When you have kids, at some point you basically become something of an art teacher. Kids love arts and crafts! And once they get a taste of creating their own artwork, they just run with it and it becomes their go-to independent activity. It's really awesome, but it can also mean that you're constantly restocking your growing supply of art and craft stuff! Paints and crayons and paper and glue - it can start taking over your house. And we all get to the point where we don't want to buy anymore! When your coloring books start to outnumber your regular books, it might be time to pull back and look at other options. We're big fans of printing out individual coloring pages for our kids. But if you don't have a printer or don't want to waste all that ink, you can always make your own! We know it sounds like a heavy lift, but trust us - homemade coloring books are a lot easier than it sounds. Here are some tips on how to make your own coloring book without a printer.
Make your own coloring book with drawings.
OK, we know what you're thinking: you buy coloring books because you aren't an artist and don't know where to start as far as drawing your own pages! But hear us out. It's actually so much easier than it sounds! There are a few different ways you can flex your artist muscles and put together a really great homemade coloring book for your kids.
If you have some drawing chops, you can follow some simple patterns to make easy coloring sheets for your kiddos. It doesn't have to be complicated - we're not talking intricate coloring sheets like you'd find in an adult coloring book. Think simple, like shapes, animals, and even block letters for younger kids. You can even use cookie cutters to make some shapes, this is a great way to create some holiday-themed coloring pages to put into a book!
Another way to create coloring pages to make your own coloring book is by using tracing paper. Just place a piece of tracing paper over another paper with a picture on it, and use a pencil to trace the image. You can then go over the pencil with a fine-tipped black marker to create hard lines for your kiddos to color in. Or tape a picture to a window that gets full sun, and then place a piece of paper over it to trace the image that is projected through the paper! Once you've compiled your hand-drawn or traced pictures, you can easily turn them into a book by stapling the edges, or using chads or twine to tie them together with holes you punched in the bunch. Make sure you add a front and back cover with heavier paper so your kiddos can decorate their coloring books!
Make your own coloring book with blank pages.
This is one of our favorite ways to make our own coloring books, because it leaves the creativity completely up to your kids! Let's be honest, some kids prefer to chart their own course and don't want to color within anyone's lines. But rather than try to keep track of tons of loose sheets of paper covered in their artwork, you can put together these adorable coloring books so your kids can create their own collections.
For this homemade coloring book, you'll use materials you probably already have around your house. You'll need card stock (you can use any color you have, this will be for your front and back covers), plain white printer or construction paper, and your sewing machine. Stack a few sheets of white paper on top of the card stock, and then use a ruler and pencil to draw a line straight down the middle (landscape orientation). Once you've done that, hold your stack of papers together and run them through your sewing machine, along where you drew the line. This will stitch your stack of papers and card stock together, and yes, you can totally use your sewing machine here! Once your pages have been sewn together, simply fold over along the seam, creating a book with a front and back cover and all the blank pages inside. You can even create smaller coloring books using this method - instead of drawing and sewing your line horizontally, you'll do it vertically, and then cut the sewn pages in half horizontally. You can just make a batch of these blank coloring books to have handy when your kids are in the mood to color!