Preserve Memories with a DIY Photo Album Recipe Book #CanonPIXMA

This is a sponsored conversation inspired by the Canon PIXMA MG7120. All thoughts and opinions are genuine and 100% my own. For more information on the new Canon Wireless Inkjet Photo All-In-One printers, visit usa.canon.com/pps.

The closer we get to the holidays, the more nostalgic I get for the good old days. When I was little, the holidays meant gathering with family. I remember my Gramma N’s Christmas parties and how us cousins would all take turns sneaking into the dining room to nab one of Gramma’s homemade candy strawberries or get a taste of our favorite homemade fruit leathers. Gramma’s house was always a fun place to be whether it was a holiday or not.

recipe book from a mini photo album

When I was trying to decide what to give my cousin this season, I thought about the few old recipe cards I have from Gramma. I remember her writing each recipe down and handing them to me for my recipe box, so long ago. Since I’ve teamed up with Canon this season, to share how easy it can be to preserve our everyday memories, I thought it would be fun to use my Canon PIXMA MG7120 printer to create a little DIY Photo Album Recipe Book for my cousin and I to enjoy as keepsakes.

My cousin and I spent many days learning how to cook, digging through Gramma’s old jewelry boxes, sewing or just looking through the endless pile of photographs. This little recipe book is just my little reminder to her of how much fun we shared at Gramma’s house growing up!

How-To Make a Recipe Book Out Of a Photo Album

To create the mini photo album recipe book, I gathered up a few of Gramma’s handwritten recipe cards, as well as several cherished old photos of Gramma, myself and my cousin. I wanted to preserve the originals so I used my printer to scan the index cards into images.

The MG7120 made scanning those old recipe cards and family photos into my computer a breeze. I set the printer to auto multi scan and was able to scan several cards at a time into individual images — so much quicker than scanning single cards at a time. This was a huge timesaver! You can use the MG7120 to multi scan up to 12 images, if they’ll all fit on the scan bed with ¼” in between! I also set the printer to scan directly to my Pictures folder whenever I scan or upload photos so my scans were easy to find. The scanned images came out crisp and clean — perfect for creating the graphics and images I had in mind.

pixma-mg7120-scanning-old-recipe-cards

To dress up the old recipe cards, I used a few vintage images from thegraphicsfairy.com blog, along with some pieces that I created myself.

Besides the photos and recipes, I added a card with Gramma’s favorite saying — “If it is to be, it is up to me.” Another card reads “Always Keep your chin up” — I remember Gramma often saying that phrase to me, as I was growing up and trying to get through the hard times in life. One more card has the words Shoop-shoop-shoop on it — which is a silly inside joke that only my cousin and I will get ;-)

I have always loved this photo of Gramma in her work gear. Gramma was an extremely hard worker and after Grandpa passed away in the early 80’s she just kept on working all the harder. She worked in a dirty factory but she never let it get her down and she always took pride in her work. She kept herself busy and made do or made without…. or made it herself! She was a truly inspiring lady and I think my cousin and I learned a lot from her.

my-recipe-book

I printed the cards for my cousin’s book on glossy 4″ x 6″ photo paper and they turned out beautifully! I ran out of the glossy photo paper after printign my cousin’s recipe cards, so ended up printing the cards for my recipe book on sheets of matte photo paper then cut them to size — they also turned out perfectly. Which paper you use is just a matter of personal preference — they both look nice and neat.

recipe-book-printing-glossy-recipe-cards

recipe-book-printing-matte-recipe-cards

Printing all of the recipe cards was surprisingly quick, the MG7120 is no slowpoke — I didn’t have to wait very long for the printing to finish up. Once all of my cards were printed I slipped them into the pockets of the mini photo albums. You could use any 4″ x 6″ photo album but I really like these mini plastic ones I found at Wal-Mart. They are very affordable at just $1.00 each. Plus, the covers slip in and out to make the front and back easy to customize — exactly what I needed for this project.

To cover the plain binding plastic binding, I attached colorful ribbon around the inside and outside binding with glue dots. I almost added a little hangtab with ribbon and hot glue but decided to keep it simple.

What do you think?

mini-recipe-book-photo-album

While I chose a few of my favorites from the old recipe cards that I have, my cousin must have some favorite recipes from Gramma as well. She can add them to her book using the blank recipe cards that I made with edited images of the original scans. I thought they turned out really cute, so here is a free recipe card printable for your own use!

