Homemade Cookbook

When my husband and I were first married, I scrapbooked a lot.  So when I started accumulated a lot of recipes, I thought it'd be a neat project to make a scrapbook/cookbook.  At the time, I had never heard of anyone making one of these, so I was pretty proud of my unique project idea.  I see them more and more in scrapbook stores nowadays, but I promise, I thought of it first : P   Well anyways, after 5 years of marriage, the scrapbook has became fairly thick.  It's filled with recipes from blogs, neighbors, friends, family members, magazines, etc. In the beginning I used a binder with the plastic slip-in cover so I could slide in a pretty cover.  But I got bored last night and decided to sew up a new cover.  I attempted a tutorial of this project, but I'm not a very experienced seamstress and I'm not so good at tutorials, so forgive me if this isn't the greatest tutorial ever.  I did my best.  The cookbook isn't completely finished, however.  I'd like to add some embroidery to the side and perhaps a button clasp.  The pocket shown on the front is not actually sewn on yet, in case I decide to have it embroidered.  If you want a pocket on yours, make sure you sew it on before step 5.

 Supplies needed: At least 2 colors of fabric about a yard total should do.  You'll also need a binder.  Buttons and ribbons are optional. 

 

For the first step, lay your fabric out flat and place your binder on top.

 Leaving about an inch of edging, cut around the binder

 Now fold that edge inward, meeting at the binder edge and pin them in place.

  

Sew the trim down all the way around. (If you want a pocket or ribbons or buttons on the cover, do this before moving on to the next step.)

 Lay the fabric down again (facing up) and place the binder back on top.  Cut your second color of fabric  to match the size of one side of the binder, leaving about an inch and a half of space from the center like shown above.  Face the material down (like I've shown you above) and fold the edge over, pin and sew down.

 Pin the edges of the top and bottom together.   Slide the binder out and sew the edges together. 

 Repeat on the other side and flip the fabric inside out.  Slide your binder back in and tada!

 

Here's the inside of my cookbook.  To keep it personal, it includes photos of family members baking cookies...I'll go into more details about the contents of my cookbook on another day. 

 

The Coolest Care Package Ever

Yeah that title is a pun, but you can take it literally too...because Penguins are awesome! You would already know that if you had read my previous post.  Anyhow, as I've already noted, my husband loves penguins, so I HAD to send him a penguin themed box this month.  To date, this one is my favorite :D  Honestly, I think the boxes just get better and better.  I've got about 9 stacked up in my office, every other day I'm adding a couple items to each box until they are filled.  I have a box that is just about filled to the top, so I just need to make some cookies this weekend and I'll have it in the mail Monday.  I can't discuss the details of the box yet though, it's Top Secret.  Well, really it's because I think my husband has been checking my blog lately, spoiling his themed box surprises.  So you'll have to wait until he sees it before I can discuss it.  But to hold you over, here's this week's box.

Along Came a Spider...

As mentioned in my previous post...this week's care package theme is Spider-Man.  Obviously, this choice was made by our 3-year-old.  He loves Spider-Man, but he's not biased, he pretty much loves all superheroes equally.  But back to the point.  Spider-Man was a fairly easy choice for the box considering there's a lot of Spider-Man items out there to be found.  As noted in the previous post, I began with Spider-Man Cookies, then I added some Spider-Man candy, Spider-Man gummy snacks, a Spider-Man toy and tossed in a Spider-Man movie to finish it off.  I think the hubs will really enjoy this box.  In the future I think I'll do a Hulk box and a Wolverine box as well.

Operation Camo Care Package

Based upon yesterday's posting about the camo cookies, you should already know that today's box theme is all about the Army.  HOOAH! I packed this box with camo cookies, some camo cake jars (later posting), a military movie (Born on the 4th of July-also appropriate for the month), The Art of War (a common military book he's been requesting for a while now), and a couple other odds and ends. I recently found some camo paper that I had apparently bought 5 years ago this week.  I had bought it for our wedding for some reason but never used it.  Anyways, I finally put it to use.  I wrapped his jars of cookies and cakes in the paper (and also in bubble wrap for extra measures) and then covered the box in the paper. I topped the box off with the team of soldiers I hired to protect his cookies in transit.