Let’s talk today about a wonderful gift, which each of them can make. Such a little thing will surely interest and please any woman - both mom, and sister, and girlfriend, and colleague.
What are you talking about? Surely we all watched this picture in childhood: a grandmother is going to bake her signature delicious pies and takes out a greasy notebook with recipes, or even separate pieces of paper, from which she digs around for a long time in search of the necessary record. Admit, many of us still store our own culinary "cheat sheets" in this form. So why not design them in the form of a stylish and original cookbook with a unique design?
At first glance, this is difficult. Will I be able to make such a "serious" product, like a real cookbook, with my own hands? We assure you - how else it will turn out! You just need to have a little patience, accuracy and imagination. Well, let's get started?
Book for recording recipes: do wonders with your own hands!
This original craft can be made in country style, for which we use the techniques of aging and scrapbooking. If your kitchen is designed in a vintage or rural "format", then such a book will fit perfectly into the overall interior. Thanks to the imitation of aged pages, it seems that this is a family relic that has been used for several decades. And meanwhile, our own cookbook has been made! Scrapbooking is now a fashionable hobby that allows you to use a huge variety of different materials and turn ordinary books, frames, photo albums, etc. into real masterpieces.
What materials should be taken to start creating this exclusive product? How to make a cookbook with your own hands, if experience in such a case is not enough? Do not be alarmed. First of all, we stock up on sheets of plain white paper for an A4 printer. As well as a cover from an old, unnecessary book or a scribbled notepad, a piece of cotton fabric with an attractive pattern, kraft paper, one sheet of special (for scrapbooking) paper with a checkered print.
In addition, a couple of stationery clips, a figured hole punch, glue ("Moment-Crystal" is suitable), watercolor paper, ink, and threads should be stocked. And finally, you should take care of the decorative elements with which we will decorate the cover of our book. In this capacity, almost everything is suitable: ribbons, paper flowers, eyelets. And also take the handmade rubber stamp.
DIY cookbook: master class
Getting started. We take the sheets of paper that will become the pages of our cookbook, and we age them. The easiest way to do this is by placing the paper in a strong coffee solution. It is convenient to use for this procedure a wide shallow bowl, which will serve as a baking tray or bath.
We fill the container with warm water, pour out more instant coffee and mix everything gently. The saturated brown color of the solution indicates the achievement of the desired consistency. Alternately, take each sheet of white paper and dip it into the prepared liquid for a few seconds. We make sure that the wetting and coloring of the sheets occur evenly. Then we take out the page, let it a little stream and hang it to dry.
When all the sheets are dry, iron them with an iron to align. Then we add each in half with the combination of corners. If this condition is not met, the pages of the future book will be crookedly arranged relative to each other. The fact that our culinary book was created with our own hands is not an excuse for negligence, and therefore we are not in a hurry and are doing everything right.
Beautifully designed pages
The edges of the sheets from the side opposite the bend, turn into openwork and decorative using a figured hole punch. However, if you do not have such a device, it does not matter - you can carefully cut out the curly (for example, wavy) edge with scissors or even leave the sheets in their original form. This is our personal recipe book! With our own hands, we can give it such a shape as you like.
Then we collect sheets of several pieces (approximately 3 each) in small books, stacking with a combination of corners. We align all the edges very carefully, fasten them on the sides with clamps. In order not to deform the paper under them, we lay pieces of thick cardboard between sheets and clips.
We take a ruler, mark the end part of our stack, that is, the place of folding of all the sheets. Using a pencil, draw 6 strips across at the end (at an equal distance from each other), along which we make small transverse notches with a sharp knife. Now there are 6 small holes on the fold of each sheet.
Bookbinding Technique
Making a cookbook with your own hands continues. In the next step, we remove the clamps and begin to stitch our block. The technology of the procedure is as follows: cut two fabric strips, wrap the fold of the first of the little books of one of them, placing it in the interval from the second to the third hole, and the other between the fourth and fifth. We take a needle and a strong white thread and from the outside we pass it in turn into each hole in our little book. At the same time, we try to ensure that the thread runs over it at the locations of the fabric.
