If your kids are anything like mine, they are always asking you to tell them a story. I’ve gotten pretty good at coming up with them over the past few years but I’ll admit, I’m in need of some new material. There are only so many stories I can tell about a princess. Not to mention that usually my story ends up getting interrupted because my girls are a couple of talkers and are easily sidetracked.
And since they are such talkers, they’ve inspired me to turn the tables on them, so to speak. I decided that, instead of me telling all the stories, they should tell me a few.
And the idea of wooden story telling squares was born.
This is a super inexpensive project and only took me around an hour to complete. Â You will love giving yourself a mental break and your kids will love getting to talk your ear off with a story they created.
Here’s what you will need:
Straight edge cutter
8 1/2″ X11″ computer paper (I used Kraft scrapbook paper)
A bag of 1.5″ wooden chips (I bought mine at Joann’s but any craft store will have them)
ModPodge and brush
Small bag to store all the squares once you’re done
Computer
Let’s get started!
First off, getting graphics for your squares is easy. There are TONS of free fonts available that have all kinds of cute people, shapes, objects. I tailored mine to things I knew my girls would like to tell stories about. And all of the ones you see pictured are from free fonts I’ve found online.
I opened a new document in Word (any word processor program would work for this). Then I selected my first font and started typing (randomly, I might add) letters/numbers to find the right graphics for my squares. Â Then I changed the color of each one by highlighting over just the one I wanted to change, then going to my task bar and changing the font color. Â You will want you font size to end up printing the graphic at about 1″ tall.
After you finish getting all the graphics you want, make sure they are spaced away from one another. Here’s what mine looked like before printing:
Then I simply printed out the pages onto my Kraft paper.
Next, I picked up one of my wooden squares and a pencil and marked where I need to cut.
Grab your straight edge cutter and start cutting these babies into 1.5″ squares.
After you have all your graphics cut, pull out the Mod Podge and your brush. Brush on some Mod Podge to one of your wooden squares and apply one of your graphics.
Then I went around all four sides of the square with a little more Mod Podge to seal the edges.
Repeat this with all of your wooden squares and graphics. And then let them dry for a hour or two.
After they are dry, you can sand the edges a little to give it a worn look. And that’s it! They’re done!
My girls LOVE using these to tell me stories or to tell each other stories. I didn’t realize how much they would love these until I made them.
And here’s a bonus idea for you…
Let your child pick out 5 squares when he/she first gets up in the morning. When they are in need of some sort of correction/punishment, you take 1 of their squares away. And on the flip side, if they do something that’s extra good, you can add another square.
The less squares they have, the less they have to work with for their story. And they know – the shorter the story is, the faster they have to go to bed.
I’m always looking for creative correction ideas for my girls. And this one definitely works like a charm!
Make some for yourself. But be warned….I got caught up in wanting a turn to tell my own story using the squares!
M. Y. says
This is great! What font did you use? I can’t tell from the photos.
Alyson says
These are darling! I want to make some for my girls. I have been looking online and I can’t find the cute picture fonts like you used. Would you mind telling me what font you used?
Kerri King says
Hi! There are tons of choices out there but here are some names of fonts (dingbats) I used: LoKinder Dings, Girl Characters, Boy Characters, Pea Jillybean, Bella K. Dings, Toys4U.
You can google those and you should find a place to download those onto your computer. 🙂
Alyson says
Thank you so much!
Krystal says
I am curious about the font too. I have looked over fonts recently and couldn’t find any like that.
justjayma says
Super cute, what a clever idea!
Kim {Stuffed Suitcase} says
This is great! Thanks for the idea!