DIY Storybook Party Backdrop

Create a unique storybook party backdrop for your next baby shower, birthday party or book-themed party! This DIY project also makes a fun keepsake after the party.

Hello Crafty Friends! Today I’m excited to share a tutorial for making a storybook party backdrop! After I posted pictures from our Winnie the Pooh-themed party last year, I had a number of readers ask me how I made the storybook backdrop. I have finally made a tutorial complete with free templates to share with you!

My kids love reading The Many Adventures of Winnie The Pooh, so when we decided to do a Winnie the Pooh theme for our party, I thought it would be fun to create a storybook backdrop. The chapters in our Pooh book all start the same way so it was fun to recreate the chapters for each of my kids. Each page of the open book highlights one of our kiddos sine this was a joint party. 

While I made this book for our Pooh party, this storybook backdrop is easily customizable for any event, which is why I love it! This would be great for a birthday party or baby shower and could work well for twins. This would even be a sweet backdrop for a wedding event with the addition of “Once upon a time” and “Happily Ever After”. It would be a neat way to incorporate a couple’s story at a party. One of my favorite things about this backdrop is it makes a wonderful keepsake after the event! 

How to Make a Storybook Backdrop

Supplies Needed for Storybook Backdrop

• Free templates – Grab the free files by filling out the purple form at the end of this post.
• Print the template at your favorite local printer – I recommend printing a 24″ x 36″ blueprint
• If printing the templates at home, you’ll need:
  • 2 sheets of white poster board or large watercolor paper
  • 2 sheets of colored poster board for the book – I used two sheets of 19″ x 25″ Canson Art Line Paper.
  • Scissors or paper trimmer
  • Clear tape, pencil and a ruler
  • Lightbox or window.
• Sharpie or black felt tip pen
• Stickers, watercolors, scrapbook paper, colored pencils, or photos for illustrations
• 24″ x 36″ Foam core or cardboard

Using the Templates

The free templates (grab them by filling out the purple form at the end of this post) include a blank storybook, a storybook with lines and a storybook with lines and spots for illustrations. You can use these templates to create the storybook in a couple different ways. 

Option One: Print the template at your local printer. I did a test and printed it at Office Depot. I printed a 24″ x 36″ blueprint for $6.00. The print came out great but the paper is not sturdy so it will need to be mounted to a piece of foam core or cardboard. You can then write directly on the blue print with Sharpie. I’d recommend starting with pencil to plan out your writing and then tracing it with Sharpie. 

Option Two: Edit the template and print it with text. If you have photo editing software like Photoshop, you can import the .jpeg and add text to the file before printing. You can then print it as a blueprint at places like Office Depot with the words already added to it. 

Option Three: Print the template and piece it together. Print the template at home and piece them together to create a large template. This is what I did when I made both the storybook for our Winnie the Pooh party and this tutorial. I printed the large file, taped it together, and then used a light box and window to create my storybook on watercolor paper. There is a detailed tutorial below on how to do this process. You will need to have the ability to print the file at 100% on your home computer and move the file around. This process works in Photoshop but I’m not sure what other programs it will work in. 

Printing the Template at Home using Photoshop

To print the template at home, you will need to print it in smaller sections. Since I did this using Photoshop, I went ahead and added text to my storybook prior to printing it. Make sure your image is set to 100% scale and is the correct measurements, 24″ x 36″. Starting with the top left corner,  print the image in sections. Each time you go to print, move the view over so you are printing a new section of the image. I overlap my sections to make sure I don’t miss anything. When I printed mine, I printed 15 pages.

After printing the template, the next step is to tape the pages together to create your storybook template. You will be using this to trace from. Trim the page borders so you can overlap your pages.

When I was taping my pages together, I had a few sections at the very end that did not line up perfectly. As long as you don’t have too many places like this you will be fine. You are using this as a guide and can correct these little spots as you are tracing.  

Below you can see my template with all of the pages taped together.

Tracing the Storybook Pages

Trace your storybook pages onto your nice paper. For the Winnie the Pooh pages I made last year, I used watercolor paper. For these jungle pages, I used two sheets of white poster board. I used a light box to trace my pages and used a black felt tip pen. You can easily use a window like in the second picture and you can start out tracing in pencil if you are more comfortable with that.

If you have your pages printed as a blueprint, you may still want to trace them onto watercolor paper or thicker paper and can follow these same steps.

Adding Illustrations to the Storybook Pages

Once your storybook pages have been created, either by printing the template as a blueprint at your local print store or tracing the home-printed template, it is time to add illustrations. Again you can do this so many different ways!

• Paint or draw them like I did for my Winnie the Pooh pages.
• Use stickers like I did for these jungle pages.
• Use real photos of the birthday boy or girl
• Cut out pictures from scrapbook paper
• Print pictures from your computer. Freepik has lots of beautiful images you can use for free personal use projects.

Finishing the Storybook Backdrop

If you made the storybook by tracing the template, you will want to add more “pages” to the sides of your storybook to give the illusion of a book. I cut strips of paper that measured 1/2″, 3/4″ and 1″ for each side of the book. I taped them underneath the pages and trimmed them down so each one I added was shorter than the one before it.

With a pencil and ruler, draw straight lines to look like pages.

Finally attach your storybook pages to colored paper.  I used the template to help me cut out colored paper from a large sheet of green Canson paper.

Attach the pages to a piece of foam core or cardboard. This will give the pages some sturdiness so they won’t flop over when displayed. I overlapped my pages slightly at the center.

The storybook pages are all finished!! However you decide to put these pages together, they are sure to make a great display at your party and make a memorable keepsake afterwards.

Get the Free Storybook Party Backdrop Files!

Fill out the purple form below with your first name and email address! The free file will be sent straight to your inbox! If you have already filled out the form below, don’t worry – you won’t be added to my list twice! This freebie is for personal use only. I hope you enjoy crafting something special. Please let me know if you have any questions :)