center fold and tie together with ribbon. I used card stock as the outside piece to give it more of a "book" feel. You could also use the card board from a cereal box.
  • If using a stencil, tape down the stencil sheet first. This prevents the stencil moving around as your child colors. There was no tree on our stencils sheet so I cut one out using card stock.
  • Lu decorated her tree with stickers and glued on a card board star that she colored.


I am off to help Lu finish her book. We still have more several more pages to fill, plus there is the cover to think about! I know when we are done Lu will enjoy reading her book to her sister, stuffed animals, Grand Parents and probably even the Mail Man! This is one that we will save. I am thinking about tying a loop on it and hanging it on the Christmas tree as a mini keepsake book. Have fun crafting with your little elves!

10 comments:

jacque4u2c said...

What a great little book!

Amy said...

what a neat idea.. this something she can have out each year.. maybe even add to it..

Deborah Stewart said...

I love the starter sentence for each page. Great idea and great pictures! I have also use...

"I like..."

as a good starter sentence. Love the book!

Valerie @ Inner Child Fun said...

It turned out beautifully! Great idea to hang it on the tree! What a treasure! I love it!!

Kristine said...

I was just thinking this morning about how to preserve my daughter's Christmas art. I'm thinking about making little softies with them but time is running out! I do like the idea of a book to hang on the tree.
When I taught we used the books with repetitive sentence starters a lot with early readers. It's particularly good with words like 'this' which though it is phonetically decodable has a sound that children don't iniatially know. I think the best thing about them is the confidence that it gives children to be able to read alone. This alone gives them a great start to reading.

Elise said...

What a gorgeous book. Using stencils is a neat idea.

Your Christmas tree is "beauty full", it is so special that your hand made ornaments have a story. Every year when you put up your tree it would be like taking a trip down memory lane. Ornaments children make for the Christmas tree are priceless, irreplaceable and treaured pieces.

Katie said...

I love it, as always Kim! I can't wait until ER is old enough to draw her own pictures. This is such a cute keepsake book and one that'll be so much fun to take out year after year. The kid writing is always a favorite thing of mine to look back at!

PS: Your email had me laughing! I feel your pain.

Melissa Taylor said...

Love this! I use stencils a lot with my younger daughter - then she can focus on the writing more. I got my Christmas stencils from Usborne but can't find more. Where did you get yours?

Melissa meltay at comcast.net

peata said...

cute little book
scrapbook-crazy.com

Abbie said...

A stencil, didn't think of this. But it could be a key. My son who is 3 1/2 yo, gets really frustrated when his picture doesn't "look" perfect. Do you find younger artists are able to trace the stencil well? Very cute craft!

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