The Designing with Recipe Book by Autumn Leaves

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Reported by Simone Collins

To me, the best part about recipe books are the great pictures, fool-proof instruction and delicious outcomes. This new book by Autumn Leaves, The Designing with Recipe Book is everything you need to cook up some amazing scrapbook pages.

The first very simple thing that I absolutely love about this book (and hope that all idea books from now on follow suit) is that it is spiral bound, making it so easy to flip to a page and have it lie flat on your worktable while you are inspired. That alone made me love this book even before opening the cover.

The team of designers is another key component to this book. With so many styles in scrapbooking, it is hard to find a nice mix of designers that not only compliment each other but can inspire a large group of people. This book does just that with some layouts being very simple and clean such as those done by Jennifer McGuire as well as more artistic creations by Emily Falconbridge. The well balance mix of designers really makes this book versatile.



With sketches, tools and product lists carefully shown for each layout, this book is appealing to not only the avid scrapper but also the beginner as well. Some of the descriptions of their "method" of making their layouts were missing some information or seemed a little confusing so that may be a little difficult for some beginners but the sketches alone are priceless. The chapters are also broken down by the number of photos on the layouts, so you can search for an idea based on the photos you are working with. And the layouts in this book do not feature only the newest product, there is plenty of older supplies being used in amazing ways that can help some hoarders use up some of their collection.

The most inspiration I found in this book are the little tips or hints listed with each page from the designer. Little suggestions like what to do with trinkets you collect or how to cheat when sewing flowers on to paper are really the hidden gems here. These little one liners are like getting insider tips from some of the best scrappers around.


Even if you are not a person who uses sketches or someone like me who doesn't really follow step-by-step directions very well, the layouts alone will easily inspire some pages. The page above by Jennifer McGuire with the punched circles inspired me to create this page. And even though it is not exactly like her sketch, it is also framed and uses that awesome punched circle idea.




Pros:

• Great layouts in a variety of styles.


• Sketches for every layout.


• Spiral bound.

Cons:

• Some ingredient lists are missing information.


• Only 100 layouts.


• Some recipes are incomplete or a little confusing.

The suggested retail price of this book is $20 and is available at 2peas, scrapbook.com and HSN.

As a recovering book junkie, this is the first book I've bought in 8 months and I am sure it will have a permanent place in my collection and be referred to many times in the future.

Do you have this book? Read it? We'd love to hear what YOU think!