Kitchen Art Using Vintage Recipes - Sweet Pea (2024)

February 13, 2018September 17, 2018

Recipe cards are becoming a thing of the past. We now look online for a recipe rather than in a cookbook or in a recipe file. I love looking at vintage recipe cards for meal ideas and particularly enjoy the card if the handwriting is a relative’s.

At Christmas my friend, Richella, from Imparting Grace made a Christmas ornament using a copy of one of her mom’s handwritten recipes. I loved this idea and today’s project was inspired by Richella’s ornament.

Rather than make a Christmas ornament using family recipe cards, I created mini kitchen art. All of the projects that I’m sharing today will be gifts for my mom, aunts, and cousins. I hope that they love this project as much as I do!

How to Make Kitchen Art Using Vintage Recipes

Locate Recipes

For this project I looked through my mom’s recipes to find a few in my grandmother’s handwriting. I was thrilled to find Granny Wood’s Sugar Cookies because that was a treat that Granny made for us from time to time when we visited on Sunday afternoons. I also wanted a recipe in Granny’s sister Frances’ handwriting so that I could make a gift for her granddaughter, Katie. I found a recipe card for Unbaked Oatmeal Cookies that Frances dated 11/28/77.

Scan and Photocopy Recipes

I then scanned the recipes into my computer and printed them on cardstock.

Prepare Craft Boards

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I had several DIY Weathered Wood Craft Boards from Oriental Trading on hand that I used for this project. I used one of these boards for the DIY Button Heart that a shared a few weeks ago. After examining the craft boards, I noticed that the paint job on several of them was poor, so I covered the boards with paint flaws with scrapbook paper using Mod Podge.

To cover the boards with scrapbook paper, first cut the paper to the size of the board, then brush the board with a thin coat of Mod Podge, then apply the scrapbook paper.

For this project I also used Unfinished Wood Rectangular Plaques from Oriental Trading. I stained the wood with Minwax Wood Finish in Weathered Oak.

Glue Recipe Copies to Craft Boards

After the craft boards were prepared, I cut out the recipes and used Mod Podge to glue them to the boards. When the boards were dry, I added a topcoat of Mod Podge as a sealer.

Attach Hangers

Attach a hanger to the back of each craft board. I had to glue the hangers to the craft boards but was able to easily nail the hangers into the wood plaques.

Display and Enjoy

When I share vintage things that I inherited from my grandmother, I’m almost always referring to my paternal grandmother. I have many of her handwritten recipe cards but did not use any of them for this project.

Granny Wood is my maternal grandmother. Most of her grandchildren called her Granny Wood to differentiate between their maternal and paternal grandmothers. Some of my childhood friends who knew Granny from church and who used to visit her with me even called her Granny Wood. Granny Wood was a good country cook who made biscuits three times a day and even baked them in a wood burning cook stove in the winter. My cousin now lives in her house and still uses the same wood burning cook stove her kitchen.

Here is my sweet Granny Wood in the 1980’s holding my cat, Miss Prissy.

Granny Wood’s sugar cookies were so good. I hope that her recipe made into kitchen art will be a gift that my aunts and mom will enjoy receiving.

I don’t remember Granny Wood making Peanut Butter Cookies but she probably did so when I was not around. I would recognize Granny’s handwriting anywhere.

Granny’s sister Frances was also a very good cook. She made the best pecan pie and never shared that recipe with anyone. I hope that her granddaughter, Katie, has it so that that recipe isn’t gone forever. Frances also made the best brownies. I will send this kitchen art to Katie and I hope that she loves displaying it in her kitchen.

Katie recently posted this picture of Frances on Facebook.

I also made a gift to send to my sister-in-law. My mother-in-law had beautiful handwriting. When I asked my father-in-law for one of her recipes to use for this project, we couldn’t find many. I’m hoping that my sister-in-law has them as I know at one time she had a card file full of them.

Ruth was an avid reader and enjoyed mysteries by Diane Mott Davidson. Ruth copied this recipe from Killer Pancake.

Here are my in-laws, Rich and Ruth. We all miss Ruth so much.

It was fun to create kitchen art using vintage recipes to give as gifts to my family. If you have some vintage recipe cards that you’d like to display, consider this easy craft.