Staying Busy. Very Busy.

I am going to a bridal shower on Saturday for a good friend who currently lives in St. Louis. I sent an engagement gift a couple of months ago so I was really struggling with what to get for her shower gift...and do I get a wedding gift too? Hmmm....I don't really know all the rules for that...Anyway, I decided to make her a shower gift and I might make a wedding gift too, it just depends on how busy I am in October.

One of the best gifts I have ever received, was from a friend who hand-wrote recipes on little cards and made me a recipe book. It was so thoughtful and sweet. I decided to make something similar for my friend Danielle.


Last night I was sitting in my craft room playing around with an old chipboard book and I decided to re-cover it and make the recipe book using it as the cover. My original plan was to use the Bind It All to add the pages. Well, I also had some cheap photo albums sitting on the table (you know, from the dollar store). Well, after cutting the book apart, the cover was still in tact and the photo album fit perfect inside....hmmmm...I used my pivot point stapler to attach the pages. Then I covered the book. Presto! Instant recipe book, completely customizable!!


(TOTALLY TAKEN AT NIGHT! :-)

I woke up this morning trying to figure out how to finish the recipe book. While I was thinking about it, I decided to use the extra chipboard to make more books for later. I learned that covering the book with paper, then stapling the pages, and lastly putting another layer of paper on the spine was the best way to make the book. To cover the book, I used glue dot sheets, they work way better than liquid glue or a tape runner for big areas like book covers.

You will be seeing these bad-mamba-jambas later!



Then I decided that the book would need some help staying closed so I used my Crop-A-Dile to punch some holes.


I only had black elastic (I bought it to finish up my daily calendar...I really wish I would've had white) but I simply put it through the holes and secured it in place with an eyelet.




Originally, I was just going to leave the cover plain so that it doesn't get torn up in the kitchen. But then I made this little page for the back of the book...and it looked absolutely adorable on the cover so I attached it with foam adhesive.

Then I made a front cover sheet and a back cover with measurement conversions.




Here is a shot of the inside of the book.


I went over to the LollyChops blog and downloaded some free printable recipe cards, cupcake recipes and other goodies for my book. If you have never checked out this bog before, I must warn you...it is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! I also printed some of my personal recipes from Allrecipes.com and I stuck in a few other recipes I hand wrote on the recipe cards.


I made a copy of the recipe cards so that I will have my handwriting preserved for future books. I will definitely make something like this again.



Supplies: Printables from Lollychops blog, patterned paper from My Minds Eye: Breaking Free Adventure Series, Kaisercraft paper, Martha Stewart Cupcakes, EK Success cupcakes, Stampin' up ribbon and crochet flower, The paper Studio paper, AC Thickers, white gel pen.