Decide how many recipe books you are going to make. While the principles of design will be the same whether you're making just one for a bride-to-be or plan on distributing copies to everyone on your holiday wish list, it all depends on how much time you want to put into the actual production. If it's just one book, for instance, you probably won't mind assembling a fancy collage that will look like a work of art. If you're making multiple covers, though, and want them all to look exactly the same, you may be better off preparing a camera-ready master and taking it to the nearest Kinkos.
Determine the size of your recipe book as this will dictate the size of the cover. The easiest to work with is a three-ringer binder that holds 8 1/2 x 11 inch sheets of paper. Buy one with a clear plastic sleeve on the front cover and all you'll have to do is insert your 8 1/2 x 11 inch cover art. If you're planning to take your recipe pages to a print shop and have them spiral-bound or saddle-stitched and trimmed, you'll want to decide in advance what size works best for your purposes and the actual amount of content. For example, a spiral bound recipe book will be 81/2 x 11 inches whereas a smaller book that is saddle-stitched and then trimmed will be 8 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches and can either be a vertical or horizontal format.
Pick a color for the background. If you are planning to use a photograph (picture of you in the kitchen), choose a color that is going to be compatible. Blacks, deep blues and reds are especially good choices because they make the photos themselves more eye-popping. If you're going to make a collage, incorporate clip art, or draw your own design, you'll want to choose a pastel or go with white, cream or ecru. Stationery stores, office supply stores and online resources, such as Paper Source, have a wide variety of colors and textures to choose from.
Start with a general outline. Decide whether you just want to have text, just want to have artwork, or want to do a combination of both. There's a fun website called Read, Write, Think (see URL at end of article) and although it's targeted to students, it's a fun way to experiment with designing book covers and getting a sense of where to place individual elements. Whether you're going to use text, art or a combination, make sure that you leave equal margins on all sides and that you don't incorporate so much "stuff" that your cover looks cluttered.
Browse for ideas in clip art. If your computer program doesn't already have its own clip art file that you can access, there are hundreds of websites, such as All Free Clip Art, that allow you to pick and click the images you like. Since you're doing a recipe book, you'll want to do searches for "food, drink, dining, meals, parties" or narrow it down to specific types of food ( "vegetables, breads" or "meats").
Take color photographs of some of the meals that are featured in your book. If you have a digital camera, you can then upload these to your computer as jpeg files and insert them in your cover design just as you would clip art. Another fun idea is to have copies made of some of your favorite food-related pictures and, using rubber cement, affix them to a sheet of 8 1/2x11 inch cover stock. This can then be inserted in the plastic sleeve in the front of the binder.
Consider the following creative alternatives for designs: Make a collage of food images cut out of gourmet magazines. If the cuisine is ethnic, use an actual section of a map as your backdrop, then add the title of the recipe book and your name in large black letters, centered. Recreate an old-fashioned looking menu for your cover. A website called Gjenvick-Gjonvick Vintage Menus will give you some great inspiration for this. Take a picture of your own dining room table. Visit websites, such as Morgue File, for free photographic images. Go for comedy and use a photograph of a sink full of dishes after a satisfying meal. If it's a recipe book of meals that kids will like, do something fun in placing fruits, vegetables and hot dogs to look like faces or animals. Troll through art books and see how many images you can find of people eating something. Make copies and use these in a collage. If you're a poet at heart, write your own "Ode to Food" and print it out in stylish calligraphy for the cover. Pretend that a particular dish or food item is a beautiful gift to be unwrapped. For example, show a lovely gift box with its lid to the side, ribbons untied and a bunch of asparagus standing up in a froth of tissue paper.