The Encyclopedia of Cousins

Total Time Needed:: Weekend Projects

To help her kids, Nat and Sarah, ages 7 and 4, keep their cousins near and dear between family gatherings, FamilyFun's creative director, Ann Hallock, made a handy reference guide. She e-mailed a set of interview questions to each cousin (via his or her parents), then compiled their responses and photos in a book, which she had inexpensively bound at a local copy shop. All the kids received their own Encyclopedia of Cousins. Needless to say, the book was a hit. "It really reinforces that special cousins relationship," Ann says. "They're like a little tribe. Plus, it will be really hilarious to look back on when they're 18!"

Check out more ideas for easy-to-make Gifts that Celebrate Family.

Materials

Questionnaire responses (you can download our list of questions)

Digital photo of each cousin

Instructions

To give your book's pages a uniform look, you should start with one text and one photo template. Download ours or create your own using Microsoft Word. To make the text template yourself, type your questions in a large, bold font, double-spacing to leave room for longer responses. Save as "Text Template." To make the photo template, select the Drawing function on the program's toolbar. Choose the Text Box option to create a large box in the center of the page for photos, and a smaller box below for captions. Save as "Photo Template."
To create the first entry, open the text template and type in a cousin's responses. Save this document as a separate file (such as "Sarah's Text").
Open the photo template, then drag the corresponding photograph to the large box. (It will format itself to size.) Type a name or short caption in the small box, then save the document as a separate file (such as "Sarah's Photo"). Repeat steps 2 and 3 for each cousin.
Use the same drawing and text-box functions to create a template for your cover, then type in a title and drag and drop photos into the box or boxes.
Save your work on a USB flash drive or burn it to a CD, then take it to a copy shop to have it printed and bound. (Ann's cost approximately $7 per book.)