Tutorial: Brown Paper Bag Recipe Cards
These easy and quick recipe cards were inspired by the Brown Paper Seed Packet Business Cards. I loved the idea of repurposing brown paper bags, but didn’t really need business cards. What I needed was recipe cards to fit in a new recipe box I got as a gift. I created a recipe card design and printed it onto pieces of brown paper bag. Two thicknesses of paper make these cards durable and allow for overflow directions on the back.
To make your own brown paper bag recipe cards follow these easy step by step instructions. Make a set of blank cards to give as a housewarming or wedding gift.
- Open brown paper bag along all seams and lay flat. If the wrinkles bother you then use a press cloth and iron them out. I leave my paper wrinkled because I think it adds character.
- Cut brown paper into 6.5″ x 8.5″ rectangles (sized for the PDF included in this tutorial).
- Download and open this PDF featuring my recipe card design (offered under Creative Commons Attribution license). Set print paper size to custom: 6.5″ x 8.5″. Set all print margins to 0. You may have to do a few test runs to get all the settings right.
- Insert brown paper into printer. For my printer I needed to insert the paper plain side down.
- Print PDF onto brown paper.
- Score and fold recipe card along the light grey line in the middle.
- Apply glue to one half of the back side of paper. Press two sides together.
- Use paper cutter or scissors to trim recipe card to the light grey lines on three raw edges.
Brown Paper Bag Recipe Card by Jackie Hernandez is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.
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These brown paper bag recipe notes are absolutely adorable! Thank you so much for the free PDF.
This is super cool – thank you for the tutorial!
This is just about the coolest thing that I have ever seen…I love to do recycle projects…these will be a great addition to my kitchen!! I just made 15 of them!
Was this done on an inkjet or a laser printer? I always thought regular grocery store brown paper bags weren’t supposed to be put through a laser printer due to the size of the paper and the texture (that’s what the HP rep told me anyway).
Cute idea, but I wonder why you’re not just using re-usable bags if you’re so concerned about recycling and the environment…
I lovelovelove this project. So cute. Great gift idea!
I like you idea and as for me i probably would make more creases in the paper after i print on it thank you
Nusato,
I actually printed these with a laser printer (a Samsung SCX-4500 to be exact). I did not have any trouble printing on the brown paper bags. Some of the wrinkles and texture of the paper left voids in the printing, but I liked the distressed look. If you want a crisp print or colors an inkjet printer would be better.
Briar,
I am doing my best, but on occasion I forget to put my reusable totes in the car or I don’t have enough to fit all the groceries. When I do bring home paper bags I alway try to find ways to reuse them or recycle them and that was the inspiration for this project.