Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Cookbook's


I have lots of them. I collect them from everywhere, book stores, garage sales, gifts, etc. I love to cook so it's a natural obsession for me really. However with my declutter theme this month I wanted to share with you a way to clear up that shelf full of cookbooks.

Be honest you have a tone of them and you only use one or two recipes from each one right? I know I have the same problem. And don't get me started on the recipes I have saved online. So I came up with a cheap, easy, solution for the problem. First, I took a trip to my local super center for some basic supplies.





One 3 ring binder.



A package of clear plastic page protectors.



Some divider tabs.



Some pretty fabric.



Heavy poster board.



Batting.



Glue sticks.

Then I was ready to start. I went through all of my recipe books and typed up the recipes I actually used. Then printed them and sorted them into categories.



Next it was time to make the binder pretty. Glue the batting to the outside of the binder with the ends wrapped around the edges of the binder. Then wrap the pretty fabric of your choice around the binder and glue on the inside. Then cut out pieces of the poster board, big enough to cover the edges of the fabric on the inside of the binder and glue a contrasting fabric on one side before gluing it into place. You can even add a little ribbon around the edges if you want to. There are so many ways to customize this. ( and so many uses as you can see from the pic above) Let this dry as you put the printed recipes into the plastic page protectors. Once the binder is dry you can add your recipes and voila. You have one attractive cookbook that you will actually use instead of 10 or 20 that rarely get touched.

The best part of this is that if you should get something on the pages while you are cooking (or am I the only one who does this?) it can be easily wiped clean without damaging the recipes! Another bonus is that once you have all of the recipes that you want from the cookbooks you can pass them on to someone else.

My challenge for you this week dear readers is to find something in your house that can be crafted into a special feature. You can even use my cookbook idea if you would like. I love mine!

Happy Wednesday Challenge,
Love Jenn

Editor's Note: I am not the only one that posted about cookbooks this week. Yesterday I read a great post from Mrs. Jelly Belly about the exact same idea! Isn't it crazy how great minds think alike?

3 comments:

My Home - My Life said...

What a great idea - I don't have a ton of cookbooks but I love them!! I love to just read them casually for some reason.

Your binder looks so cute - I just went through all my scraps of paper and print outs the other day and wrote those recipes out on cards for my box... Made me feel a little more organized...

Mrs. Jelly Belly said...

Well, I've got recipes in 3-ring binders but they're definitely not as cute as yours! I love it - great job!

Ms. Tee said...

What a pretty binder and a great idea. I have tons of cookbooks, too. I like to thumb through them at night sometimes to get ideas. :)