How it works

From recipe box to bookshelf, with you checking every page.

You photograph the cards. We transcribe them, design the book and show you a full proof. Nothing is printed until you approve it.

Choose your book

Pick Keepsake Digital (a designed PDF) or Keepsake Hardcover (the PDF plus a printed book). Add extra hardcover copies for $65 each.

Checkout is handled by Stripe. Straight after, we email you a private link to your order page. There’s no account or password to remember; the link is how you get back in, and you can request a fresh one any time.

What you'll need:

Your recipe cards (up to 60)
A phone camera and a bright window
About a minute per card

Photograph and upload your cards

Snap each card with your phone and upload the photos to your order page. Add the back of a card if anything is written there.

On the same page you name the book, add your family name and a dedication, set up chapters, and drag the cards into the order you want. Your photos are stored privately and never shared.

Photo tips

Daylight, no flash. Flash makes glare on glossy cards.
Lay it flat on a plain table and shoot from straight above.
Fill the frame with the card, leaving a little border.
Stains are fine. They’re printed as they are, as part of the story.

We transcribe every card

An AI vision model reads each card and types it into a structured recipe: title, ingredients, method and notes.

Handwriting is hard, and AI makes mistakes. So we built the process around catching them: the model is told to flag any word it isn’t sure of rather than guess, and to mark anything it can’t read at all. Those words are highlighted on your proof. Your proof is usually ready within 24 hours, often much sooner.

Your photos are sent to our AI provider only to read your cards, under terms that don’t allow them to be used to train AI models.

House rules for the transcriber

Copy every word exactly as written, including her spelling and abbreviations.
Never add a step, an amount or an oven temperature that isn’t on the card.
If a word is hard to read, keep your best reading but mark it for the family to check.
If a word can’t be read at all, say so. Don’t guess.
Keep the notes in the margin. They’re often the best part.

You review and approve the proof

See every page of the finished book online, exactly as it will print.

Each recipe sits next to the photo of its card, with uncertain words highlighted. Click one to confirm or correct it. You can edit any line, move recipes between chapters, change the cover color, or remove a card. The Approve button only unlocks once every highlighted word has been checked.

Sample page showing the corn fritters card photo

Sample page with the corn fritters recipe typeset

We print and ship your book

Approved hardcovers are printed on demand by our print partner, Lulu, and shipped to US addresses.

Printing and standard shipping usually take around two weeks after you approve, longer in December. Extra copies can go to different addresses, so every sibling gets their own. Your digital PDF is ready to download as soon as you approve.

We keep your photos and book files for 90 days after delivery so we can help if anything goes wrong, then delete them.

Ready when you are.

Order now and upload whenever you’ve gathered the cards. Your private link stays valid, and you can always request a new one.

Start your book →or decode one card free