I made a bookmark for my daughter’s friend, Simone’s birthday. She works in a biology lab in college and catalogues beetles, so used a beetle theme.

Materials:

• 2 1/2 inch X 9 inch piece of thick watercolor paper
• Pencil
• Ruler
• Black Sharpie Pen
• Glue Stick
• Watercolor paints
• Stickers of insects of your choice or photo cutouts from a magazine or calendar
• Decorative paper or calendar page for backside of bookmark
• Beading wire
• Beads of your choice (I used seed beads and one turquoise bead, one special glass bead at the top)
• Crimping Beads
• Crimper
• Laminator (I went to Fed Ex Copy Center for this)
• Hole Punch

How to make your bookmark:

• Draw a 1/2 inch border around the front of the bookmark with a pencil
• Paint the person’s name inside the bookmark. I chose to divide the space evenly by six for the number of letters in the name.
• Paint the background with watercolor paints.
• Draw letters of the name with pencil and color them with the Sharpie pen. I copied a font I found on line.
• Cut out the insect shapes or use stickers and glue down along the border.
• Cut out coordinating decorative sheet the size of the bookmark and glue to back.
• Take your bookmark to a laminator.
• Laminate and trim.
• Use hole punch to punch hole at the top.
• Seal bead wire with a crimp bead and add beads of your choice.
• Loop top of string through punch hole and seal with a crimping bead.

Making a bookmark is fun and easy to do! And bookmarks make great gifts for every reader in your life.

Here is one I just made for a friend’s birthday. Notice – it is not perfectly rectangular. How cool is that? Who ever said a bookmark must be boring?!

Here’s what you need:

• Sheet of watercolor paper (preferably on a block so it does not wrinkle)
• Watercolor pencils or paints
• Pencil
• Black Sharpie
• Ruler
• Hole puncher
• Assorted beads of your choice (I used glass and turquoise)
• Bead stringing wire
• Crimping  beads
• Crimper
• Small key ring to attach string of beads to bookmark

Directions:

• Draw a basic rectangular shape on watercolor paper with pencil. I made mine rather large – 2.5 inches wide by 8 inches tall.
• Sketch out the design of your choice also with pencil. Go ahead a draw outside the lines as I did. Use a coloring book or clipart if you need inspiration. Ideas: Make a design using the person’s name you are giving the bookmark to; Choose a theme for the recipient’s favorite genre of books; make the bookmark look like a book!
• Use your watercolor pencils or paints as you wish. Do not use heavy amounts of water, as this will wrinkle the paper. Bold, saturated color looks best for this project.
• After it is completely dry, outline your design with a black Sharpie to really make it stand out.
• Cut along the edges of your bookmark carefully in the shape you want it.
• Take it to a copy shop that has a laminator, and laminate it.
• Cut around the edges to get rid of the excess laminated plastic. leave abut a 1/8 border around the entire piece.
• Punch a hole at the top of  the finished bookmark to hang your beads.
• Cut a long strand of stringing wire.
• Choose the beads and the order in which you want to string them. A variety of shapes and sizes will make them more interesting.
• Secure 3 crimping beads at one end of the string. You may want to make a loop with the wire first.
• String your beads.
• Trim your wire when you are finished stringing it, leaving it long enough to loop back into the top 2 beads and leave a 1/2 inch loop at the top. Slide 3 crimping beads over the loop and secure with crimper. Make sure the wire stays tucked into the top beads before you crimp! Tug lightly on the crimping beads after crimping to make sure they are solidly in place.
• Use the small key ring to secure the strand of beads into place wit the loop on the strand of beads.

Voila! It’s Time to Read!