Recipe Box

Today, one of my dear friends (and SU! customers), Camilla, is getting married. I really didn't think I could be boring and go to Target to buy what's actually on her registry (although that is what I wish more people had done for my wedding last summer... :-) ), so I set out a few days ago to find the perfect stamping project to make for her. I came across several posts on SUDSOL raving about these stationary boxes, originally designed by Jackie Topa (see her blog for the original Stationary Box). I really liked the idea of these boxes, but I wasn't sure that such a box would work best for a wedding gift.

So I started thinking about all of the cool gifts I got for my wedding, and remembered that one of my favorite gifts was a Recipe Box from my mom. She spent weeks making 6" x 6" scrapbook pages that had recipes on them. Instead of putting them in an album, she decorated this cute box and put them all inside (it looked much prettier when she gave it to me--it has been well-loved!).



I have also LOVED the recipe box pictured on page 105 of the SU! Spring/Summer 2008 Collection ever since I first saw the new catalog. Then it hit me! I decided I would alter Jackie's original idea and make a Recipe Box inspired by both the gift from my mom and the SU! catalog recipe box! Perfect!

Here is a picture of the box:



Then once you open it, it unfolds:



Jackie's Stationary Box had a pad of paper, a pen and an envelope for stamps on the inside cover. I didn't think any of those necessarily went with a Recipe Box, so I decided to put a nice chart of common kitchen conversions. I'm always wishing I had one of these in my kitchen to glance at instead of having to go to the internet to look it up every time!



The little flower borders I stamped in Old Olive ink, then colored in a few of the flowers with a Versa-marker. It really added a nice touch.

I included a few of my husband and my favorite recipes. I printed them out on River Rock card stock and mounted on Old Olive. I then placed each recipe inside one of Stampin' Up!'s clear envelopes to protect them. I get really messy when I cook, so I figured a little extra protection wouldn't hurt :-)



I then made dividers from the white cardboard that comes at the back of each pack of Designer Series paper. They're the perfect weight to make a nice divider. I really liked the tabs SU! used in their Recipe Box, but since I didn't have the "From the Kitchen of" set, I kinda copied the general idea of the stamps and printed them from the computer on Old Olive card stock. I punched them out with a 1-1/4" circle punch and mounted on 1-3/8" circles of River Rock card stock. I then mounted these circles on the middles of some old On Board chipboard flowers I had lying around.







I had a blast making this box! If you want the pattern for the box, visit Jackie Topa's blog. I altered it a little to fit what I needed, so if you need help with that let me know!

Stamp Set: Embrace Life
Colors: River Rock, Old Olive, Whisper White

Happy Stamping!
-Cari