Doodle Flip Books

A doodle flip book is a small book with images on each page that change slightly, so when you quickly flip through the pages of the book it gives the illusion of movement or animation.

For our flip books we use a selection of pencils, pens, collage papers, scissors, glue and colorful masking tape. We cut pieces of 9”x12” white drawing paper into smaller pieces, 3”x6,” but you can use whatever paper you have available and make whatever size works best for your idea. Hand-held size in rectangles or squares is usually best because it’s easier to flip the book’s pages quickly and get the animation effect. The more papers in your book the better, we used 18 pages and you could absolutely do more than that. For the size we used, we found that any less than 16 pages didn’t flip effectively. If you don’t have access to a heavy duty stapler like us, try stapling smaller sets of paper with a regular stapler and taping them together with masking tape. Or, punch a few holes and secure the pages with brass brad fasteners along the spine. With brads you can add and remove pages to the book more easily than staples.

Not sure what to put in your flip book? Make something that gradually moves across the page, like this inching caterpillar.

Or create a visual story about something that changes in size: from small to big or shrinks from large to small. For example, here are a few pages from One Big Fish by a Museum guest.

Here are a few flip book ideas on YouTube by Mr. Otter Art Studio with Post-it sticky pads, another alternative to stapled stacks of paper.

Fill your doodle books with sketches, paintings, collages, or written words and then flip away!