Thursday, December 9, 2010

Winter Wonderland Recipe Box


Somehow, in all the work craziness this week, I found the time to get a little scrappy fun in. They've been having a Christmas celebration over at the Webster's Pages forum. Every day this week they've been posting different holiday projects and encouraging their followers to create their own versions of the projects. When I saw Audrey and Jaz's projects, I knew I wanted a holiday recipe box too. I wanted to insert a link to their projects, but as usual, my computer does NOT want to cooperate. But you can copy and paste this link:

http://websterspages.ning.com/forum/topics/day-1-winter-wonderland-recipe

A few years back, Mom had gathered up all the recipes that she (and sometimes I) use to make our family's traditional holiday treats, like rum cake and fudge and chex mix. She had them all bound together and gave my sister and I each a copy. Well, my version is already stained with the chaos of my baking experiences. When I saw the adorable recipe box Jaz had made, I realized that it would be great to have a box like that to store a sturdier, more permanent version of each of the recipes. So that's exactly what I did.
Jaz used a metal fork on her box. I didn't have any forks to spare, but I liked the idea, so I took a plastic fork from one of my many takeout expeditions and painted it with white acrylic paint:

I inked up the jewels on a Prima branch to make them red enough to match the colors on the box (originally, they were a shade of pink that appears nowhere on the papers I used), and attached it to the fork with a bit of Webster's netting and attached a couple of crystals to the knot:

I also made this little chipboard gingerbread man. He's covered with WP paper that matches the paper I used on the sides of the box, and the title is from some WP alpha stickers that I inked with red to make them match the piece:

I loved the little window on Jaz's box, so I created one for myself, using some packaging from some Jenni Bowlin buttons. I just pulled the plastic capsule off the backing and then glued some WP paper around it to make the frame. I added glitter of different kinds to the edges, and then put it over top of a quote I cut out of a sheet of WP paper. The edges of the quote are darkened with ink to make it stand out more, and I covered the quote and a couple of other elements I'd cut out of WP paper with Stickles to give the project a bit of sparkle. It was at this point that I realized that my cats like Stickles even more than I do. There are about 6 bottles of Stickles that have been relocated. At least they left me one bottle of the Rock Candy color, although it's a mostly empty bottle. Stupid cats.

And here's a side view of the box where you can see the paper and trim I used to cover the sides of the box. You can also get a better idea of how the window was constructed:

I then proceeded to make my recipe cards. They're nothing fancy, just two layers of cardstock to make each one sturdy. I used my brand new WP stamps to add a little element to each of the cards, and then copied down one of Mom's recipes onto each one. Here's a few of them:

Now I'm off to continue working on some Christmas ornaments that I want to give as gifts, and maybe on some fancy gift tags (a la Webster's Pages). Have a great weekend everyone, and thanks for looking at my little recipe box.

2 comments:

Chris said...

Hey Robin,
Glad you have had some creative time. I am still waiting for some sausage balls from your mom :)
I sent you a private message on FB about Wiiliamsburg.
I love the Xmas background.

Faye said...

Wonderful stories of giving at the holidays....And, the photo of the tree lined streets covered in show is more beautiful than a postcard!!

Happy New Year to you~~~ Faye