Grandma Beck's Recipe Book

[ionracas.livejournal.com]

When I was home a couple of years ago, I was at my Grandpa's house and found my Grandma's cookbook, the one she copied all her recipes into. It seems when my family divvied up all her things, they didn't think this was worth taking. I treasure it, there are 60 years of recipes in it, all the clippings she hoarded, recipes she found important enough to type out, and lots in her own handwriting. All my favourites are in there, her ribbon jello, her hedgehogs, her German potato salad.

However, through the decades of use, the black binder that she used had fallen asunder, the front and back covers had come right off. I could have tried to find another binder like it, but that wouldn't really be my style...





These pictures came out a bit blurred, sorry about that...

I glued a piece of black muslin over the spine, to hold the front and back covers on. Then I glued scraps from a vintage cookery book all over, inside and out. I added a vintage advertisement on the front, and hand stamped and coloured the label, and I hand wrote little lists and notes in the margins. I used about a dozen coats of varnish, sanded and antiqued halfway through. The varnished paper is flexible and leathery, and wipes clean!





The back has a pocket!


I was so impressed with myself, I decoupaged a matching recipe box, that I got at a flea market for fifty cents.







The best part is that my Grandma is the one who taught and encouraged my interest in crafts, and in cooking, to begin with. She would have loved these.


*x-posted*