Homemade recipe book mini-album

I attended another course with the talented Denise Van Deventer (who is on many design teams and whose blog is here) to show us how to make a mini-album.

The album itself is fairly easy to make, but as always, the trick is in the detail.

I always struggle to finish my projects like this because I don’t know what matches or don’t have enough that matches, and I battle to put the embellishments together to create a cohesive finished article. Obviously, this will be easier with time and practice, but I found it so much easier to put my album together using the paper pack that includes the matching papers, embellishments, stencil, chippies, and other miscellaneous bits and pieces.

I bought this set – the Bon Apetit paper set from Celebr8 – because I fell in love with the colours and details of the embellishments, and I have been wanting to make a recipe book for a long time. I don’t usually buy sets like this, but I am converted to the idea. I found it so much easier to have the matching colours, as well as having all the other things to fussy cut that worked with the theme.

Here is a link to the blog post featuring this pack. I don’t know if it is still in stock or available to buy at your local stockists, but I really think it is beautiful. Celerb8 is a South African brand which means it is readily available as well as not being too expensive because of import costs. There are many international products and ranges that are simply not available here, and when they are, they can be prohibitively expensive.

Anyway, on to the album.

The pack does include the pieces to make an album, but Denise showed us how to create one by having a front and back page, as well as a spine that you then sort of glue together using a cover sheet.

It took me almost the whole day to complete my album, but it was so worth it. I have already put all my favourite recipes in it, including those special ones from my Mom, Gran, Aunts…

Here is the outside. (I will post photos of the inside as soon as I get a chance to take better photos).

You can see the string of beads on the inside, as well as the red beads on the outside. The little knife, fork, and spoon (and Coke lid) were also part of the kit.

The left side of the album is a book format, while the right-hand side is a flip-up style book.

I had such fun putting this album together, and love hos it turned out.

Thank you so much for popping in – I hope you are all having a good day. XxX