Have you ever seen your grandmother cook a favorite recipe by following along a handwritten recipe that's scratched out on a worn and faded index card, or on the back of something else? These are called heritage recipes, and scrapbooking is a great way to preserve these precious pieces of your family's past. They make great elements for your scrapbook pages. Whether they are on an index card or as part of a letter from a mother to a daughter or any other medium, heritage recipes and scrapbooking seem to go hand in hand. Many scrappers are finding unique and personal ways to incorporate these small but important parts of their family's history into their page layouts.



One of the reasons you might consider heritage recipes and scrapbooking together is that heritage recipes are usually handwritten. Unless you have saved letters or other personal items from your grandmother and great-grandmother, you may not have anything else in her handwriting. These pieces of her past are probably very important to you now, as you can really picture her as you glance over them. Handwriting is very personal and even personality can show through in a handwritten page. Heritage recipes and scrapbooking pages that you save them on can also be passed on from generation to generation. It's unlikely that our computer age will go in reverse so your daughters and granddaughters may not need to use these actual note cards themselves if they decide to try these recipes, but having them preserved in an album really gives them an honorable place in your family's legacy.

You can incorporate heirloom recipes into an album in many different ways. First, you could make a recipe scrapbook. Include only recipes in the album, and each page might reflect an individual recipe or maybe several recipes handed down by the same family member. Recipes can be used on individual page layouts in a traditional family album in many different ways. An obvious choice is including a recipe alongside a page about your grandmother. Holiday pages are opportunities to add a recipe page element. Recipe cards can be highlighted with a picture of your family having a Thanksgiving meal. Handwritten holiday cookie recipes make unique page elements for your Christmas layouts.

If you are going to incorporate heritage recipes in scrapbooking for your own family album, be sure to use the proper elements and embellishments for your pages. Most heritage recipes are very old, so consider giving your page an antique look and feel. Use worn and aged newspaper pages, or elements from the era in which this person lived. That might mean rotary dial phones, or even horse-drawn carriages. Anything and everything that is from that same time in history will really make your heritage recipes and scrapbooking pages seem as if they are pulled together and professional. Be sure that you also use the words and phrases as page accents that are appropriate for any type of recipes, such as "baked with love," or "warms the heart." By using all of these different tips and techniques, you will find that your heritage recipes from your grandmother or great-grandmother really have a place of honor in your family.