It’s January… It’s cold outside… The kids are bored and don’t want to go out to play in snow, sleet or rain. What’s a parent to do? Here’s a quick and simple way to keep your munchkins busy — use Photoshop to make coloring pages from your photos. This is the perfect project for all those holiday snapshots. Just follow these simple steps:

  1. Start by selecting the photo you’d like to use (any photo will work but my kids requested coloring pages of themselves; they wanted to feel like movie stars).

    Original Photo (don't you just love all the olives!)

    Photo as a coloring page

  2. Open the photo and size it to fit the coloring page (Image –> Canvas Size; most printer paper is 8.5 x 11 but give yourself a bit of room for margins).

    Photo in photoshop

  3. Create a duplicate layer (Layer –> Duplicate Layer); make all further changes on the duplicate layer so as not to alter your original photo.

    Opening a duplicate layer

  4. Apply the photocopy filter (Filter –> Sketch–>Photocopy)

    Applying photocopy filter

  5. Adjust the darkness and detail settings to highlight the outlines while minimizing background noise.

    Detail and Darkness Settings

  6. Now it’s time to clean up the page.  Create a levels adjustment layer (Layer –> New Adjustment Layer –>Levels)

    Cleaning up with adjustment layer

  7. Play around with the sliders until you get the effect you want. Slide the left slider to the right to define the lines and slide the right slider to the left to decrease noise.
  8. Save, print and you’re done!

Coloring away!

The final product!

If you’re kids are like mine you’ll find yourself making a whole book of coloring pages.  Punch holes in the pages and tie with string or a pretty ribbon for a fun finished look.  Enjoy!

Shalet Abraham is a mother, veterinarian, blogger and avid amateur photographer. She blogs at peculiarmomma.blogspot.com.

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