Making A Custom Board Book From Our Travel Photos
I love making photo books of our travels as a fun way to memorialize a trip and walk down memory lane. I’ve been making photo books for years but never imagined that my toddler would love them as much as I do!
One of my daughter, C’s, favourite things to do is flip through our photo books. She’s especially interested in the books she’s a part of, such as her baby book album, and loves pointing out all the people she knows.
So when I partnered with Mixbook, one of my go-to online photo book companies, I knew I wanted to create a book just for C. I wanted to combine everything she loves – familiar faces, bright colours, simple stories – into a custom board book fit for a toddler.
The awesome thing about designing a photo book with a company like Mixbook is that you don’t have to stick to a traditional photo album format. Why not make a personalized photo book that becomes your child’s new favourite bedtime story?
I love that by creating my own travel-themed baby book for C, I’m able to customize her library with stories and photos from her adventures around the world. She can learn new words and relive her best travel memories at the same time!
Below I’ll walk you through exactly how I created my own custom board book for my daughter, why this is such a great idea for a family-friendly trip souvenir, and hook you up with a 50% off Mixbook discount code!
Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning if you click through and make a purchase, I will earn a small commission at no additional cost to you. This post is sponsored by Mixbook; all opinions are my own. Thanks to you and Mixbook for your support of my work!
How to create your own baby board book
The first thing I did was head to Mixbook (app or website) and browse through their baby book templates.
I love that Mixbook already has a template for custom board books, plus other baby book templates you can customize. It took a lot of the pressure off of designing something that would be fun for a toddler to read.
You can also start from scratch with a blank book or use Story Mode, where a few questions over chat will create a finished photo book for you that you can order as is or edit first.
After choosing my template, I decided on a concept for my board book. I wanted to do an alphabet book where each letter would represent a place my daughter has travelled.
Considering she’s less than two years old, this was an ambitious concept! And I did have to get pretty creative. For example, “I” is “in the air” and “Z” is “zoo.”
But I loved having a concrete idea to guide the book. It helped me choose which photos to include, rather than having to narrow down the thousands of travel photos I’ve taken.
Unlike some of my other photo books where I try and squeeze as many photos and pages into the book as possible, I wanted this baby board book to have some breathing room. Each page has 1-2 words and 1-2 photos, so it’s easy for a toddler to read along.
From there, all I had to do was finalize my photo selection, add text, and play around with backgrounds, stickers and formatting. The template I chose had all of this ready for me, but I’m one of those people that likes to tweak everything just-so!
Happy with the design, I ordered my book and eagerly awaited delivery! Just like every Mixbook I’ve ordered in the past, delivery was faster than expected (6 days sooner than they said!) and the book arrived in pristine condition.
Why make a personalized travel book
I was so excited to sit down with C and show her the custom travel board book I had created just for her. She was just as excited to read it too!
C listened attentively as I read through the travel alphabet, stopping to point at people and places she remembered. She loved seeing herself, her parents and her grandparents in one of her own books!
As we flipped through, I was once again blown away by the quality of Mixbook’s photo books. The printing was crisp and all of the colours looked bright and vibrant. The book felt so sturdy and well-made – which is good because I think we’ll be reading this one a lot!
I’ve always thought of our photo books as a way for me to remember our trips. I have so much fun making them, even more so when I can gift them to other people who were on the trip with us.
And I love walking by our stack of photo books, flipping through our memories in New Zealand, France or elsewhere in the world. Whenever friends or family visit, they get a kick out of seeing our travel photos too.
But it wasn’t until our daughter, C, found our photo books that I realized how much fun they could be for little kids. She’s obsessed with flipping through them and pointing out everyone she knows – especially our dog, Ellie.
A lot of people think there’s no use in travelling with babies since they won’t remember it. But even if C won’t remember her early travel days, I will. And I know they have shaped her life and the person she’ll become.
Plus, I can always point her to our collection of travel photo books where she’ll be able to relive any of the trips she may not remember!
Make your own Mixbook photo book with up to 50% off
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My new favourite travel souvenir: A custom board book!
A custom board book is such a great way to combine a family photo album with a practical book that our daughter will be able to read over the years. It’s all the trip memories we want to remember inside of our own storybook!
There’s so much freedom and creativity in making a personalized board book. You can create an alphabet book like I did, write a poem or short story, use a nursery rhyme or song lyrics, or even make it bilingual to help your family learn a second language!
I love that this gives me so many new options for how to create and design future photo books. I could see making C a custom board book every year with tales from all of her adventures.
As she grows up, these books could include some of her own words too. I can just picture her coming up with a story and us creating a photo book to bring her ideas to life.
I hope this has inspired you to turn your family’s best travel moments into a custom board book that your little one will love reading for years to come. Fill their library with all of the faces and places they love best!
And don’t forget to use my MIXTEA26 discount code to get up to 50% off your next Mixbook photo book!
Full Terms: Up To 50% Off + Free Shipping On $59+ Or Free CA. Standard Shipping (No Minimum) Or Free US. Budget Shipping (No Minimum): This offer is only valid with coupon code MIXTEA26. Enjoy 25-50% off almost everything. This offer is not valid for 6×6 photo books and softcover photo books.
Free CA Standard Shipping applies only to orders totaling $59+ after discount is applied, and shipping to the continental Canada. Free US Standard Shipping applies only to orders totaling $59+ after discount is applied, and shipping to the continental United States.
This offer cannot be combined with other coupons, vouchers, Groupons, or applied after an order has been placed. Discount applies only to completed projects. No adjustments on previous purchases. Taxes will apply. Offer expires September 30, 2026.
