Family Recipe Book for 2009 Gift

[tracydigigirl]

I'm planning to compile all of our family's favorite recipes into a book for the Family Christmas gift this year and including a brief story or history with each recipe. I'm wondering if anyone else has done this and is there a album template or kit out there particular to this need? I sure would love a set from Ali on this. I do love her work!!!

I want to keep the focus of the book on the recipes and their stories, rather than the paper and embellishments but I also want it to be beautiful. Happy medium, I guess. Any suggestions?

[Jen D]

oooohhhh... I can't wait to see what people suggest. This is such a great idea! An Ali template would be AWESOME

[sam ellis]

I did one for my dd for her kitchen tea from all the ladies recipes. It was amazing. 120 pages. IT was so well received by everyone.

I just made my own "template" - a left and right page - IN ps - and away I went.

[carollee]

Muppet434 did the most amazing recipe book, it's still featured on Shutterfly. Here's one of the pages.

http://www.designerdigitals.com/digi...user=2438&sl=m

Hopefully she'll read this and link you up to her shutterfly book so you can see.

[Starlite9711]

I dont have any suggestions, but I am planning on doing this too! Can't wait to see some suggestions!!

[SuzanneB]

Wow! Aren't you good???! You're thinking about Christmas already? I'm still putting away decorations! I don't have any advise but love this idea. Looking forward to the responses!

[MeEmMom]

I have thought about doing this for a while. (Not for a gift, but just as a keepsake for the family of all of our favorite family recipes.) I would love to see suggestions as well!

[twischropp]

I've done several recipes book for nieces when they've gotten married. Here's the link to one of them in the Shutterfly gallery... http://community.shutterfly.com/gall...OXLhixbgpHgXhA

I didn't have a template because I wanted each page to show the personality of the people that were sharing the recipe. It makes for a very random book, but my family loves looking through them for more than the recipes. I'm hoping to get one made for all my sisters and sisters-in-law for next Christmas, since they're already married.

Most of all, I had fun putting them together, as you will find!

Good luck!

[Chris]

Trudy, I love your book and the photos that go with it! Good luck Tracy, food and memories go well together - I'll be looking forward to seeing your progress!

[mugsbigsis]

I did one for my boys this past Christmas. (I got the idea from Sam Ellis). :O) My guys made fun of me for always taking pictures of the food, but when they got the book as a gift they thought it was the best thing ever. I put a small photo of the dish with a larger photo of family members. That way they got a photo/recipe book.

[shhbabymine]

I made one for my sister, but I still have to add all the holiday recipes - I used a kraft background on all the pages - and then the pages have a photo of the dish. (I visit pioneerwomancooks all the time for hints / ideas on photographing the food) I used the same font throughout as well. the way i put it together was by seasons that way she can follow along from the beginning of the year... she is notorious for calling me and asking me "what can i make for dinner with....?" or "do you know how mom made..?" so I made sure all those recipes were in there - its relly clean and simple - but I like that it focuses on the food. its quite a big compilation, too. around 100 pages... cant wait to watch your book unfold through the year.

[Britgirl]

I'm starting mine this year too Altho the way this year is going, could be about july before I get to it!!
I'm thinking of making each page different, because I'm so like that LOL,
and mostly words and recipe instead of a billion pics. I'm so very excited to get my fave recipes off scraps of paper and into print!!!

[cnewby]

Okay, I'm embarrassed to say this, but my Christmas decorations are still up. So I'm thinking if someone comes up with a really cool template, I'll just photograph some of my Christmas stuff before I put it away and I can use them with the holiday recipes.

Candy

[MIDA78466]

This sounds like a great idea! I'd have to measure as I cook so I can get the recipe "down pat". Seems like I am the only one of my siblings that cooks the dishes we had when growing up. As far as my kids go----they wait until they get home to eat Mom's cooking. They need a recipe book!!

[geekgirl415]

Bumping this thread back up to see how everyone's books have turned out and to see if anyone did one in the 8x11 size that Shutterfly offers... I'm working on one that size right now.

If you did one as an 8x8, was the text readable? I'm worried about detailed recipes being too small....

[geekgirl415]

Oh, and maybe to request templates for recipes in an 8.5x11 size that can be either landscape or portrait! That would be delish!

[dorah]

Patti Knox has a template set for a recipe book.

[readstoomuch]

I love this recipe page by esther a. She has a few more recipe pages in her gallery too.

[mugsbigsis]

This thread is almost a year old now, but like Dorah said, Pattie has made it easy for anyone planning a book now.
Plus, if you put "recipe" in the search box in the store there are lots of fun things that you could add to your pages.

[geekgirl415]

I know- sorry! i was dredging it up in hopes that the people who created recipe albums finished and had advice or could tell me if the 8x8 book was legible when there's a lot of text. Or if there was something they'd have changed....

As for searching "recipe" here- I did... Patty's is very nice and complete, but I'm looking specifically for 8.5x11 templates, with a single, large photo, in a clean/graphic style w/out a lot of embellishments. I do actually have a lot of the "food" related kits already, heh heh.

I ended up taking a few templates I had and morphing them into 11x8 landscape size and pulling elements i liked off some. Learned how to create a clipping mask (duh!) and I uploaded a few to my gallery tonight. Thank you for your suggestions - I do appreciate them!