The Nostalgic Appeal of Recipe Cards

thecuriouskitchen.etsy.com

I love to cook and particularly love to bake. I am always jotting down a new recipe idea on scraps of paper or printing them out from Epicurious but when I find that a recipe becomes a favorite I love going through the ritual of writing it out on a fresh new recipe card and filing it away into one of my vintage recipe boxes. There is something so satisfying about it, as if I am giving it my stamp of approval. I know how much I treasure my Mother's recipe cards written in her own hand that stood the test of time. Mostly they are worn at the edges and stained from use but that gives them their charm and meaning. How sad it would be for future generation to miss out on that piece of history. I know I am not alone in this as there are many adorable recipe cards to be found especially on Etsy. I have also found some fun ones that are free to download from The Graphics Fairy, one of my favorite sites for vintage ephemera.

free recipe cards from The Graphics Fairy

I have used many existing recipe templates that I have downloaded over the years and recently decided to design some of my own. I started out with 6 images per set (2 of each)  from my each of my anthropomorphic food prints which are vintage inspired. I am offering them for sale in my Etsy shop The Curious Kitchen as they go along with their matching kitchen towels and prints. I thought photographing them in my kitchen along with some of my vintage recipe boxes would be appropriate. The one below even features the salt shaker I used for the print!

www.thecuriouskitchen.etsy.com

thecuriouskitchen.etsy.com

www.thecuriouskitchen.etsy.com

www.thecuriouskitchen.etsy.com

Here is a cute vintage Halloween Recipe Card that I found on Amy Barickman's blog:

vintage halloween recipe card

Here is one of several adorable Halloween Recipe Card Templates (despite the misspelling of cauldron...) over at The Peach Martini blog:

vintage halloween cat recipe card

Here is a particularly pretty Christmas Recipe Card that is for sale on Zazzle

vintage christmas recipe card

There are even  vintage cards complete with recipes available, these are from Regina's Studio on Etsy:

vintage recipe cards

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The Curious Kitchen

I am so excited to announce the opening of my new Etsy shop The Curious Kitchen!  I have  always had a soft spot for anything anthropomorphic and have been painting these retro illustrations inspired by my own collection of vintage collectibles for years. Since they are such a different style than the work in my Curious Portraits shop I decided to give them a spotlight all their own. The images here are from my archives but I am working on a new series of paintings to continue the tradition. Now I have so many more items in my collection to inspire me, I hardly know where to begin.