How To Make Personalized Coloring Books for Kids

Thanks to computers, printers and tracing paper, you can make your own personalized coloring books for the kids in your life. You’ll be printing free downloadable coloring pages and making them into a booklet.

It’s not just for saving money – in fact, when coloring books go on deep sales, it would probably be cheaper to buy one. This project is about elevating the usual cheap, soon discarded coloring book to a whole new level – a beautiful, personalized book a child will enjoy for years to come as a joint effort between the two of you.

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Or an adult. Because you can obviously make an adult coloring book from free adult coloring printables online.

What you’ll need

• A scanner and computer
• Supplies for the binding (such as Gorilla Glue or a glue gun, or you can make your own glue)
• Paper for the coloring pages
• Pencils or ink
• Pictures to trace (unless you can draw from scratch) or images downloaded from online.
• Crayons

Designing personalized coloring books

You could make a simple, thin coloring book, similar to the ones sold in stores. Or you could make a thick, bound volume with 100-200 pictures to color.

Instructables shows you how to make an actual, hardbound book cover yourself without spending much on materials. Here’s a way to make a paperback binding.

Or you can make personalized coloring books with simple Japanese book binding with just some nice stock paper for the cover, and all the pages sewn together via holes punched beside the spine.

Another option for those of you with some computer skills and writing ability: write a story and provide illustrations within the text (or on opposite pages) for a child to color.

Choosing the images

Pick images that can be turned into simple line drawings for personalized coloring books. Kids need to be able to figure out what each line is representing, so if there are, say, lots of wrinkles on a character’s jacket, a child might think each wrinkle represents a part she should color differently from its neighbors.

Take a look at ColoringBookFun to get an idea of the sort of images that will work.

You can also reproduce someone else’s copyrighted illustrations, as long as you don’t sell them. This gives you a lovely opportunity to make a coloring book of a child’s favorite book or TV show that isn’t being made into a coloring book on the market right now.

Some tips for making it memorable for the child you’re gifting it to or making it with:

1. Identify the Child’s Interests: Find out about the child’s favorite characters, hobbies, interests, and any other personal details that you can incorporate into the coloring pages.

2. Brainstorm and Sketch Ideas: Use your design software or a sketchpad to start brainstorming and sketching out potential coloring page designs, or look for them online to print. Consider adding the child’s name, favorite animals, sports, or any other elements that will make the pages truly personalized.

3. Create the Illustrations: Depending on your artistic skills and the design software you’re using, you can either create original illustrations or use existing images and modify them to fit your personalized theme.

4. Add Text and Details: Once you have the main illustrations, add any necessary text, such as the child’s name, captions, or instructions to enhance the personalized experience.

5. Optimize for Printing: Ensure that your coloring page designs are properly sized and formatted for printing on your chosen paper or coloring book pages. Check the resolution and file type to guarantee high-quality results.

6. Test and Refine: Print out a few sample pages and test them with the child (or a trusted adult) to get feedback and make any necessary adjustments before finalizing the designs.

How to make a coloring book

The simplest way to make a coloring book is:

• Download images from a site like ColoringBookFun (do a search for “download coloring books” or “download coloring pages” – there are lots of sites offering illustrations).
• Print them on appropriate coloring paper. (You can use regular bond, but it’s not thick enough to do double-sided without the color showing through. You can buy specialty papers that are safe for printers, or just use bond paper single-sided.)
• Make an attractive cover out of card stock or something nice and durable. Title it “Jamila’s Coloring Book” or something so the child feels it was really and truly made just for her.
• Punch holes in the pages and cover and bind it with brads or the Japanese binding style I linked to previously.

…or get even fancier

• Draw your own illustrations, if you have the art skills. Remember, these have to be simple, bold line drawings without any confusing stray lines.
• Trace your own illustrations from storybooks, family photos, magazines, etc. Start by tracing the most general outlines – say, the contour of a character’s entire body, a horizon, the tops of mountains. Then add more details gradually – lines to represent the character’s facial features and hair, foothills at the bottom of the mountains. Take a look at this and imagine coloring it – would you want more separate shapes to color? Then add more details – lines to represent clothing, or the beach along the shore. Once you’re done, scan the image and print it on appropriate paper.
• Make your own storybook by merging your illustrations with some text in a word processor. This doesn’t need to be an elaborate story – you could, for example, just write a few lines about each picture for coloring, either around the picture or on opposite pages.

Enhancing the Coloring Book Experience

To take your personalized coloring book to the next level, consider adding the following:

1. Stickers and Stencils: Include a selection of stickers or stencils that the child can use to decorate their coloring pages, adding an extra layer of creativity and customization.

2. Coloring Supplies: Pair the coloring book with a set of high-quality coloring pencils, markers, or crayons to encourage the child to explore a wide range of colors and techniques.

3. Personalized Storage: Provide a custom-made folder, binder, or box to store the coloring book and supplies, making it easy for the child to keep everything organized and accessible.

4. Accompanying Activities: Consider including additional activities, such as mazes, word searches, or connect-the-dot puzzles, to further engage the child and provide a more well-rounded experience.

5. Digital Integration: If the child is tech-savvy, you can explore the possibility of creating a digital version of the coloring book that can be used on a tablet or computer, allowing for even more interactive and customizable features.

Additional tips

1. Kids break and lose things. For that reason, I suggest scanning in everything you need to reproduce the entire book in whole or in part. That way, you can replace a few damaged pages or an entire book, if the need arises.
2. Kids change their interests frequently. Talk to the child in question or his parents to find out what he’s into these days so you can make a coloring book that will capture his interest for sure.
3. Don’t stress this project. Really, what I outlined as the simplest method will result in a very nice, very personal, very lovely gift that doesn’t cost much to make. There’s no need to get anymore fancy than that, especially if you’re making a number of these for various kids.