About a week ago I shared a photo on my Instagram account of the file folder bins I was setting up for our girls. Today, I am here to share what these portfolio bins are going to be used for, what products I used, and how to make a nameplate for them. We will be starting Kindergarten for our oldest next month, and by having these portfolio bins ready to go now there is one less thing I will have to put together later when we are in school mode.
Our Homeschool Portfolio Bins
My plan for these bins is to keep samples of our daughters’ work throughout their schooling. These samples will include work they have done at the beginning, middle, and end of the school year to show their progress in the different areas we cover. It will also include any special projects, outstanding work, lists of books they have read, and more I’m sure. Anything that is too big to fit in the folders will either be stored elsewhere or photographed and documented to be placed in the folder.
Our folders are completely empty right now since we are just getting started with this adventure. But, I did start labeling the folders with each school year and have plenty of blank folders at the back to add other categories as the girls grow. I’m thinking the blank folders will get labels based on the different activities they get involved in over the coming years. It will be a place to document what they do and to save any certificates or awards they may earn.
It didn’t take much to get these bins set up. All you really need is a file folder bin and a pack of hanging file folders for each kid. I got our bins at the local office supply store. The hanging file folders were ordered from Amazon. I wanted purple ones because that is the color we use for our homeschool binders, but there are a few other color options to choose from. The box of hanging file folders contains 25 folders, which I felt was a good number to have so that there is a folder for each school year and plenty of extra folders for other categories. If I need to further divide things within a particular hanging file folder, I will use regular manila file folders (these are center tab position folders, but there are other options available) to do so.
Now to the fun part…making the nameplates!
Making the Nameplates
I began by looking through my stash of retired papers and picked a pattern of Designer Series Paper (DSP) that I had plenty of to make two nameplates. I then picked out some colored cardstock that coordinated with the DSP. While going through my stash, I found some colored Glimmer Paper that works well with the DSP color to use for the letters.
Using the Large Letters Framelits Dies, I cut out the letters from the Glimmer Paper and placed them on the Lemon Lime Twist cardstock to determine what size to cut it. The Lemon Lime Twist cardstock is cut to 3″ x 6″ (depending on the length of the name you may need to go longer than 6″ which would also adjust the other paper sizes). The next layer is a 3-1/4″ x 6-1/4″ piece of Island Indigo cardstock, and the DSP layer is 4-3/4″ x 7-3/4″. Before adhering anything together, I stamped on the Lemon Lime Twist cardstock with the swirl image from the Swirly Bird stamp set in Lemon Lime Twist ink multiple times. When all the pieces are ready, glue the letters to the top layer. Then adhere that piece to the next layer, and finally to the DSP layer.
I decided to laminate our nameplates before taping them into the bins. This is the laminator I have and the four layers of paper inside the laminating pouch fit through the machine just fine, though I don’t recommend going much thicker with the papers if you want to laminate it.
Our homeschool portfolio bins are ready to go and I can’t wait to start filling them with the things our girls accomplish. I also can’t wait for our curriculum to get in! Once we get everything for that together I will share a post of what we will be using for this upcoming school year.
Product List
Links by TheseAreMyStamps.com
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