Primitive Cookbook Tutorial

Woke up this morning to ice and snow on the ground.  Yep, it was beautiful, warm, sunny and in the high 60’s the other day.  Only in Ohio does this happen (lol).  Time to get my winter coat back out.  Anyway, as promised I thought I would share with you a very quick and easy tutorial on a primitive cookbook that I made.  If you haven’t had the chance to visit Susie’s site (Yankee Lane Primitives) then you better head over there and check out her rag tags.  I ordered several from her recently and they are wonderful.  Many different ones to choose from and they are coffee stained perfectly for any project!!  After receiving my rag tags…. I went to my local Wal-Mart and purchased some homespun, went to Crafts 2000 and purchased the books.  Here is what you will need for the project. 

Glue, a small bowl, a little water, foam brush, scissors, homespun, rag tags, and a journal book.

Your first step is to coffee stain your homespun and let it dry completely.  Once that is dry then you will cut your homespun large enough to cover your book.  You want your piece large enough to cover the edges.  I started off by cutting it and then tore it the rest of the way to give the homespun a more rough and prim look.

Lay your book on the cloth like this.  You will want to get your small bowl and put some glue in it and water it down just enough for a syrup like consistency.  You will then apply your glue to the inner sides of the book where your cloth will cover.

Once that is folded over then you will want to apply your glue over the top of the cloth as well.  Make sure it is good and covered so the cloth is wet.  Every piece of the cloth should be covered with glue.

Once you have the bottom and the side done then you want to fold over the top.

After you have completely covered all of the cloth with glue then you will do the other side just the same.  Now we will apply our rag tag.  I chose this one from Susie because it was a more simple look and easier for her to print.  If there is more detail to the label that you pick then it might not turn out on the cloth.  So, run it by her and she will be able to tell you if it will look ok when printed.

Ok, let’s apply the rag tag to the cookbook.  Get a small amount of glue on your foam brush and apply that to the front of the book where you want your label to be.  Place your label and then apply glue over top of it once it is in the right spot.  Once that is covered then you will apply glue to the whole outside of the book.  It will take some time for it to dry, but it is important to cover the whole book in order to keep the cloth in place.

Are you are wondering how I dried it without the book sticking to everything?  I simply placed it standing upright on a foam plate for about an hour.  Now that your cookbook is done…..just let it dry and then write in only your family favorite recipes.  If you are anything like my Mom and I then you have your favorite recipes that you use all the time.  So, get those out and enter them in to your cookbook and there you have a perfectly prim cookbook that can be left out on the counter at all times.  Not only is it right at your fingertips, but it matches your decor as well.  Pretty neat – huh?

Hope you enjoyed the tutorial.  Pretty easy – don’t ya think?  Have a wonderful Friday everyone!!

Blessings, Lisa