Awesome LEGO Creations with Bricks You Already Have {Updated Edition}

The updated and expanded edition of Awesome LEGO Creations with Bricks You Already Have is now available!

I am SO excited for you to get your hands on this book. It’s perfect for giving kids something to do on a rainy day, and it also make a great birthday or Christmas gift for any LEGO fan.

Today, we’re going to take a behind the scenes look at how we created our LEGO book series, and also we’re also going to take a look at what’s new in the updated and expanded edition of Awesome LEGO Creations.

How to Order Awesome LEGO Creations with Bricks You Already Have (Oversized and Expanded Edition)

This book is now available from:

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Target.com

Or ask your local bookseller to carry it! Ask them to carry all 5 of our LEGO titles!

Our family started working on the first edition of Awesome LEGO Creations in the fall of 2015. At the time, our kids were 12, 9, 6, 3, and 1. We spent a lot of time hanging out in the game room building LEGO creations!

As I put the books together, I followed this process:

Develop the projects
Photograph the step-by-step instructions
Count the bricks and make a parts list
Edit the photos
Write the instructions

The steps did overlap. For example, I started photographing some of the projects before I had finished building all of them.

Developing the LEGO Projects

The kids have always been very involved in the process of developing projects for our LEGO books.

For the first book, it was mostly my oldest two sons who contributed ideas. Janie was only 17 months old when we started the book, and I remember having to constantly tell her not to put LEGO bricks in her mouth! There was no way to keep the bricks contained with this much building going on! Thankfully, she got the idea fairly quickly.

As we developed LEGO projects, the kids learned quickly that I could not use an idea for the book if it contained super rare pieces or if it looked too wonky, haha. There have been many projects (in all 5 of our books) that started with a clever idea from the kids, which I then re-built using more efficient pieces, less crazy colors, or a better design. Even with having to make modifications, I could not have written all these books without them.

We have also used LEGO ideas from our friends. I’ve made a deal with our kids’ friends that if they contribute an idea to the book, I pay them for the use of the idea, they get their name in the book, and they get a free copy of the book. It has been fun!

In fact, I think the fact that so many ideas came from real kids has helped our books to be filled with projects that are realistic and attainable.

LEGO Photography

You might be surprised to find out how basic my photography setup is!

I chose early on in the first book not to use computer generated instructions. There were several reasons for this. I did not want to look like we were trying to be the LEGO company. Also, I wanted the photography in the book to draw kids into the imaginative LEGO world, and computer generated instructions just don’t do that. I wanted the book to be full of cool LEGO scenes that would spark their imaginations!

I sent my publisher a couple of preliminary projects with instructions, and they loved them! They mocked up a design, and we decided to go for it.

For the photos, I set up a tri-fold display board, like you would use for a science fair project. Then I put a piece of poster board underneath.

I’ve always used natural light from the window for all my photography! This means that I have to plan ahead – cloudy days are often too dark to get good photos.

This photo is me photographing one of the projects for Incredible LEGO Creations from Space in the spring of 2019.

Writing the LEGO Instructions and Parts Lists

The parts lists were NOT my favorite part, haha! After photographing the projects, I took them apart again and counted and listed all the bricks. This involved looking up the names of the bricks on Brick Link.

Then I could use the photo instructions to put the project back together again.

I have saved several spiral notebooks that are full of parts lists! Those represent HOURS of work. I developed a system of triple-checking each parts lists, although I’m sure there are still occasional mistakes in there.

As I was writing all the instructions for Awesome LEGO Creations, I wondered if the time investment was going to be worth it. Would anyone want a book full of instructions that don’t go with any one particular LEGO set?

Well, my question was answered when the book sold out just a few weeks after the release day!

We have now sold over 100K copies of Awesome LEGO Creations with Bricks You Already Have.

The picture below is the kids and I celebrating release day at Barnes & Noble on October 11, 2016. Such a fun memory!

Here’s a recent picture of the kids for comparison! We didn’t get to take a release day photo this time around since the oldest two guys are in different states for college.

Why did we publish an expanded and updated edition of Awesome LEGO Creations with Bricks You Already Have?

Now that it has been 8 years since the original release date, it was time for a fresh edition of this book!

The new edition is 1 inch larger in both dimensions, making the photos larger and the instructions easier to follow. I am super excited about this upgrade!

I am also excited about the projects we added. There are 16 pages of new projects including Christmas ornaments, modular spaceships, a car repair shop with a working lift, and a completely posable robot.