It started at the kitchen table.

There was a perfectly good colouring book on the table. They ignored it completely. They were on my phone, scrolling through photos from our last holiday. The wobbly ice creams, the muddy walk, the bit where the youngest fell in a puddle.

I thought: what if they could colour those pictures instead? That's what toodaloo is. Your photos, turned into a colouring book.

That night, after they were in bed, I pulled a handful of photos into my laptop and had a go at turning them into line drawings. It was rough. Wobbly in places, not quite right in others. I printed a stack anyway, left them on the table, and waited.

The next afternoon, they were straight at it.

They spent the whole afternoon on it. Proper concentration. I had to remind them it was teatime.

After that I made one properly. Bound, covered, the lot. I put it together for the grandparents. That one didn't get shoved on a shelf. It lived on the coffee table, pulled out when the kids visited, shown off on video calls.

Getting from that rough first stack to something I'd actually sell took longer than expected. The outlines, the paper, the way different photos convert — all of it needed work. My two were not patient test subjects.

I don't have time for elaborate crafts. I wanted something that worked without a craft cupboard or an afternoon to spare. Upload your photos, pick a cover, and it arrives ready to colour.

Printed in Yorkshire on paper that handles felt tips and crayons properly. People make them for holidays, for birthdays, for the end of a school year. Basically any time there are photos on your phone that deserve better than a screen.

My two still tell me when something isn't right. They're not kind about it either, which helps.