Back to School With HP & a Free Printable

Hey friends!  This week marks our first week back to school, and the beginning of the year is always a frenzy of shopping for school clothes, school supplies, and spending time getting ready for the new school year ahead, and this year has been no different!  This year, along with all of that other stuff I just mentioned, I am happy to report that we also got a new HP DeskJet 3636 Printer/Copier,Scanner! And I have to say I am so excited about it!  Why, you ask?  Well, I am embarrassed to admit that our family printer had been broken for almost a year, and we had never gotten around to replacing it.  Not having a printer in the house made life with two kids in school difficult.  I have a printer at work, and that is the only reason we were getting by without one, but it was super inconvenient.  After going so long without one, it feels like a luxury to have one back at home, and I can’t stop playing with it, it’s like a new toy!  Today I wanted to share some of the things I have been doing with my new printer, and tell you why I happen to love this particular one so much!  And for the very first time, I have a free printable for you that you can download and print out yourself, look for it at the bottom of this post!

I love to scour the Internet for fabulous free printable, and I have a Pinterest Board that you can follow if you would like, you will find all different types of things on this board that you can print right from your home.  For a while now, I have been wanting to learn how to create my own free printables that I could offer to you guys-my readers.  So this was the perfect opportunity for me to try. I decided to keep it simple for my first try and create one using a quote that I find inspirational for the beginning of the school year.  And the one I really loved was this- Life Begins at the End of Your Comfort Zone.  I think it is so important to stretch ourselves and try things that we aren’t sure if we can do.  I think that is what life and learning are all about, so I created this free chalkboard printable art that you can download (see link at the bottom of post)!  After I printed this out, I decided to hang it right above one of the shelves that hangs over our desk area.  I thought it was fitting to be able to see it right where we all work.  And as you can see, I hung it with some cute polka dotted washi tape.  

I think it turned out really cute, especially for my first try!  So if you enjoy this free printable, please let me know in the comments, because I would love to start offering these more often, and learn how to make more sophisticated ones.  

Have you noticed all of the super cute signs that people have been using lately to photograph their children on the first day of school?  Well you know I had to jump on that bandwagon, especially since I have been having so much fun playing with my new HP Printer!  I forgot to print out one of these the night before the first day, so I hurriedly printed one out the morning of with no problem whatsoever.  To me, that feels like a luxury because for the past year or so, I wasn’t able to do that.  

I also found some really cute printables for my kids to be able to use for back to school.  These can be used to make a student binder, and they are a great way to give your kids that extra boost to stay organized and ready for the school year.  It is also a great way to be able to help your kids and stay in touch with what is going on with their education.  You can spend a few minutes a couple of times a week to go through the binder with them, and everything you need to know about how they are doing and what they are doing in school is right at your fingertips!  These particular printables were created by Abby at Just A Girl And Her Blog.  

These printers are all new and you can find them at Walmart.  And just look at the price point, $49!  I was shocked at how affordable it is!  And it also comes in three cool colors- vibrant red, dragonfly blue ( the color of mine), and sporty purple.  At my local store, the blue was the only color on the shelves, but I have to say I think I would have been partial to the red one if I had the choice!  

I so very thankful to have received this printer to try, and it came at the perfect time to help us get organized for back to school!  I am so happy to finally have a working printer again in our home! And the best part about this printer is that it is wireless, so I printed out some of these printables I have shared today while sitting on the sofa in our living room!  That makes me very happy!  And my kids are super happy to have a printer again too, probably even more so than me.  Mr. 8 Year Old loves to use it to print out coloring sheets and art that he does on the computer, so he is having a lot of fun with it too.  And it sure will come in handy during the school year for Mr. 16 Year Old to print out the many papers he has to write throughout the year.  You can download this free printable by clicking below, and if you have any problems printing it our or downloading it, please let me know, because as I said above, this is my first time offering something of this sort on my blog.

Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I hope the rest of your week goes well!  Has school started yet in your neck of the woods?  I would love to know what types of things you utilize a printer for in your own home.  Do you use a printer for any different and interesting things than what I have mentioned here today?  Please tell me in the comments, I love your comments and read every single one!