Project #2!

I know that all three of my followers have just been waiting in anticipation for this first big project. And I am happy to say, that it has been completed!

It has not yet been shipped to my sister in law for her birthday, even though it’s tomorrow, but she will be at Disneyland all day today and tomorrow so I am hoping that she doesn’t browse my new blog until after she’s opened her gift. Here’s to hoping.

I found this idea here: http://cleanmama.blogspot.com/2010/04/how-to-make-recipe-binder.html

This was not my original idea for her birthday gift. But I thought it was a great idea once I found it! I have a really hard time making recipes from magazines and books that haven’t been tried out in my own family or by a friend that has enjoyed it. So, I compiled a recipe book of favorite recipes from my own family, her family, and some good ones that I found that seemed pretty simple and were sure to be tasty!

This really was a very simple project. And it turned out really cute. The most tedious part of it was typing up the recipes. I think I typed about 90 in total. Lauren’s mom helped me out with about 15-20 more that I can’t wait to make myself!

All you’ll need is a binder of your choice as far as color and ring size, clear packing tape, sheet protectors and your scrapbook paper of choice. ( I also used my label maker and my Cricut machine.)

The first two tabs that I created are not for recipes. I did a menu section, where you can pull the recipes that you’ll be making for the week and insert them into this section for easy access over the course of the week. The second tab has a master grocery list that’s breaks down the grocery store by section. So at the beginning of the week, or whenever you do your grocery shopping, you’ll pull your recipes and highlight (at least that’s what I do) the items that you need on the master list. If you would like a copy of my master shopping list, let me know and I can email it to you as a Word document and you can modify it to your needs.

The other tabs that I mad were breakfast, breads, appetizers, snacks, sides, entrees, dessert and cookies (because I have so many of these, I thought they deserved their own section!).

All I did to make the dividers is to insert your paper of choice into one of the protectors and use my label maker to print out that section label (ie: bread). I stuck the label to a small, cut out piece of paper and attached the tape to both sides of the divider and folded the tab into the middle of it. (I know that sounds terribly confusing. Sorry.) I just repeated this throughout! I used my Cricut machine to cut out letters to put on each scrapbook page as well, just to spice it up a little.

I also put a measurement conversion chart at the very front of the book for easy access.

And just in case it isn't painfully obvious, Lauren LoVeS pink! So I made sure to humor her on that one....

And just for Erin, here's a close up of one of my button magnets. Cute picture, right? Honeymoon picture. For some strange reason, this ended up being the only close up I took on my camera phone. Not the best ever but, you get the idea.... I just layered a large and small button and used a hot glue gun to do the job.

I would love to see your version of the book should you decide to make one!