When I saw this post by Jenae over at I Can Teach My Child ( who will be a guest poster tomorrow so don’t miss it! ) my head was running with ideas on how to make something similar. I would be lying if I told you it was easy, maybe it would have been with no kids but I had an infant in my arms while taking every picture and a 4 year old helper wanting to “help”. However the results were pretty cool and it’s a great book to take to church or somewhere else that talking in that not so quiet but really trying to voice. It’s been tested out by a handful of friends already and was quite the hit at a playdate last week. So the effort was worth it. Here is how we made it.

1. Gather your materials. This is a long list so take notes! I gathered a bunch of categories of my son’s toys. You can use anything for the pictures but I went with themes because it was easy to just grab bins from his room and the family room. You will also need some back drops. I chose plain jane construction paper, you will need some foam letters and a camera. A good camera would be better but my point and shoot was ok.  Once the pictures are developed ( or printed out) you will need some self laminating pages, a hole punch, and some binder rings.
2. Start by using the foam letters to write Can You Find and take a picture. This will be the cover page.
3. Next do the first lay out.  Lay the toys you are looking for on the page.  I laid out the whole search page first then picked a few out to lay on the can you find page. Take a picture.
4. Replace the objects you used and take a picture of the full lay out.
5. Repeat this is a bunch of different toys.  I always used the same black paper with ” Can You Find ” in foam letters for the search page. It made the process quicker.
6. I took this picture for the back cover.
7. Have the pictures developed or print them out on your printer. 
8. Time to laminate.  Now in my dream house I have a craft room with awesome natural light and a laminator. But in reality I have my kitchen and these cool laminator envelopes that are sorta tricky but they laminate so clearly without a machine that they are worth it. I had a few bubbles but nothing too bad.  Remember to laminate in order so 2 pictures front and back to each page.
9. Punch holes.
10. Pop the rings through and you are done! I like using the rings because I have plenty of room to add more pages.
11. Time to find things! 

More Eye-Spy Crafts

Eye Spy Bottle

Eye Spy Bag