Super cute bookmarks you can make with the kids
I’ve been in a “back to school” frame of mind lately and with that comes books. I love to read, but tend to save my reading days for these early days of Autumn and into the Winter. Give me a good book, a fuzzy blanket, a purring kitty and some tea and I’m in heaven.
With that in mind, I started playing around with some ideas I’ve seen on Pinterest and had in my own head for a while for paperclip bookmarks. They’re so simple to make and would make a great craft project for the kids. I used a hot glue gun to assemble these, but a low-temp version would work for the kids (with adult supervision of course) or, if you and the kids are patient, plain old Elmer’s will also work. You would just need to set them aside to dry for a longer period. I’d recommend over night. Since these start with paperclips, you can pretty much use what ever you want to decorate them. I literally just went through my (considerable) stash of embellishments to make the four styles shown here, but really the possibilities are endless.
Below is a quick explanation for four different sets of bookmarks along with a photo of each. I’ve also dropped the video tutorial in at the end of this post and of course you can also find it on my YouTube channel.
This first set is just paperclips, a couple pieces of ribbon and buttons. I cut the ribbon into 5-6 inch pieces and allowed two pieces per clip. Assembly is easy; you just fold both pieces of ribbon in half, hold the ends together and feed them through the end of the paper clip. Then you feed the ends through the loop and tug the ends to tighten. You should have a nice flat side where the ribbon loop stops on the clip. The other side is less “pretty”. Add a spot more glue on the less pretty side and add a coordinating button.* My buttons are approximately 5/8 – 3/4 inch in diameter.
*Note: I added the buttons after I wrapped up the video. If you watch the video you will see I had left these as they were, but the ribbon wanted to slip a bit too much for my taste, so I glued some coordinating buttons on the back side.
The second set is decorated with some pretty paper roses that I had. I originally found these at Michael’s years ago, but you can still find them I think. Look in their sticker and embellishment section or in those bins near the checkout. You could also just pull the flowers off a floral stem if you have some of those on hand.
For the backing on these, I punched out 4 circles (1-1/4 inch) of deep red cardstock to compliment the flowers. The backing is necessary because you want something to sandwich the paperclips between for stability and to hide the glue. This “rule” applies for the next two styles as well.
These felt flowers have been sitting in a plastic container for many moons so I’m happy they are finally seeing the light of day, and for such a cute project to boot! Whoohoo! For these, I layered together several flowers in different colors and sizes. The gems in the centers have an adhesive back that works great when you are sticking them to paper, but on the felt, I wasn’t confident they would last long term, so I added a dab of glue to make sure they stayed put.
Also, the green one, which you will note is now assembled correctly, was fixed post video. Getting that little bugger apart without completely destroying the flowers was a challenge but I prevailed! Hooray! This is where I drop in another reminder to make sure (especially if you are using hot glue) that you glue down the correct end of the clip. They don’t clip so good when you glue the two loop ends together. Just sayin’! Anyway, aren’t they cute? i think these might be my favorites out of all of them. Well, maybe… I kinda like the next (and last) four too.
These little tin buttons are from an October Afternoon theme called 9-to-5. I picked them up at an October Afternoon warehouse sale ages ago and, like much of my craft supplies, hoarded them until this week. I think I need therapy to be honest. The sheer amount of craft supplies at my disposal is more than a little ridiculous, but such is the life of the crafter right? Anywhoo, the buttons are backed with coordinating colors of cardstock also punched with the 1-1/4 inch circle punch. As luck would have it, it was just the right size for the buttons and look how cute they are! Wouldn’t they be perfect for clipping some “important” documents together? I think yes. 🙂
And finally, here is the video tutorial all queued up and ready to go. Enjoy!
I hope you’ll give them a try and let me know how they turn out.
Happy crafting, and be sure to pop back in on Friday for another recipe favorite in the Sacrison house. Mom’s lasagne!
