Make Your Own Recipe Binder

Use these printables to create your own recipe binder. You can create a custom recipe binder for a child moving out on their own, as a gift for a new member of your family, or just to organize all of those recipes that you’ve printed and tried!

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #Sponsored #WhatMonthlyPain #CollectiveBias

My youngest daughter, Mary, is my biggest cheerleader. She has the most level head of any teenager I know. She’s smart, caring, loving, attentive, and a true joy to be around.

For example, last month was my birthday. There was a concert that I dearly wished to attend. A friend of mine and I were talking about going to it together. Finances were, as usual, a bit tight so I didn’t think I’d be able to attend. Unbeknownst to me, Mary told her siblings how much I wanted to attend. They all pooled their money to buy my ticket. When the friend that was supposed to attend the concert with me was not able to go, Mary told her siblings and they purchased a second ticket so that Mary could attend it with me so that I wasn’t alone. How sweet is this child of mine?!

We are homeschoolers and she is my youngest child at age 13. We’ve always been together, this is the first year that her older siblings are all graduated and working jobs, meaning many days are spent just the two of us. I know first-hand now how very quickly time passes. These four short years of high school will be over long before I’m ready.

Mary has inherited my love of cooking and crafting. Admittedly, my crafting time has been severely limited for too many years. But doing things together makes the effort of setting a craft up and actually doing it all the more appealing. Why is it, as Mamas, we will do things for our children that we won’t take the time to do for ourselves? Hmm . . .  

She’s chosen to try being a vegetarian for a month. Taking full responsibility for this choice, she is seeking out new recipes to try. I noticed that her recipes were written on scraps of paper and that she had no place to organize them. One thing about my Mary is that she likes things organized. (so much so that her sister pays her to clean her room for her!)

We also live far away from our family. This means that there is little time to spend in the kitchen with those special people. My own memories of being in the kitchen with my Mom and my Gram are so very dear to me. I have a few recipes from them written by hand. What treasures those pieces of paper are to me! 

 On a recent trip to Walmart, we “ended up” (said jokingly, as I LOVE the office supply section of stores!) in the office supply aisle. We picked out a 3-ring binder so that we could create a recipe binder!

There were many colors and sizes to choose from. Mary chose a white binder because she likes a clean look. And she can decorate the binder cover to be anything she desires. We went with a 1-1/2″ binder to not be too large and cumbersome.

When we finished our grocery shopping and perusing the office supply aisle, it was time to head to the pharmacy area. We have found a girl’s best friend for that time of the month and were running low.

As a young teen, her body and mind are experiencing changes nearly daily. One thing that Mary does not have to deal with is headaches, menstrual cramps, and back pain due to her monthly cycle. I am thrilled that, unlike her Mama, she can navigate this part of growing up pain-free.

Mary checks product labels almost as much as I do. Advil® Menstrual Pain helps her keep able to do the things she loves. We like that it is caffeine-free, antihistamine-free, and of course, easy-to-swallow. Being caffeine-free, it doesn’t keep her up at night so that’s she well-rested. With no antihistamines in them can cause daytime drowsiness, she’s not bogged down during the day. Most importantly, if used as directed, it is the #1 doctor recommended brand for menstrual pain and targets the cause of menstrual cramps & discomfort to relieve pain for up to 6 hours.

With Advil® Menstrual Pain and being aware of her body, Mary can honestly say each month, “What monthly pain?” We can do the activities we choose together, regardless of the time of the month. 

We set aside a day to create our recipe binder and are so very thrilled with the results! Consider making a special recipe binder with your teen! You’ll find a link to download and print all of the pages we used in our recipe binder below! There are 15 pages in all!

We printed the divider pages onto cardstock. Once they are laminated, they will be super durable!

To make tabs, we used a tab punch and cardstock. We cut the dividers down a touch in order to be able to laminate the tab onto the divider. 

To add a splash of color, Mary chose her favorite washi tapes. We added a strip of washi tape to hold the tab in place while laminating. 

To ensure that the tabs were lined up correctly, we punched out more blank tabs to use as guides. Since washi tape peels off of cardstock quite easily, we held the “dummy” tabs in place while working. Then slid the appropriate tab into place, pressing the tape down to adhere it. 

Ready for the laminator! (Mary’s first time using it and she now wants to laminate “all the things!”)

I have to admit, the laminator is one of my favorite office tools too!

We cut down the excess laminate with the rotary paper cutter, then used scissors to carefully cut around the tab. This way, we leave plenty of laminate to ensure the seal, but don’t have any bulky excess. 

All ready to assemble!

 Our finished product!

The tips section is filled with well, tips for cooking and baking. Mary will add to these as she needs to. 

So that your teen daughter can say “What monthly pain?” too, look for Advil® Menstrual Pain in your Walmart pharmacy. We find it on the bottom shelf at our local store.

I encourage you to make a recipe binder with your teen (and maybe one for yourself!) It’s fun to create together and just think of the special memories you’ll have of the day spent together. Each time she opens that recipe binder and sees your handwriting on the recipe cards, she will be reminded of this day.

With the holidays coming, now is the perfect time to create this binder and have those recipe pages on hand. Give the recipe cards to special people in her life so that she can cherish having their handwritten notes to her too.

Don’t forget your free printable pack to create this recipe binder! Enter your info below to subscribe to our weekly newsletter and access our free printables library.

I’d love to see your recipe binder photos! Share them with us on our Facebook page!