Just like a professionally published cookbook, your self-made cookbook should feature photos and illustrations. Photos of the recipes presented in the book make the dish seem more appetizing. If photos are not an option, try drawing illustrations of the food and the ingredients to add interest to the pages. For example, if you are adding hand drawn illustrations to the pages, draw pictures of food to spell out the recipe titles. For example, spell out the title "carrot cake" by drawing small pictures of carrots.
Take a nod from the craft of scrapbooking to decorate your homemade cookbook. This involves using different colored paper or layering decorative details and text to create a more dynamic page. For example, layer the recipe text on a different colored paper background or use a decorative ribbon border to frame the space. This way, if you include any other information, such as a personal anecdote or the nutritional value, the recipe list will be easy to follow for the reader who is skimming the pages as she is at work in the kitchen. Also accent with stickers, embroidered embellishments, beads, sequins and fabric pieces.
The book cover and jacket is a chance for you to get creative. Once you have settled on a title for your cookbook, you can use that as the theme for your cover and jacket. For example, if your theme is Mexican cuisine, decorate your cover or jacket with red, white and green which are the colors of the Mexican flag. Another option is to take a photo of one or more of your recipes, or a picture of you cooking in the kitchen and make that the cover for your cookbook. Accent with fabric, marker, paint or pieces of cardstock. To make it look like a professionally published book, you can even include a small photo of yourself and a brief "about the author" section on the inside or back of the jacket.
If you are making the book by hand, binding is a great opportunity to add a personal touch to the look of your cookbook. Use linen thread to bind the pages for a homemade, old world feel. For something that is durable in the kitchen, you could choose to bind the book with a spiral binding. For a simple binding option, assemble your cookbook into a three-ring binder. Decorate the spine of the binder with your name and the title of the book.