Must-Make: Framed Family Recipe with Photo (2024)

Today I bring youone of my all-time favorite gift ideas EVER!

The genius in this gift is that it has sentiment and thoughtfulness in spades but is shockingly easy to put together.This will be a gift for my mom that I know she will treasure as my “Nana” is no longer with us.You could easily knock several people off your gift list with this same idea in no time, especially with the free recipe card printable that’s 100% editable so you don’t have to worry about pretty handwriting.

Ready for the DIY?Read on for the full tutorial PLUS my Nana’s famous frozen pumpkin pie recipe.

The Project

First, a little back-story. As many of my posts do, this one started off with an inkling of an idea instead of a full-blown concept. I remembered stumbling upon a pretty cool print a while back that someone had made based on their mother’s famous soup recipe.

Step 1: Web search for inspiration

I knew I didn’t save it anywhere, so the first thing I did was a web search for “framed recipe”.Under a minute of quick scanning and I realized that all my results were a little too homemade looking. What had caught my attention with the inspiration project was the professional look of the hand-me-down recipe. So I tried search #2: “Family Recipe Print”.

I was instantly smitten with the look of a lot of these – definitely polished enough to be frame-worthy and gift-worthy. However, after checking out these results I came to a realization… to my great chagrin, I am NOT a graphic designer and I knew that my beginner typography skills were not going to yield this kind of result.

Furthermore, I wanted this project/tutorial to be something anyone could use to produce a great looking art piece.

Then I noticed that along with my results, there were also a number of blank recipe printables recommended on the right side of my screen. It came to me that the answer to this dilemma was to look for a really well designed, and preferably editable, recipe card instead of starting from scratch. Search #3: “editable recipe card”.Once these results hit my screen, I knew I was onto something. I quickly settled on this beauty from Love vs. Design. The vintage feel would go perfectly with an old black and white photo of Nana.

I opened up the link to download the editable file and got to work inputting my Nana’s famous frozen pumpkin pie recipe.

Step 2:Print and frame photo and recipe card

Now that I had the recipe, I needed to find a suitable photo of Nana to frame alongside it.I knew I had several saved somewhere on my computer.Sure enough, a little digging revealed several photos I forgot I had and I narrowed it down to a lovely shot of Nana with S.

The last step was to get it all behind glass. The plan was to print at home and then either have them custom framed or pick up a double frame, depending on what I could find and budget.It didn’t take long before I found a nice white frame with a double mat at our local frame shop – no need for custom framing. (Score!)

All that was left to do was to use a glue stick to mount my printed photo and recipe onto some colored card stock I knew my mom would like andI had the perfect gift for her. A lovely framed photo of her mom and my little girl alongside Nana’s famous frozen pumpkin pie recipe.

This gift is so versatile. You can focus on holiday recipes and use it as holiday decor or go for a classic dish and keep it hung on the kitchen or dining room wall all year long.

I may do this for my mother-in-law as well and have her mom actually write out one of her recipes on the card. I’m sure my mother-in-law would love a framed sample of her mother’s handwriting along with her recipe and a photo. Also, I’m thinking of making one frame based on each of the grandmas in our family – how amazing would it look to display a group of these frames with each of the family matriarchs featured on the dining room wall?

This is a present I’m sure anyone would enjoy but would be especially meaningful when done around a beloved family member who has passed away. It’s the perfect way to keep their spirit around during the holiday season. I really hope you try it!

And speaking of trying it – you’ve got to try this frozen pumpkin pie recipe. It’s a slice of pumpkin pie and a scoop of delicious ice cream all mixed into one and laced with gingersnap spice.

Here’s Nana’s famous frozen pumpkin pie recipe – my gift to you…

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups crushed gingersnaps cookies or graham crackers
• 1 tablespoon white sugar
• 1/4 cup melted butter
• 1 cup pumpkin puree
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 2 – 4 cups melted vanilla ice cream
• 2 cups frozen whipped topping thawed

Instructions

1. Combine 1 1/2 cups gingersnaps and 1 tablespoon sugar and stir in melted butter.
2. Press mixture into a 9 inch pie plate. Bake for 15 minutes at 300 degrees and allow to cool. Freeze for an hour.
3. Combine pumpkin, 1 cup sugar, salt, ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Stir and fold in whipped topping.
4. Take out crust from freezer and spread ice cream in an even layer in bottom (the amount of ice cream depends on how deep your dish is). Pour pumpkin mixture over ice cream.
5. Freeze at least 2 hours before serving.
6. Top with whipped topping and gingersnap cookies for a pretty presentation.

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