Designer Showcase: Food!

Today in many homes across America, there is a bunch of cooking that has started in preparation for the big Thanksgiving feast tomorrow. So we thought this would be a great time to share some food layouts and projects with you. These have no calories, so you can indulge as much as you'd like without hurting your diet!

Now this is how to get a feast started!  Look at all that food!  Cindy used a punch to clip all the photos of the food served at her wedding.  What a great idea! I love how the photos are so colorful. Cindy really let them shine by keeping her background simple and elegant.  That little place setting is impeccable!

In this page, Nancy has captured her son cooking.  I love how she has used florals and flourishes on this page and yet it still has a masculine feel to it.  I also find it amazing that the food, papers and elements all coordinate with the curtains in the background of the picture!  It's really neat how she has clustered the three photos together and woven the flourishes around them.  It adds so much dimension to Nancy page.

Keeping our favorite recipes handy helps us to cook, but also allows us to highlight memories of those dishes and prepare our recipes for passing on to generations to come. I've had this American Crafts 6x6 album for a few years. I've been wanting to make a book of my families favorite recipes. I finally got started on the cover last week.  I used Recipe Box Kit  a digital kit by Etc. by Danyale to adorn the cover.  I'm not done yet. I will be adding more to the inside and the covers as I go.  I'm leaving room with each recipe to record some memories that we associate with each dish.

Many of the favorite recipes that we cook are served at the holidays.  In the above pages I captured some of our favorite holiday baking. This is a mini album about our Christmas traditions. We do a lot of cookie baking. And my one son and I spend a day each holiday season baking a special bread from our heritage called Vanocka.  We take it for granted that we will be doing this each year. But life is getting more complicated. He is now attending college. I'm sure the day is coming soon when he will not be able to devote the full day that is required to make this bread.  I hope that is not for a long time to come yet. That's one reason that I take pictures of this process every year! 

No feast is complete without dessert.  This project is made with paper, ribbon, cardboard, some flowers, brads and a cherry on top!  Well actually the cherry is a wooden bead.  It looks like a cupcake, but it is a gift card holder.  Who can resist a cupcake?  Interested in making one for yourself? I've shared a tutorial on my blog. You can find it here.

So, are you ready for the big turkey dinner tomorrow?  I've still got some cooking yet to do.  As I make the stuffing using my grandmother's recipe, I'll be thinking of her and the fun times I had in her kitchen.  Lots of sensory things like smells and tastes can evoke memories. So why not record the foods in your life as you capture your memories!

Happy Thanksgiving!