After you've scanned and printed those old recipe cards into versions more suitable for everyday use, here's one way you can preserve the original: frame it! I love this collection of framed recipe cards. What a lovely grouping they make hanging all together on a kitchen wall!
This collection of framed recipes comes courtesy of the blog Me and Alice. As she writes, the handwritten recipes all belonged to her mother, who passed away 16 years ago. She calls it "Mom's wall." So simple and beautiful.
Do you have any framed recipes in your kitchen?
Related: Recipe Cards: Useful or Outdated?
(Images: Me and Alice)
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My mother has handwritten family recipe cards framed in her kitchen. I think she did it ~20 years ago. They have changed frames since then, but are still permanent fixtures in her kitchen. She has three frames: one with a recipe from her maternal grandmother, one with a recipe from her paternal grandmother, and one with a recipe from her mother and a recipe from her mother-in-law. The ones from her mother and mother-in-law were on index cards, so they fit nicely in one frame.
People always comment on them when they visit her home the first time and they are a lovely bit of nostalgia to have displayed all the time. :-)
This is a great idea!
It's a lovely idea, but calling it preservation is highly misleading. The paper of the cards will be damaged and degraded more quickly by the extra exposure to light.