Homemade Christmas Gifts

One year I typed all the recipes I had used since my children were little, one recipe per page. I decorated each page to match the theme of the recipe with graphics and borders.

On the backside of each recipe, I put a photo of someone in the family. When you looked at the recipe page entitled "Stew", for example, the picture on the left was a picture of all the grandchildren entitled the "Smith Stew" (but I used our last name).

I put all the pages in page protector sheets I bought at Costco. I put all the pages in a binder that you can remove or add pages as needed. I designed the cover, side binding and the backside of the binder with appropriate graphics, title and year. I didn't have a hole punch, so went to Office Max. They have a place where you can use paper cutter, copier, hole punch, etc.

After all the gifts had been opened, my children sat for hours looking through the book at the recipes and the "old" pictures they had forgotten about.

It was truly a labor of love. It took 2 months writing and editing, working it around my life.

I hope this gives someone an idea they can use.

By Eletha