Do you love cookbooks and recipes? Learn more about recipe scrapbooking in this post. I share with you why it’s useful as well as my vintage recipe scrapbook. Learn tips for creating your own using old cookbook clippings. Keep reading if you’re interested in scrapbooking your favorite cookbooks and recipes.

Recipe scrapbooking video

Watch the video:

What is a recipe scrapbook?

A recipe scrapbook is a collection of clippings of photos, recipes, captions, and tips from your favorite cookbooks and ephemera. Create your ultimate favorite cookbook by collaging your favorite parts of your favorite cookbooks.

Vintage cookbooks are ideal for this type of scrapbooking for several reasons:

Vintage cookbooks are often inexpensive and abundant on ebay and etsy
Vintage cookbooks are fun to look at
Vintage photos are often beautiful
Vintage recipes are often fun and great to use (or modify to make healthier like I do)

Because I love vintage recipes, I decided to make a vintage recipe scrapbook with my favorite recipes clipped from some of the most popular old cookbooks for sale at my local thrift store, or found online at ebay or etsy.

Most vintage recipes aren’t vegan, however that doesn’t stop me. I enjoy veganizing classic recipes. Here’s some of my favorite:

Why recipe scrapbooking is fun

There are many reasons to make a recipe scrapbook. Some reasons include:

Have a collection of favorite photos and recipes in one book
Compile classic recipes into one book for quick and easy reference
Declutter the bookshelf
Leave a collection of favorite recipes with notes to your children and grandchildren
Make an easy reference for your household
Something fun to do

Tour my recipe scrapbook

Below are photos of my scrapbook of old baking recipes. Most of my favorite recipes are from the 1950s Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book, as well as vintage Betty Crocker cookbooks, and recipe pamphlets. I made a baking recipe book because most recipes I love to use are for desserts and baking. Baking recipes are often the easiest to veganize as well.

10 recipe scrapbooking ideas

Here’s some ideas for making your own vintage cookbook scrapbook.

Old cookbooks

One of the best places to get scrapbooking materials for a vintage recipe book is vintage cookbooks. These can be purchased at your local thrift store, garage sale, or if you’re looking for a specific book, ebay or etsy.

Some popular vintage cookbooks on ebay are:

Recipe ephemera

Another idea is to add handwritten recipes to your book. I find these tucked inside of vintage cookbooks often from their original owner. I love to see what types of paper the recipes were written onto. Often times recipes will be written on ephemera such as receipts, letterhead, and similar.

Use cookbook binder tabs

Many old cookbooks were printed in binder format. These include popular cookbooks such as Better Homes and Gardens and Betty Crocker. These binders are great for sourcing scrapbook materials.

I like to use the chapter tab pages as tabs in my recipe scrapbook. I used binder tabs from a first edition Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook printed in 1953. The pink pages and fun illustrations are so fun to look at. They go great with the kraft background of my recipe book.

Baking recipes

The scrapbook I made recently was dedicated to baking recipes. I love updated old recipes with healthier ingredients, so I created a collection of recipes that I plan to veganize in the near future.

Dessert recipes

Dessert recipes are another favorite of mine. I love seeing all of the creative ways that homemakers prepared desserts back in the day. Often times I find very odd recipes, but also some that spark my imagination and get my creativity flowing.

Cake recipes

Cakes were probably one of the most popular types of recipes back in the day. Make sure to include some classic recipes for popular cakes including strawberry cake, chocolate cake, white fluffy cake, yellow cake, birthday cake and wedding cake.

Photos of cakes are some of the best scraps for recipe books. Try to resist drooling over these cake photos:

Pie recipes

One of the most fun additions to this type of scrapbook is pie recipes and photos. There’s something about a photo of a pie that can make a person start to drool at first sight. Make sure to include some vintage pie recipes to your book for good measure.

Here’s photos of my Pie section in the book:

Entertaining recipes and ideas

If you love entertaining, considering adding some fun vintage entertaining ideas. Some of the best tips I’ve found in cookbooks from the 1940s and 1950s.

Add photos of table settings, plated food displays, and party decor to your Entertaining section.

Beautiful photos

If you love the look of vintage cookbooks, make sure to include some beautiful photos of food and decor from your favorite era. I like to include beautiful food layouts, especially pies, cookies, and cakes. I also include photos of vintage kitchens that I think are fun.