Nan's Recipe Kitchen Art

Make personal art for your kitchen using old handwritten recipes.

My maternal grandma, Pearl was a great cook, she had been a kitchen maid and then a cook in a grand house in her young days - think Daisy then Mrs Patmore in Downton Abbey. She gave that up when she married my granddad but still loved to cook, always making everything from scratch. I have a few cookbooks that belonged to my mum and tucked inside I found a few recipes handwritten by my nan.

This one is a recipe for apple cake and I can remember my nan baking this for us. It was delicious. I thought it would be nice to conserve this little bit of family history so I turned my nan's recipe into art to go on the wall in our kitchen. I first shared this idea almost 2 years ago on The Pinning Mama when I was a guest contributor there and this art has been on the wall in our kitchen ever since. As I dusted it the other day I thought it was high time I shared it with you all here.

To make a similar piece of art for your kitchen you will need: A box frame, mine was a 23cm x 23cm Ribba from Ikea A handwritten recipe (ideally you want one from your own family of course but if you don't have one you are welcome to use my nan's - she would have been delighted! Just right click on the picture of it above and then save it on your computer) Coloured card Plastic cutlery Glue for paper - I used a pritt stick Strong PVA glue or hot glue gun Access to a scanner and colour printer

First you want to copy your recipe. We are not cutting up and glueing onto a precious handwritten bit of family memorabilia! Scan, enlarging if necessary and print your recipe - or photocopy in colour, again enlarging if needed. Now cut it to a 20cm x 20cm square. Cut your coloured card to fit exactly inside your box frame.

Mount the recipe copy onto the coloured card with the paper glue. Using the strong pva or hot glue gun, attach the plastic cutlery to the recipe in a pleasing arrangement. I wasn't going to set the world alight with this 'lined up' thing but I like it simple. You can be more adventurous if you want! I used pva and held the cutlery in place by putting mugs on top until the glue set. Pop the art into the box frame and Ta-dah you are finished. It's ready to hang.

A pretty and personal piece of art for your kitchen, or dining room, or any other space you like to eat I guess.