DIY "Telestrations" Game

Have you ever played the game Telestrations? It's really fun, but I decided to customize it a little and make my own. No need to buy it - but if you want, these booklets can also be used as an add-on so that more people can play. Bonus!! :)

I made enough different patterns that you can play with up to 12 people! Of course you can always just pick one design and make them all the same. It's up to you. :)

Here's the basic idea: It's basically a mix between "Telephone" and "Pictionary". Each player plays simultaneously, passing the booklets along to the next player after each round. When the booklet gets to you, you are either going to "Sketch It" or "Guess It". When everyone gets their starting booklets back, you see how closely the end guess matches the secret beginning word. It's really funny, because everyone has their own interpretations.

You can use the cards from Pictionary, or Apples to Apples, or to make it EXTRA fun - make up your own phrases! Make sure to have a noun, a place, and a verb. For example: Elvis wake boarding in Mexico, or a nun smelling flowers in the park. Whatever. 

Write that on the first page where it says: Secret Word. Pass the booklet to the player on the left. When everyone has their neighbor's booklet, read the word or sentence and start drawing on the next page - Sketch It. Everyone has 1 minute. When the time is up, pass the booklet on to the player on the left. This time when everyone gets a booklet, they look at the drawing and make their guess on the following page. (The page that says: Guess It.) Be sure to WRITE your guess and not draw it.You don't need a timer for this. When everyone is done, continue to pass to the person on the left. This time you are back to drawing what is written - make sense? 

You should end each booklet on a Guess It page. This way you can match it up to the secret word and see how close, or how messed up everyone got! It really is a lot of fun. ;)

It's fun to see what everyone guessed, but if you really want to keep score, just give 1 point to the player with your favorite sketch, and 1 point to the player with your favorite guess. And give yourself 1 point if the end guess matches the original secret word or phrase. You can keep a tally on the front page of the book if you want.

Here are the different pages for the booklets. I just copied them into Microsoft Word, and shrunk them to the size I wanted. (I think they were 3.5 x 3.5 or close to it.) I got about 4 to a page. I printed them onto cardstock, cut, laminated, and punched holes to add key rings. You should be able to use regular dry erase markers on them & they wipe off really well.

Assembling the booklets:

Each booklet gets one cover page, and one Secret Word page. Then depending on how many you are making, do equal number of the Sketch It and Guess It pages. 

Example: I made 12, so I needed 6 Sketch It pages and 6 Guess It pages.

This is how my booklet went: 

Cover page

Secret Word page

Sketch It

Guess It

Sketch It

Guess It

Sketch It

Guess It

Sketch It

Guess It

Sketch It

Guess It

Sketch It

Guess It

Make sure you start on a Sketch It page and end on a Guess It page! That's pretty much it!

These would make great Christmas gifts! I am bringing mine to play with the whole family at Thanksgiving. (One reason I made so many.) When it's just my little family at home, I can use only 4. I love that you can customize it this way! 

Let me know how these work out for you, and what you think. :)

Have fun! Thanks for stopping by!