Another Quick Christmas Giftie!

Are you searching for some gift ideas that will be quick and easy to make? Well, look no further....Padsworth and I are looking out for you!

This one is a quickie that will take only about one hour for the custom cover portion. The card portion will be up to you --- if you want to include LOTS of recipes, it will take longer!

I have to apologize for the lack of a complete tutorial; I made this before I blogged, and I (gasp!) did not take pictures of each step of the process. However, in our quest to bring you the best of the web and the coolest tools, we found a tutorial that will help make up the shortfall! (There are others out there, as well.)

Here is the idea: perhaps you have a wedding coming up in 2012. Or maybe one of your kids is going away to college, or moving away from the rest of the family to take a job. Wouldn't it be nice for them to be able to whip up a plate of comfort? A dish that will be like a hug from home, made with your very own recipe?

Well, if you don't want a huge long-distance phone bill, tailor a recipe book just for them! Put in the dishes that are their own special favorites, so they can make them when you are not around.  (And don't you dare leave out that one secret ingredient so that theirs will never be *quite* like Mom's!!)  Your local drugstore, or any of the big-box discount stores, will often offer these photo albums at extremely attractive prices, so snap up a couple and have them ready. Pick out fabric that has cooking themes, or a favorite color, or make a piece of patchwork to use.

I did extremely simple straight-line quilting, because I wanted the starry fabric to shine (pun intended!). You can make the closure as simple as short ties, like mine, or a flap and button, or anything else that you dream up --- it's all good.

Then you want to find or make some recipe cards that are just perfect for your gift recipient. There are several places on the web where you can print out personalized cards, in either 3x5 or 4x6 sizes --- whatever matches the slots in your photo album.

Here is what mine looked like:

I made a pocket on the inside to hold more cards, so that the young bride could easily add her own recipes to the book.  I think this turned out pretty well, and it went together so fast!

The really cool thing about this book is that the plastic pages that were intended to hold photos, will keep food splashes from ruining your beautiful cards! (And you can always tuck in a photo of the family, just in case you are worried about them forgetting you --- And the address on the back, in case they forget where you live. Trust me, though, in the case of the college kids, when the laundry and mending piles get too high, they'll suddenly remember!)

Hope this has helped some of you special peeps with your Christmas lists!

Love,