Interested in making a matching activity for your child?
Here is a great book that has good pictures and the alphabet too. I got super lucky with this one because my local library was having a book sale. I purchased so many books that I ended up getting this one for free! Honestly, I think the sales lady felt sorry for me carrying a heavy box of books around and ended up giving me some of the books for free. These books are fairly inexpensive anyway, so find a board book that you like and let’s get started . . .
The first thing I did was wipe each page with a Clorox wipe and dried it. It had some marks on it and I just wanted it to be clean before I started. Also, if you look closely, you can notice teeth marks in the upper right corner. I actually didn’t notice this until I was cleaning it, but this doesn’t keep me from making an activity book out of it. Clean, and keep going!
Next I copied all of the pages onto card stock to make them a little more firm but regular copy paper is also fine.
I intended to make all of the cards the same size and shape but I didn’t notice until I started cutting that I wouldn’t be able to do it this way. So I just used scissors to cut around the pictures and didn’t worry about them all being the same. If you want them all the same size and shape, you can cut around the picture then glue them to a card, such as an index card before laminating.
I didn’t want my cards to overlap, so I opted to crop around the pictures.
They will fit more like a puzzle on the page instead of overlapping which would have made the book even thicker.
I cut all of the pictures out leaving some white space all around them. You can also crop them even closer if you choose.
Next I gathered my supplies for laminating and attaching: my laminating sheets, laminator, and Velcro. Yes, I have a whole box of Velcro, different colors and sizes.
Of course it’s not necessary to laminate the pictures in order but because some of mine were fitting like a puzzle, they fit well inside the laminating sheets this way. Make sure to round off the edges as you cut the laminating sheets and leave a small edge around the pictures so it doesn’t peel.
I usually place the rough part of the Velcro in the book and the soft part on the card. First I place the rough Velcro in the book. Then place the soft Velcro circle on top with the sticky side facing up. Then I place the card on the top and the Velcro is in perfect position every time.
Continue to place all of the Velcro circles in the book. I tried to place them on a white background as much as possible so that you couldn’t see it but that wasn’t always possible. A little bit of advice about this Velcro: it’s very sticky! Once you place it in the book, do not move it!
I thought I could move the Velcro and ended up ripping my book. Noooooooo! Okay, this happens, lesson learned. Actually, I know how sticky it is so I should have never tried to move it. Look, the dog is even sad about it!
There was really no saving it. Let’s gather up some new supplies: purple pencil and some packing tape.
It’s not perfect but let’s be honest, it wasn’t perfect to begin with (remember the teeth marks).
So after all of that, I ended up putting the Velcro in the same place. Ugh! I figured it would be more secure that way. Hummm, the dog still looks sad.
When all of the pictures are Velcro’d within your book, it will be THICK. You can store it this way or take all of the cards out and place them in a box or plastic envelope like I did.
Enjoy your new activity with your child! When you make one, please send me a picture. I’d love to see it (even if it has teeth marks)!