Having reached the last of the holes, we take another booklet, put it on top of the first and draw the thread through all its holes. Similarly, we sew one binding at a time with each subsequent binding into a block. Do not forget to tighten the thread without leaving gaps between the individual booklets. At the end of the work, the thread is fixed with an ordinary knot, as with any sewing.
Now we should glue our binding. Before this, we fix it on the sides again with clips on the sides, coat it with “Crystal”, put it under the press and leave it to dry for several hours. In the meantime, you can do the cover.
Making cover art
A do-it-yourself cover for a cookbook is most often made from a ready-made one - from an unnecessary notebook. We separate it from the sheets with the help of a clerical knife and put it with its outer side down on a pre-prepared sheet of kraft paper. We cut off the excess paper along the perimeter of the cover, leaving a margin approximately 4 or 5 centimeters wide. We wrap the protruding edges on the inside of the cover and firmly fix it with double-sided tape or the same glue.
Particularly carefully you need to work on the corners. To make everything come out neatly, first tuck the upper and lower fields, then the side ones, which are mowed at an angle of 45 degrees, and then they are tucked and glued. Such corners will come out the most even.
Now decorate it!
How to make a cookbook with your own hands, so that it turns out not only durable, but also beautiful? At the next stage of work, the cover needs to be decorated. We take paper for scrapbooking, from one sheet we get 2 blanks for decoration. Their size should be slightly smaller than the cover itself (about 0.5 cm on each side). The edges of the paper should be slightly fluffed, wrinkled, torn slightly, or processed with sandpaper. So we will give her the effect of aging. The processing along the perimeter and around it with Distress ink brings added vintage.
In each of the four corners we fasten decorative elements in the form of metal brads of the color of aged bronze. In the place where the name of our book will be located, we attach a paper rectangle of a contrasting color (for example, brown). It can be sewn in large stitches with hand stitches.
The resulting blanks are glued to each side of the cover - front and back. A special charm will be given to our cookbook with a pair of satin ribbons on which it will be tied. To fix it, install a pair of eyelets in the right places. On the cover on the inside, we fix the ribbon and through the eyelets we release it outside. We perform a similar operation with the back of the cover. We securely fasten the glue inside the ribbon.
Connect sheets and cover
Now it's time to glue our block of already stitched sheets into the finished cover. To do this, you should cut a square from kraft paper, one side of which is bent. As you can see, a do-it-yourself cookbook is not so fast to create; you have to tinker a bit. But the result is worth it.
Smeared with glue the bend is pressed to the upper part of the end face of our paper block. We attach fabric strips to kraft paper, we perform the exact same operation from the back of the block. Then we take a piece of a dense Whatman paper (usually intended for pastel or watercolor) and cut out blanks equal to the paper block in height and twice as wide (for bookends).
Master bookends
We put each of the flyleafs between the cover and the paper massif, glue one side of it to the extreme sheet, masking kraft paper, and the other to the inside of the cover. By the way! With the flyleafs, the same aging procedure should be done with Distress Ink.
Originality and uniqueness to the finished product will be given by a tag made for this, on which the inscription: "Handmade" is applied. Such "chips" are made using special inks and stamps. A cringle is inserted on the edge, through which a satin ribbon is threaded and tied to a bow.
The final stage: decorate our book
A self-made cookbook, of course, requires decoration. Around the field for the title for decorative purposes, several paper flowers and half-beads matched to the tone are glued. The title is printed on the printer, cut out and glued to the designated place for him. It can consist of just a couple of words, for example: "Favorite recipes." And it can carry additional information, for example, the name and surname of the hostess. The heading should follow a common style. That is, select the appropriate "antique" font.
So our book for cooking recipes is ready. With our own hands we made a real little masterpiece! If you managed to maintain the unity of the composition and accurately perform all the work from beginning to end, the result should be a unique gift copy. Now you not only know how to make a cookbook with your own hands, but you can also teach your girlfriend or sister this. Such an exclusive collection of recipes not only has undoubted practical value, but also emphasizes the sense of style, taste and originality of the hostess. Being daily in front of his eyes, for several years he will delight you and remind you of the minutes of creativity spent with pleasure. We wish you success in mastering this wonderful hobby!