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Hi there I am about to embark on my very first scrapbook...of sorts. I am putting together 2 recipe books as gifts at Christmas. I have been looking around and the more I look, the more questions I have!!
In the beginning, I was simply going to do up the recipe pages and put them in a decorated 3 ring binder. Simple, right? Then I thought an actual scrapbook might look more polished so I looked at some of those. Most of the ones I have seen are for pictures and not recipes so then I looked some more. I went on Google and saw some chipboard books/albums held together with rings and thought those were nice but wondered if they would be sturdy when opening and closing. Are the differences that I am seeing just a matter of what people like or is one more functional than another? If I go the chipboard route, how can I make the cover so that it has dimension from decorating, yet is able to have some sort of laminate to keep it clean? Scrapbookers of SCS please help me!!! Thanks in advance!
__________________ "For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack" ~Rudyard Kipling my gallery
It is a personal decision on what you make BUT.....I will agree my idea for ya!!! I would do a three ring binder with page protectors BECAUSE....when cooking, you want to keep you recipe clean!!! Consider an 6X6 book or 8X8 or even an 81/2X11 book. I think a 12X12 book is big and bulky to cook with. 8x8 is a great size. I often use this size for gift books (baby books, wedding albums for friends). You can put the recipes in the page protectors and decorate your pages like you would a regular scrapbook, using the recipes as "pictures". Leaving some pages or room on the pages for NOTES that the cook might add. I always jot notes on my recipes as I cook them and find better or quicker ways to cook the recipe. You can decorate your pages with kitchen embellies and even maybe a picture or two of kitchen things.....a stove, a picture of the recipe all done.....lots of ideas!!!!
Chipboard books are great but there is no protection on them for cooking. Plus sometimes, the chipboard books don't open and close the best, at least some that I have seen. The three ring binders are definately more durable.
Have fun...and post pictures when you are done!!!
Thanks! Well, page protectors...and notes...how can they be incorporated together? My idea was to have the pages on the heaviest cardstock I could find and then have 3 sections on each page: A recipe card with a tab on top inside an envelope of sorts. I have bought little clippy things that you hang by your cabinet door openers, thus the tabs on top of each card so they can be hung. Then a picture and then a lined piece of cardstock for notes. If there is a page protector, they would have to take the whole thing out which I suppose is not a BAD thing. I did see a scrapbook at Joanns that had a protective cover on it and thought of that but I swear, and this sounds silly, but I could not figure out how to load the pages!! There were photo pages inside and they sell packs of just pages so I know you can get them out, I just could not figure out HOW. I am going to have to go back and play with one today. I just don't want to put all of that work into it and put it into a notebook...I am afraid it will make it look cheesy. I found these on Ebay and kind of like them...what do you think?
I buy top loading page protectors. Top loading are super easy to slide in and out, it will keep your pages dry and protected while cooking. The only thing I don't like about chip board books is that they are on ring hooks...ring hooks have give in them, and all the chip board books I have done, have wiggled and slightly tore the pages. Now it won't tear chipboard. I just haven't had much success with chipboard books.
You can make your own tabs too....SU has a tab punch that would work if you wanted to label your sections. It maybe retired though.
Ok, well, that chipboard set is out :( I just got my stamps out to size them up on an 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper and it looks like I can only go as small as 7 x 10.5 so I would need the book to be 8.5 x 11 in order for the pages to work. I have the tab punch and I will use that on the recipe cards but I liked, on that book, that the tabs were part of the board. I don't know if I can do that myself.
Thank you for what you said about the ring clips because that was my concern. It looks nice but does seem like it would be rather floppy. Looks like it is going to go into a 3 ring binder after all, huh? Hopefully I will be able to find a nice one that I can work with wish me luck and thanks so much for responding to my questions!!!
__________________ "For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack" ~Rudyard Kipling my gallery
Speaking as a cook, are you set on the idea of an album and a larger page size and an album?
I just ask because my favourite format for storing recipes is on cards in a box, so that I can just pull out the card I need. Easier to keep clean too, as a card can go on a shelf up out of the way while I'm using it. You could do something like 6x6 pages (which is quite a common standard for recipe cards (and by the way, we even have a gallery for recipe cards ) and then beautifully decorate a tin to store them in. Just my thoughts, I'm no scrapper!
We are memory keepers is my favorite ring binders, I normally get the 12X12 ones but I am pretty sure they have 81/2 X11 too. The bigger room gives you more room to embellish and decorate.
Speaking as a cook, are you set on the idea of an album and a larger page size and an album?
I just ask because my favourite format for storing recipes is on cards in a box, so that I can just pull out the card
Yeah, I like the boxes too. Unfortunately, I just can't figure out how to decorate them nicely. They always look sloppy when I have tried in the past.
I found a wonderful Bo Bunny Barely Naked book that I thought would be perfect but it is 3" wide and that is just too much. I was thinking more like an 1 1/2" ...2" at the biggest. Measuring my own cookbooks, it looks like 2 is the absolute limit.
I just had a lightbulb go off! I CAN do a smaller book if I turn the recipe cards sideways. Since I am going to have tabs on them to make them removable, I could do that if I really HAD to. I think I just really liked those books on Ebay :neutral:
Thanks again for the input, I am getting frazzled and I have not even started yet!!!
__________________ "For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack" ~Rudyard Kipling my gallery
I made 8x8 for our sons a couple of years ago. I had the recipe on the right side and a photo on the left. Yes, I prepared all the recipes for photos, had them printed 5x7.
I called it 'favourite family food'. I also added tips at the bottom of the page, stuff that isn't in the recipe.
I had dividers at the top of sections, desserts, main courses, breads, etc. I also left spots to add recipes in the future.
I made an 8x8 album of my son's favorite recipe's and gave it to him for Christmas a few years back. I printed the recipe off by computer then layered it on cardstock which I decorated with stamps. On the front I put "His name's Recipes." He loves it. I also included a few blank sheet protectors so he can keep additional recipes.
My mom used a 6x6 album with top loading page protectors to make a recipe book with my grandma's recipes for all the girls in the family. On one page she has a pic of my grandma with the recipe in her handwrite, and on the opposite page she has the recipe typed out (my grandma's handwriting is beautiful but sometimes hard to read). It is functional and beautiful.
You can buy binders that have a protected cover (a clear layer over the actual binder- so you can do a cover page and slip it inside the clear layer for protection)
Thanks everyone for your help on this. As I type, both books are about 80% finished with just over a week to go. I used the BIA to bind the chipboard covers in the end and I love the way they turned out. Once completed, I will do my best to post pictures in this thread. I am a little burned out from over-extending myself...these books on top of making over 350 Christmas tags for our make-and-take party and also getting Halloween treats for the office staff at DD's school...13 for the staff and 10 each for the girls' friends. Add this to my regular job, taking care of the family and also working at DH's business and it's a bit more than I would like to be doing every day!! The good news is that our wedding anniversary is in a few weeks and we are going away for a relaxing weekend! I sure could use it!!!
__________________ "For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack" ~Rudyard Kipling my gallery
Function or preference?
