Designer: Kendra McCracken

With the hottest of the weeks of summer setting in and kids spending more time indoors, it's not uncommon to hear parents wishing for things other than video games and TV to engage them. Without the time constraints put on kids by school schedules and extracurricular activities, summertime is the opportune time to teach them how to cook or if they already have basic cooking skills, to test some new recipes and learn some more advanced skills.

Providing a child with a recipe book for building a collection of their own personal favorites can help them see that their time and efforts in the kitchen are valuable. Not only can they see a compilation of just how many things they are able too cook, they have control over creating their idea of a 5-star menu!

A recipe collection can take many forms from a simple file box of index cards to a file on the computer to a traditional recipe book. For this project, I started with a photo album for 4 inch x 6 inch photos. Many photo albums come with a removable clear protective sleeve that will help prevent food stains from getting on the covers. So you can have a book that's pretty (or cool if you're working with a young boy!) as well as functional.

The book I started with (I invoked my right as a woman to change my mind on the color!) had a window in the cover that was intended for displaying a photo. Instead, I layered scraps of fabric, stamped images, and buttons.

Normally I use fusible web to adhere fabrics to my projects but with a project like this one, which is impractical for ironing on, I use Peel and Stick Fabric Fuse by Therm-O-Web. It's a double sided adhesive that's not going to let go so it's great for projects that are going to be handled a lot.

After adhering a piece of background fabric in the window of the album, I added some stamped embellishments. The owl I used is from the Fiskars Halloween Night stamp set and I used the Green High Density Pigment ink to stamp directly onto a scrap of muslin. The 5 Inch Easy Action Micro-Tip® Titanium Scissors are perfect for cutting around the edges of the small stamped image.

When stamping the letters, I first stamped with yellow and then stamped over it with green and blue. Even though the yellow is too light for the words to be legible, it adds depth those stamped on top of them. I also showed with the cupcake bottom that, just like on paper, stamps can be used on fabrics with a subtle pattern.

Fabric can be difficult to punch so on a project like this, one that won't be washed, using paper is perfect acceptable. These were adhered to the book cover using the Peel and Stick Fabric Fuse by first putting a small square of the adhesive on the back of the patterned paper and then punching through the 2 layers. I was unsure of my placement when I was working on adding the punches and you can see here that I need to go back and press them all down now!

More paper punched shapes added as tiny details.

After finishing the cover, I created divider tabs for the inside using the Recipe Madness stamp set and the Large Round n' Round and Extra Large Seal of Approval Squeeze Punches.

4 inch x 6 inch index cards make convenient and inexpensive recipe cards. They can be dressed up by adding stamped images like those I used from the Recipe Madness stamp set.

Handing over a fun recipe book to a kid is sure to make them want to get started using it right away so be sure to include your favorite cookie recipe to help them out!