This Christmas I decided to make most of the gifts I gave to my family and friends. I have tried this a few years ago, but I ended up getting too caught up with work and traveling to make that possible. This year, however, I was successful in making a number of gifts for people. For my brother I made a T-Shirt Quilt of many of his old shirts from when he was young.
My sister’s gifts were a little more complicated. She will soon be living on her own after college, and I thought it would be nice to give her an apron and recipe box to take with her to her new apartment. I love cooking (and making art!) and I thought this could be a fun addition to her kitchen, especially since she isn’t the most seasoned chef. I have a very good friend who is a wonderful chef, and I decided to make her a recipe box as well. The first recipe box fit cards that measured 6.25 x 4 inches, and the second box’s cards were 7 x 3 inches.
The box is a wooden box from an antique store in my hometown. The word “Recipe” was hand painted on each box by yours truly! The cards were designed digitally and printed on cardstock. When I print more cards, I will likely make the cards double sided and print them on a heavy-weight cardstock. These are nice, but double sided would be better and easier for writing long recipes.
This second box was for my good friend. The boxes were not the same shape or size (this one was wider, but not as tall as the other one) so I had to design two sets of cards and two sets of dividers. The overall designs are similar, but the layout of the cards are different.
The dividers are for general types of foods: appetizers, salads and soups, main course, desserts, etc. I also included some blank dividers to leave room for other interests. The recipe cards themselves have assorted designs, but they can be separated in to the different food types, ie: all the chevron-patterned cards could be for salads, whereas the design with fruits and jam jars could be for desserts.
Each box came with 20 recipe cards and 8 dividers. Keep your eyes open for these for sale in my Etsy Shop! I am still sourcing antique/vintage boxes to make in to new recipe boxes.
Page Redford 
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