How to make a Recipe Binder

Learn how to make a Recipe Binder to store your favorite recipes that you have printed and collected throughout the years. It’s a DIY personalized recipe binder that is categorized to help find your favorite recipes quickly and easily. 

Recipe Binder

A few years ago I made myself a DIY recipe binder. It seems like it was only a few years ago, but it was in fact over 10 years ago. Goodness time flies by. Anyways… The binder was so useful that I made some for my mom and my sisters too.

I still use my recipe binder to this day! The binder itself is pretty banged up and could use a little upgrade. Just a question of getting a new binder and inserting my recipe cover page and its content inside. Super quick and easy!

My daughter Gabrielle has been asking me for a while now to make her own recipe binder. What better time than now since she is living on her own attending College!

Well I am at it, I’ll make one for Emanuelle and a new one for myself (I’m running out of space in mine).

How to make a Recipe Binder 

Supplies:

• Binder with clear cover and spine (View binder)
• Scrapbook paper (various patterns that coordinate) 3x
• Colored cardstock 5x
• File folder tabs 5x (writable and repositionable)
• Sheet protectors (as many as you would like, I would suggest at least 50)
• Printable matte photo paper (optional)
• Decorative sticky labels (optional) 6x
• Glue stick
• Permanent marker (color of your choice)

Tools:

• Ruler
• Scissors
• Paper cutter (optional)

Instructions:

Step 1: Select three scrapbook papers that you’d like to use to decorate the front of your binder. Ideally scrapbook papers that coordinate nicely with the binder.

Step 2: Using a paper cutter or scissors cut the scrapbook papers down to desired size to fit inside the binder cover.

Step 3: Glue scrapbook papers together.

Step 4: Make a cute personalized label to glue onto the center of the recipe book cover page you just made. You can use a sticking label and use a permanent marker.

Or do like I did and use Canva to create your own, print, cut, and glue.

Step 5: Insert it into the front of the binder cover.

Step 6: Using the same method as step 4, create labels for each recipe category. I created mine using Canva. 

These are the recipe categories I used:

• Appetizers – Bread
• Soups – Salads
• Veggies – Side Dishes
• Pasta – Main Dishes
• Desserts

Step 7: Make inserts for 5 sheet protectors by using colored cardstock and scrapbook paper. As simple as cutting and gluing together. These inserts will be used as the dividers to organize the different recipe categories in the binder. (You may need to make more if you want more sections in your binder.) Glue the labels you made onto each insert.

Step 8: Insert them into sheet protectors.

Step 9: Write the different recipe categories on file folder tabs using a permanent marker. Then attach them onto the sheet protectors.

Step 10: If you’d like you can also customize the spine of the binder by inserting scrapbook paper with a personalized label.

Step 11: Place your favorite recipes inside the recipe binder by inserting them in a sheet protector within the proper recipe category. 

Personalized Binder to store Recipes

I just love how Gabrielle’s recipe binder turned out! I haven’t quite finished Emanuelle’s and my binder, but as soon as they are done I will shared them with you!

How do you store your favorite recipes? I hope this tutorial has inspired you to make your own binder to store your recipes! P.S. They make great gifts too!

Have a wonderful day!
Christine