Recipe Holder Handmade Project
In this project we are making a recipe holder from brown lunch bags. The project is not very expensive unless you have to go out and purchase all of your supplies new.
One of the great things about this type of projects is the ability to change it up. It can be very diverse. You can use any color scheme you have on hand, embellishments for decorating, etc.. One thing I recommend before starting, use a glue like Fabri-Tac that will glue and set fast and be flexible.
I tried standard rub on school glue but it did not hold very well. The Fabr-Tac worked wonderful and you do not have to use a lot of it to glue your paper down.
Brown Lunch Bags
As we stated this recipe holder project is going to be made from brown bags. The kind kids used to take their lunch to school in.
We purchased the bags with this project in mind but we already had everything else we needed from all of our purchasing at flea markets, yard sales, auctions, etc over the last few years. Oh, I almost forgot, I purchased the ribbon at the Dollar Tree and the Fabri-Tac at Wal-Mart for this project.
So, I guess this initial project has cost us, $11.00 in those three items but we will be able to make several holders so the cost will be distributed out as we make more. Again, to keep our cost down on the projects we make here, we purchase either in bulk or at yard sales, auctions, or flea markets.
To begin the project, you will need 6 bags. As you look at how the bags are packaged with the bottoms folded against the sides, they will be left in that position for the project. They are pre folded for this! Isn't that great?
To start the project, you will glue two of each or the 6 bags together to make 3 sets. See the photo below to see how we did ours.
After gluing three of these sets, you will allow them to dry well then you can attach the sets together. You will glue the long flat sided together and end up with one large bag with 6 pockets.
Cover the flat area well with glue in a crisscross pattern and around the edges, then press another on on top of the glued one. You will end up with 3 sets of these. We have a compete video on how we did this at the bottom of this article. You may want to refer to it for some pointers as you work on this recipe holder project.
The next thing you will do is, measure the long flat sides and cut your paper to cover them and then glue those on!
We used different colors and patterns for our pages. We have lots of this we picked up over the last year or so and it was fun trying to figure out which ones to use. We basically chose the red and green colors and patterns to work with. After gluing the large pieces to the paper to the pages we began to work on the smaller inside parts. By the way, this is all card stock thickness paper. Standard writing paper would not do well with a project of this nature.
After cutting the smaller inside pieces to fit, we glued them in and then wrapped the edges with Washi Tape. It is not necessary to wrap the edges with tape, we just liked the look. The next thing to do after this is to add your pockets for your recipes, tags, and other trinkets to fit into.
We used the scrap paper that was left after we cut the larger pieces to do this with. There was enough left so we did not have to cut into another new piece of paper. That is always a good thing! We like using u all the scrap paper when we can. We also put back any paper left over for other projects. You never know when a piece will fit something else!
There are all kinds of stuff you can embellish these pages with but you will need some recipe cards to use in the project as it is a Recipe Holder! These bags will hold the larger cards also. You can punch the ends of the cards and use jute string to tie strings on the end or use tape or glue ribbon or just use your imagination for this part. We used tape on ours. There really is no wrong or right method for this part.
The following photos contain the way we made the pockets and how the recipes are incorporated into the holder.
As you can see, we used, washi tape, paper strips and ribbon to make bands to put recipe cards under. We used the scrap paper to make the pockets with. We also use some peel and stick items and pre-cut paper items we glued to some of the bands. The pockets will hold all kinds of recipe cards. I would assume this holder could hold, 100 cards or more.
You can always put your cards inside the pockets and replace them with note cards to keep your thoughts on.
We covered all of the seams with paper and tape or ribbon. The finished project has ribbon glued into the inside of each of the front and back pockets. This allows for secure tying so your recipes do not fall out.
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The only think I would change the next time I make one of these is the heel or back end of the bags where I wrapped the paper around it. Instead of mashing it together, I would allow it to stay wider and make my paper flat on the bottom instead of in a "U" shape like in the picture below. I would have made this piece I wrapped the end with square shaped instead or rounded! This would allow the end to expand and look a little more natural also!
If you have any questions or suggestions concerning our Recipe Holder Handmade project, please feel free to leave a comment here or on our Youtube Channel. We have included the video of us making this below. Enjoy!
Don't forget our other handmade projects here on the website. Lots of stuff to do and enjoy in our Tips & Tricks section also.
