The 2012 Cookie Book Reveal

Whew...OK.  It's done.  It wore me out.  I admit it.  But in keeping with this year's theme of "It's a CRAZY Christmas", I went a little nuts piecing all this together.  I decided I needed to use up the giant box of Christmas themed scraps I had been accumulating.  And I did.  But it nearly killed me. 

Before I get started on the narrative, a big thank you to all the girls who take on the baking.  We have new people every year and we've got a few who've been in on this from the start.  You all are awesome and I love each of you to bits.  Thank you for giving me a reason to build a book every year. 

The pages of this book are all pieced together from the scraps.  I was going for the crazy quilt idea to keep with the theme.  I thought of actually stitching them together, but apparently the Prozac kicked in just in time and I opted to only stitch the upper and lower edges of the pages rather than all the seams. 

Book making is tricky.  There is a lot of engineering that goes into it.  Every time I make one I learn a little bit more.  For example, each page when pieced together winds up with multiple seams.  The seams on the pages need to be in different places for each page, otherwise you get a bulge in the book when it's closed.  The same goes for the recipe cards.  I attached them with small Velcro dots so that they can be removed and used easily.  But the dots can't all be in the same place for each one or again, you get a lopsided book. 

I needed to make 23 books this year.  That's more than ever before.  We have 15 at the exchange and the rest are for gifts.  My sisters have been hinting that they want to be included in the gifts so this year I made one for each of them.  In year's past, I made only one to give to the sister who was into baking, first Mary, and since her demise, Joanna.  Well, this year Bridget and Virginia will get one too. 

And, as usual, I like to make a book jacket.  That center piece is also sewn together with a zig zag stich.  I designed this year's as a full box that opens with flaps on the back.  The flaps can be closed again with the same Velcro dots on the sides of the box. 

This is the Fruity side of the book shown in the open box...

...and here is the opposite side for Nutty recipes.  Remember, now, it's a CRAZY Christmas...

The book on display is an accordian style.  So here is a shot of what it would look like on your mantel or down the center of you buffet table.

 

 

Here are some individual pages and a look at the index.  There is an index for each side, fruity and nutty.  Each recipe page is stamped with a different Christmas image and the edges are stamped with a zig zag stitch.  The hinges were cut with my Cricut as were the page numbers and titles.  Hinges have three layers and all numbers and letters have 2.

Happy Christmas, Everyone!  I'm off to commence with the card making.  I don't have enough yet!

- AMK