We gave my BIL and SIL a version of this as part of their wedding gift. We included all of our favorite recipes, and it ended up filling two large binders. We used binders from the office store, the ones with the plastic on the outside so we could design our own "cover" and slip it in. We put all the recipes in page protectors -- because that way they can pull them out to write notes on, but they would still be protected from random flying ingredients.:) By the way, they loved it -- I think that is a great holiday gift idea!

I have a homemade one that has really nice stiff cardboard for the covers and plain paper for each recipe (one per page). It is only maybe 6"X 3". It is held together with those rings used to hold binders together, you know, they are circular and clip closed. The recipes and cover was simply punched with a paper punch to create the holes. May be an idea for the smaller ones.

If I were you I wouldn't laminate the recipes because lots of people like to jot notes on their recipes. Perhaps provide one plastic sheet that can be placed over a recipe to protect it while being used.

Found this in a magazine I subscribe to. Prices look fairly reasonable, too. (I think...)

Linda

Here is a link that might be useful: Cookbook Publisher

I received a cute inexpensive one.

It is the size of 8.5 x 11 page folded in half. The recipe is printed on one side only (horizontally) on regular weight paper. The covers are card stock weight. There are 2 holes punched in the top about 1/3 from each end and metal key rings hold the pages. The type of key ring you wouldn't put keys on because they will come apart if holding a lot of weight.

I made a cookbook as a farwell gift for our long time nanny with all the recipes that she liked from my big binder of collected recipes. I typed up the recipes on the computer and put little captions under the title of each recipe (like "We always make this blueberry syrup in the summer in Michiana with fresh picked blueberries." Some were pretty lame, like "Ole!" for a tex-mex recipe but I tried!). I had the boys illustrate the recipes and write little notes on the pages. I made dividing pages (appetizers, salads, soups etc) and copied them on heavy colored paper along with the front and back covers. I took the whole she-bang to Kinkos and had them spiral bind it with a plastic cover sheet on the front and the back. I am making similar ones for my mom, sister and MIL and SIL for Christmas and Hannukah, respectively. Good luck, I had a great time making it and our sitter loved it.

Angie