Recipe Card Décor

In my many estate sale hunts, I have come across several boxes of old and worn handwritten recipe cards. Whether you buy vintage recipe cards at sales or through online auctions - or should you be lucky enough to have them handed down to you - it’s always easy to tell the best recipes as they are the cards with the most stains. These little treasures not only give directions for wonderful homemade dishes, but they can also be fun decorative items for your kitchen with their years of yellowing or fading adding to their vintage charm.

When I used to sell antiques at a popular collective in town, my vintage recipe cards that were framed in checkerboard patterns always sold well. You can make these simply enough by sorting cards into piles of light and dark, then alternating them into a checkered pattern and framing.

Another fun idea is to make a decorative border above your counter backsplash or chair rail by adhering the cards in a strip along the wall. To do this, measure your area to cover and choose enough cards for that length, sorting by either recipe type or color. If you don’t want to use the actual cards, simply make color copies to use. Coat all cards or copies with a thin layer of decoupage glue and allow to dry. Then, using either spray adhesive or additional decoupage glue, begin pasting your cards to the wall, butting one up next to the other as you go. Be sure to smooth out bends and wrinkles. Once in place, paint over the entire border with the decoupage glue to seal the surface.

Using the same adhesive technique as the border, you can adhere cards in a checkerboard pattern to the fronts or insides of your cupboard doors, around the frame of a mirror, or even the seats of your kitchen chairs, trimming any excess once in place.

Another fun idea for these vintage recipe cards is to scan them individually or in a pattern and print them onto iron-on transfer paper. Transfer the images to white linen napkins or plain white cotton fabric and sew them into pillows or chair pads.