Create AI Coloring Pages From Your Family Memories

Part 1 of the Playing with AI series — creative projects for grandparents and grandkids to build together.

You have something artificial intelligence cannot invent on its own: real stories. The summer your family spent at the lake cabin. The dog who knocked over the Christmas tree. Your grandmother’s kitchen, exactly as you remember it.

Your grandchild has something you might not — easy familiarity with the tools that can turn those stories into pictures.

Put those two things together and you get something genuinely special: a custom coloring book about your family, designed by both of you, ready to print and color together.

Here is how to make it in about 30 to 45 minutes.

What You Will Need

A computer, tablet, or phone with internet access
A free account at chatgpt.com (your grandchild can help set this up in about two minutes) (free as of early 2026 — check the site for current plans)
A free account at firefly.adobe.com for generating the images (free tier available as of early 2026) — or, if you have ChatGPT Plus, you can generate images directly inside ChatGPT using DALL-E 3
A printer (or a local print shop — most libraries have one too)

Before You Start: Pick Your Memories

This is the grandparent’s job, and it is the most important step of all.

Sit down — maybe with a cup of coffee — and think of three to five moments you would love to see illustrated. They do not have to be dramatic. The best ones usually are not.

Some ideas to spark your thinking:

A holiday tradition that has been in the family for decades
A funny or sweet story from when your own children were young
A place that matters to your family — a beach, a backyard, a kitchen table
A beloved pet, past or present
Something your grandchild loves doing with you right now

Jot these down on a piece of paper. You will read them aloud to your grandchild in Step 2.

Step-by-Step Instructions

Step 1 — Open ChatGPT Together (5 minutes)

Grandchild: Navigate to chatgpt.com and log into the family account (or help set one up). You are the navigator here.

Grandparent: Pull out your list of memories. You are about to give the AI its instructions — and only you know what to say.

Step 2 — Turn Your Memory Into a Prompt (10 minutes)

Grandparent: Read one of your memories aloud. Describe it the way you would tell it to a friend. Include details — what season it was, what things looked like, what the feeling was.

Grandchild: Type into ChatGPT something like this:

“I want to make a coloring book page for kids based on this family memory. Write me an image description I can use to generate a black-and-white line drawing. Keep the description simple and clear. Here is the memory: [paste or type what your grandparent just described].”

ChatGPT will write a polished image description for you. Read it back to your grandparent. Does it capture the feeling? Adjust it together until it feels right.

Repeat this for each memory on your list. You will end up with three to five image descriptions ready to use.

Step 3 — Generate the Images (10–15 minutes)

Grandchild: Open firefly.adobe.com (free, no credit card needed) and navigate to Text to Image.

Take the first image description from ChatGPT and paste it in — then add this phrase at the end:

“…in a simple black and white coloring book style, thick outlines, no shading, white background, suitable for children to color in.”

Click Generate. Adobe Firefly will produce several options. Look at them together.

Grandparent: You decide which one to keep. You know what feels right for your family.

Save the image (right-click, Save Image, or use the download button). Repeat for each description.

If you have ChatGPT Plus: You can skip Firefly entirely and type your prompt directly into ChatGPT. Add the same “coloring book style” instruction at the end of each prompt.

Step 4 — Add Captions (5 minutes)

Grandparent: This part is yours. For each image, think of a one-line caption — something that gives the picture its meaning. It might be a date, a place name, or just a sentence:

“The summer we finally taught Dad to fish.” “Grammy’s kitchen, Sunday mornings.”

Grandchild: Type each caption into a Word document or Google Doc, one per page, below each image.

Step 5 — Print and Assemble (5–10 minutes)

Print each page on regular white paper. Staple them together along the left edge, or punch holes and use a binder ring.

You now have a coloring book that exists nowhere else in the world.

Color the first page together. Take your time.

Already love the idea of family coloring pages? We are building a library of ready-to-print coloring pages right here on Grandkids Guide — featuring scenes grandkids and grandparents will recognize. Coming soon — keep an eye on our homepage.

Playing It Safe: A Quick Note Before You Start

AI tools are wonderful — and they are also internet services, which means a little common sense goes a long way.

Do not include in your prompts:

Full names of children or grandchildren
Your home address or town name
Birthdays combined with last names
Any information you would not post publicly

You do not need any of that to make beautiful, meaningful images. Describe scenes and feelings, not personal identifying details. “A grandmother and young child baking together in a warm kitchen” works perfectly. The AI does not need to know anyone’s name.

This is not a reason to worry — just a good habit, the same way you would not share your phone number on a public bulletin board.

What to Make Next

You have just made something with AI that neither of you could have made alone. That is the whole point of this series.

In the next installment of Playing with AI, we will show you how to use the same tools to write and illustrate a short storybook — your family’s origin story, told in five pages, with pictures. It makes an extraordinary gift.

The best projects are the ones where every generation brings something only they have. You bring the stories. Your grandchild brings the tools. What you make together is something neither could imagine on their own.

Playing with AI is an ongoing series on Grandkids Guide. Each guide walks grandparents and grandkids through a creative project using free AI tools — no experience required on either end.