Back to School Printable Binder

Back to school is right around the corner, and I don’t know about you, but I am so ready to go back to a normal, scheduled routine. As much as I love the lazy days of summer, I need schedules and order in my days. Back to school helps me do just that.

The beginning of a new school year means more papers coming into the house and piling up on a desk. That’s a no-no for me. So, each year, I create a school binder with separator tabs to keep all that paperwork under control.

A binder, not only a school binder, is a great way to access important information quickly while keeping it all neatly filed and organized in one place. This year, I decided to create a printable and editable edition and share it with you.

Get ready to get all those school papers in order with this back-to-school printable binder. This 20-page binder is editable to suit your needs, and it comes in two designs: green chevron and rainbow chevron.

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Use an Affordable Color Printer

This back-to-school binder is free to download; you can customize it to fit your needs, and putting it together is a breeze.

I used the HP DeskJet 2636 All-In-One Printer to print the binder. This is HP’s most affordable wireless all-in-one printer to date. It’s small, lightweight, sleek, and overall beautiful. Yes, a beautiful printer that does not look like an eyesore on your desk!

I picked up the printer at Walmart. It comes in three stunning colors: Gelato, Atlantic Blue, and Dark Sienna. I was very indecisive about which color to choose, but Gelato matched my office decor best.

Tip: You can hover over the picture below to purchase the printer!

This is a NEW Limited Edition Walmart Exclusive printer, so if you want it, go to your local Walmart this back-to-school season. Once in Walmart, look for the printer in the store’s electronics section. I found them all lined up above the printer’s ink cabinet.

Original ink is included in the printer’s box, but I picked up an extra HP Original Ink Combo Pack. I could not believe how affordable the printer was, and the ink was very inexpensive too!

With Original HP Ink Combo Packs, you save time and money as opposed to buying ink cartridges separately.

Most people have printers at home, but once they run out of ink, they think twice about buying original ink refills because they can be so expensive. But not with the HP DeskJet 2636 All-in-One Printer. This is definitely the printer every mom should have for back to school. Take it from me, a person that prints several color pages daily.

With Original HP high-yield ink cartridges, you can print up to twice as many pages. The color output is beautiful, and you will get high-quality prints.

You are going to love your printable back-to-school binder once it is all assembled. And you are going to love it even more once you start organizing all those school papers 🙂

Create Your Back To School Printable Binder

Tools and Materials You Will Need

Here is a step-by-step tutorial on how to create your back-to-school binder.

• Color printer. For this project, I used the HP DeskJet 2636 All-In-One Printer, find this limited edition in fun colors at your local Walmart.
• White cardstock paper, US letter size.
• Binder dividers – I used an 8-tab divider, but you can use as many dividers you need.
• Strong bond tape runner
• Paper slicer or scissors. For precise and fast cuts, I prefer using the paper slicer.
• 3-ring binder with transparent plastic overlay – I prefer 3-inch binders, but any size works.
• Back to School Printable Binder. You can find both versions of the binder in our library of printables under the DIY section.

1. Download the Free Printable File

Download the binder of your choice and make the necessary edits. Some pages like the cover, the spine, and inserts, are editable, which means you can customize them to fit your needs.

2. Set Up Your Printer and Print

Setting up the HP DeskJet 2636 All-In-One Printer is hassle-free. The printer is particularly designed for easy printing from various smartphones and tablets. But you can print wirelessly from a desktop or laptop, too. It’s like having a printer on the cloud!

Once you plug in the printer (a power cord is included in the box), download the HP Smart App to your smartphone and get connected to start printing. The app will walk you through the steps.

One of my favorite features is that I can scan and print on the go. The printer has its own email address, and you can send anything to print by sending the file to that email address. So cool!

Recommended Pages to Print

1. Front cover: customize it with your child’s name, school name, grade, year, etc.
2. Spine: the file includes prefilled spines with grades K-12, but there’s a blank set of editable spines.
3. Dividers: print the generic ones included or create your own using the blank page provided.
4. School Year Mementos page: print this page as is and handwrite on it. Or, you can fill it out on your computer and then print it.

3. Trim the Paper

I prefer using a paper slicer for this step, but if you don’t have one, craft scissors work just as well.

Trim the spines to fit the spine of your binder. If you have a thinner binder, there’s enough room for you to trim until it fits (2″, 1.5″ or 1″ binders).

Insert the spine inside the binder as shown.

Trim the white edges off the divider sheets.

Your trimmed page will be slightly smaller than 8.5×11 and will fit nicely over the divider tab pages.

4. Sort The Divider Sheets

Sort your divider sheets in the order you want them to be inside the binder. Assign a tab divider page to each one.

For example, I like the first divider on my binder to be the school calendar and events. So, keep in mind the way you would like to organize the pages.

5. Attach the sheets to the tab Dividers

Using the tape runner, run 4 lines of tape around all four edges on the back of each divider page.

Align the trimmed sheet with the border of the tab dividers, and press until it’s fully attached.

And your custom dividers are done and ready to fill your binder.

I hope this project inspires you to get organized for back to school. And if you’d like one of these beautiful HP printers, don’t forget they are Limited Edition and sold exclusively at Walmart.

How do you keep school papers organized?

happy organizing, Flavia