[brinohio]

I am new to Scrap Girls so you will probably see me posting questions on a regular basis. I am trying to create a cookbook for my daughter as a wedding gift( wedding is on New Years Eve so I know I REALLY need to get busy)!

I have all the recipes so what I need now is to create digital pages that I can then print for a 3 ring binder. Pages will be 8x11 and will be inserted into clear sleeves. The cover page will be enclosed in the clear pocket on the front of the binder. I chose the binder format instead of a book because I wanted her to be able to add pages as needed.

My recipes are in WORD format so I need to somehow insert the recipes into a decorated background and then add digital embellishments and/or jpg photos. I have Photoshop and Photoshop Elements but I am a self taught newbie at using it(I do plan to use the instructional downloads that came with my membership).

I would LOVE to have suggestions and ideas for the best(and fastest) way to approach this project! Also, if you have suggested templates etc please let me know.

Thank you in advance !! BRinOhio

[AggieB]

I left a suggestion for the recipe gallery in your first post. Other than that, I know that there are several recipe templates in the boutique - someone will be by shortly with specific suggestions. Try looking at the categories on the boutique page, I think that cooking is one of the options and there are lots of neat cooking & kitchen themed collections. Have fun!

With Word, you can't use them directly, but you could probably copy from Word & paste into a text box.

[SandiC.]

What a lovely gift for your Daughter. I've had good luck with transferring word documents to a LO by simply selecting the text, copy and paste into a text layer on your LO in PSE or Photoshop. Since 8x11 will be your format, open a new document in wither program in that size with a transparent background and build up from there. there are several products in the boutique for recipes, both albums and cards and of course lots of food related kits. I would keep it as simple as possible, with a single background for each section, and similar embellishments to keep it all tied together. Will try to get back to you with some of the products from the boutique that would work well for this. Also sort of depends on the type of recipes and the feel of the book. Is this your very best, most special for entertaining...would need a very elegant look, or is is down home comfort food that would do well with a homey feel.

The fastest way to learn to use your software is the "Secrets" videos....I don't know how I would have ever gotten started without those.

Welcome to SGs and I'm looking forward to seeing your layouts.

[tinkerbell11]

These are a couple of actual recipe card templates:


bon Appetite Cards

Cook it Cards




If you want to make your own since you are looking for 8.5 x 11 you may want to create blank documents and add your text from the work documents and then embellish as you wish, there are tons of food related kits in the boutique to use to add to your layouts! Make sure to searh in quotes you will get better results!

[Smiles]

It's always fun to include a photo of the finished food, if you have one.

The fun thing about digital is that you can always go back and "upgrade" the recipe if you don't have time to do them all to your satisfaction before the big day. You could just print the recipe on a piece of colored 8.5x11 paper as a placeholder.

It's also nice to include a little history if it's a family recipe ("this was Grandma SoandSo's, and she always served it at Christmas" sort of thing) or one from a friend.

[Bride]

AggieB, on 25 October 2011 - 01:03 PM, said:

I left a suggestion for the recipe gallery in your first post. Other than that, I know that there are several recipe templates in the boutique - someone will be by shortly with specific suggestions. Try looking at the categories on the boutique page, I think that cooking is one of the options and there are lots of neat cooking & kitchen themed collections. Have fun!

With Word, you can't use them directly, but you could probably copy from Word & paste into a text box.

Great ideas in this thread! I'm just confirming Aggie's idea ... you CAN highlight in Word and then paste into a text box on your page. My suggestion for this - for less fiddling - highlight your Word doc and change your font to the font you want used in the layout. That way it transfers over to the PS or PSE layout (in the text box) in that font and all you have to do is resize if needed.

Another idea - when I made my sister an altered book and included some of the family favorite recipes we used as young girls, I scanned the original recipe cards complete with stains from batter spillage, etc - you know how old and ratty those old well loved recipe cards look .... and then I brought the scanned jpeg of that card into PS and made adjustments before printing it out onto card stock. Then I roughed up and "antiqued" the edges with ink for a realistic look. These treasured recipe cards were then tucked here and there into my altered book for her. Just another idea you :-)

[KayMitch]

What a great idea Lei. Kay

[SodScrap]

Fabulous idea! I was going to recommend the templates Shannon showed you. I realize you want to do a 8.5.x11 pages, but you can build your recipes with the templates, then include them on the larger page. Oh the possibilities! I love Lei's idea of including the scanned image of actual recipe cards!

I have wanted to do a family cookbook for some time...*sigh* never have..

Be sure to ask questions as you need to. Can't wait to see your pages!! This will be a special treasure for sure!!

I suggest Ro's videos to help you learn the basics...they are AMAZING! Just be sure you get the one for the specific program you are using Ro's Scrapbook Secrets-PSE