Just click the image below to go to the full size printable, I hope you like it! They’re kind of grungy retro :)

free printable vintage recipe cards printable

 

After having such a fun time creating my mini recipe books to share with my cousin, I’m thinking of other ways to make the little photo albums into personalized gifts using my MG7120. Maybe I’ll make a “Through The Years” album for each of my kids, or an album for my Mom with photos of the grandkids.

What would you print up to customize your own mini album?


ahensnestsiggynew

email
About the Author

Henrietta Newman is a self-loving empty-nester into smudging, nature, yoga, fitness, healthy living, hunting, camping, hiking, tech, video games, gadgets, recipes, reviews and more.
With a love for the outdoors and visiting local attractions in and around NW PA and Lake Erie, you never know what you'll find in my nest! Subscribe to A Hen's Nest so you don't miss the fun!

[related-posts]

Comments

  1. 1

    That is SUCH a good idea. I don’t think I could get one in time for Christmas, but I would LOVE to make one of thse for my mother for Mother’s Day. She would love one of these.

  2. 2

    Henrietta, I would start crying if I got that gift. All those special memories from your Grandma? I love it! Also, that auto multi-scan thing? Brilliant.

    • 3

      Aww! I do hope my cousin loves it as much as I hope she will! I’m planning to give it to her soon! I may even make up a batch of Gramma’s cookies or brown bread to give along wit it!

  3. 4

    I’m in LOVE with this personalized family recipe photo album book. The MG7120 scanner makes it look so easy to put together. This would be a great way to pass family recipes and photos along to your kids.

  4. 5

    That is such a cool printer, I love that you can scan things like old recipe cards and they look so vibrant! What a lovely Christmas gift idea!

  5. 6

    This would be an amazing gift for my daughter. She is 20 now and soon she’ll appreciate her own recipes!

  6. 7

    I have so many photos and tickets laying around and I’d love to preserve them by printing more copies. This looks like an amazing printer and I love how easy it looks to use.

  7. 8

    I think this is a fabulous idea. Save the recipes and hand them down through the generations. The MG7120 scanner is wonderful. It makes it so easy to scan multiple items, yet keeps them separate.

  8. 9

    Oh my gosh! I love this idea! I have some of my Nana’s recipe cards I think this is something that would mean a lot to my sister :) I’m gonna have to whip something up! :)

  9. 10

    What a unique and thoughtful Idea. I love that by photo copying them you get the warn and food stained look that comes with a well aged recipe passed from generation to generation.

  10. 12

    Oh, I love this idea! How special of a keepsake!

  11. 13

    that is hands down the best gift EVER. EVER. i would sob. and i’m honestly so jealous you have those handwritten papers still. so many of our family papers have been lost!

    • 14

      Thank you so much for the kind words! I know how much it means to have these little scraps of our loved ones, I have only a few pieces with my Dad’s writing and I treasure them!

  12. 15

    That is such an awesome gift to make. One of the things I love most is our family cookbook that my Aunt had made for all the women in the family a few years ago. She scanned recipes, too, so we have some of the favorites of the matriarchs in their own handwriting.

  13. 16

    That is awesome. We have old recipes lying around all over the place. This would be awesome not to mention what a great gift it would make to that special someone. Thanks for sharing.

  14. 17

    This is wonderful and thank you for sharing the vintage retro printable cards. They will make a nice addition to my “one day” collection. I’m pinning them for later use ;). You did a great job. I love it!

  15. 18

    This is such a great gift idea for the holidays! Thanks for the idea!

  16. 19

    What a great gift idea. I’m sure everybody will treasure the time you took to make these recipe books.

  17. 20

    This is a wonderful idea!! I plan on sitting with my grandmother and writing down her recipes when I go home next week. Would make amazing gifts for next year!

  18. 21

    I love this idea of a DIY recipe book! Perfect for sharing family recipes!

  19. 22

    What a very sentimental gift. Would love to make one of these for my mom. We just bought a Canon printer today. I can’t wait to check out all the cool features.

  20. 23

    This is such a sweet idea! It would be the perfect gift for family and friends, too. The Canon Pixma printers are currently at the top of my wish list. We’ll see if Santa thinks I’m naughty or nice this year ;) Thanks for sharing this great craft idea!

  21. 24

    This is such a good idea for a cookbook. I think it takes it from being just instructions, to something people can treasure.

  22. 25

    The image is not available for download on flickr. How do I get these wonderful printables?

  23. 27

    a72a4m

Trackbacks

  1. […] PIXMA MG7120 Wireless Inkjet Photo All-In-One printer as a crafting tool to print everything from recipe cards to photo prints these past few weeks so I was inspired to use it again to print the images for a […]

I ♥ your comments

*