Editor’s Note: This morning the very creative Vanessa Falle is rockin’ the craft world with this super cool fabric covered recipe binder. Go get yourself crafty:

After celebrating a month of eating locally with the 30-day Food Challenge in July, I thought it would be perfectly timed to create a wonderful hand crafted recipe book to store all the recipes enjoyed throughout the challenge and beyond.

I am always searching for an efficient and attractive way to organize all my recipes and this binder seemed a great starting-off point.

Now, you may decide that this book is better suited to storing those treasured culinary secrets stashed safely on a shelf, rather than letting it see any real kitchen hours (and kitchen spills!), but it’s worth taking the time to make it just the same.

Remember, with the holidays uncomfortably close, this could be a great gift item.

Materials

2 flaps from corrugated cardboard box – approx 13×6.5″

1 fat quarter (from quilting shop) or fabric square measuring approx 22×17″ – cut in half leaving 2 pieces 11×17″

6 sheets 12×12″ cardstock in a color coordinating with fabric

1 sheet 12×12″ cardstock in a different color than the 6 sheets (that also coordinates with the fabric)

1 8.5×11″ sheet printer fabric (found in the crafting section at WalMart or other craft shops)

small paper flowers & assorted buttons as embellishments

embroidery floss & needle

scissors

disappearing ink pen or tailor’s chalk

iron & ironing board

glue stick and brayer (roller) – rolling pins work GREAT!

6 grommets/eyelets & setting tool

3 binder rings 1 1/2″ or 2″ diameter (found at Staples)

pencil, ruler & paper trimmer

hole punch (Crop-a-dile or similar punch that can handle bulky covers)

corner rounder – optional

liquid adhesive (Aleene’s glue, epoxy or hot glue if you’re really good at it!)

multiple sheets three-hole punched lined paper

tab punch

Dymo label maker

inkjet printer & computer

Making the covers

To create the covers of your binder, you will cut two pieces of cardboard to measure approximately 6.5×13″. I used the flaps from a cardboard box – make sure they’re close to the same size.

Next with a fairly hot iron, press all the fold marks out of your fabric. Lay the cardboard pieces on the WRONG side of the fabric evenly spaced apart allowing for an edge of fabric on all sides of both pieces of fabric.

With your disappearing ink pen, trace the edges of your cardboard and remove from the fabric. You’re going have to cut the fabric into two pieces for the front and back covers.

Once you’ve cut the fabric into two pieces, place the cardboard where you’ve traced your lines. It’s okay if it won’t fit in exactly the same spot, as long as there’s at least a 2″ edge of fabric visible all the way around the cardboard.

Grab your glue stick and slather it all over the surface of one of the cardboard pieces. Flip it over and adhere it to the WRONG side of one of your fabric pieces. Repeat for the other cover.

With your rubber brayer, roll it over the surface of the RIGHT side of your fabric/cardboard cover pieces getting the lumps and air bubbles out. This is the secret to a smooth cover surface.

Flip the covers back over so that the fabric is RIGHT side down against your work surface and the back of the cardboard is facing you. Starting with any one of the four corners, slather on some glue stick across where the first corner will stick to the cardboard.

Fold fabric up and roll with brayer. Repeat for remaining four corners. Try not to get the brayer too gluey… but you can wipe it with a damp cloth if you have any glue stick mishaps! Your corners will look something like this:

Then using your disappearing ink pen again, flip the first edge flap towards the side of the cover facing you. Trace roughly where the folded edge lays over the corner pieces so that your glue doesn’t go beyond the flap to be stuck down. Glue within the traced lines and stick the flap down so it looks like this:

Once you’ve stuck down all the corners and all the sides, return to your fairly hot iron and quickly press the creases into your fabric. This will help eliminate bulk and ensure that the inside cover is smooth and well adhered.

When your iron is cool, you may need to wipe off any glue that may have come into contact with the hot iron.

With one of your six sheets of 12×12″ cardstock, cut it in half so you are left with two 6×12″ pieces. These are your inside covers. Glue stick these all over and center on your inside covers so that no rough edges of fabric are visible. Roll with brayer. Repeat for remaining cover.

Using one of your sheets of lined paper as a template, line up on the inside cover and mark hole placement.

Make holes suitable for applying grommets/eyelets according to the manufacturer’s instructions on the package.

Apply grommets/eyelets with the tool you’ve chosen.

I used a Crop-a-dile Big-Bite to make my holes and a small hand-held setting tool with a hammer. These eyelets will reinforce the holes and prevent fraying of the fabric cover.

Make sure the hardware has holes that are big enough for the binder rings to fit through! Repeat for remaining cover. If your fabric has a directional print, keep an eye on that when making the eyelet holes!!!

Put both covers together with outsides facing – so they don’t stick together - and place under something flat and heavy (like a stack of books) so the glue dries and the covers stay flat. This could take an hour or it could need to stay overnight, depending on how much glue you’ve used and how soggy it gets!

You may want to wrap the covers in wax paper if the glue is heavy enough that you can feel the stickiness through the fabric and eliminate it sticking to something it shouldn’t.

Cut the remaining five sheets of cardstock in half and mark hole placement using the lined paper as a template (as with the covers).

Hole punch the covers and, if you want to, cut the corners with a corner-rounder. I used a tab punch for each of the divider pages and my Dymo labeler so I could see which sections were where at a glance.

In a word processing program, I made a grid for all the page titles in the binder (Cover page and all the sections – email me for a pre-made version that I’ve already formatted). I printed the cover and section titles with my inkjet printer on printer fabric.

Cut the titles apart and peel off the paper backing. Using your embroidery floss, stitch the edges of each of the titles with a running stitch (up & down & up & down). Glue these to their respective covers and embellish with paper flowers, buttons, stick pins, beads, ribbon… whatever you like.

Cut the lined paper to 5 3/4″ width and fill the sections. Now the pages are perfect for including the entire ingredients list and directions without having to abbreviate every other word just to make it fit on one recipe card.

If you’re super ambitious, you could even include photos on either the section divider pages or on each and every page so you can see all your favorite recipes!

Voila! You’re done. See you next time.

Photos courtesy of Vanessa Falle.