Don't loose your place

Another Tuesday where do the weeks go, and another challenge from Creative craft challenges. Can you guess from my title what our challenge is, well there areseveral different versions you can enter for this challenge and all will help you not loose your place , in a book of course, as our challenge this time is bookmarks. There are several different ones around, the traditional strip bookmark a nice and easy one for all levels. There is the fancy two ended strip of ribbon with weighted ends, always think this type looks really elegant but have never tried to make one. The third kind i know about is the corner book mark. I only recently learny how to make these and they are far simpler than they look, and of all the bookmarks I've ever used I love these as they just seem to stay put, even if you drop your book.

I made a quickie tutorial further down that want to have a go. hope it makes sense as it's the first time I've done a tutorial on my blog so all feed back is greatly recieved.


We have a fab some fab sponsors again Crafty ribbons and little claires and Bugaboo stamps who generously gave us some digi's to play with.


Now my book marks I made 4 in all but you'll see them at the end of the tutorial, sounds a bit grand but really it's just a couple of piccies and some simple instructions, that I hope are easy to follow. Can't wait to see all your fab creations and if anyone knows any other kinds of bookmarks please shar how to make them with us too.It's always good to learn something new.


Well here goes.

You will need two pieces of card, one a square and the other a triangle. The sizes , I used a 12cm square and a triangle that was half an 8cm square. You can make any size but the ratio is always the same. Triangle cut from a sqaure 2/3 the length of the square sides, so you could use a 15cm square and a 10cm sided triangle, or 9cm square and 6cm triangle side, if you see what I mean. I hope I haven't confused you all already.


If so start again. Take a 12cm square of card. Mark the 6cm half way mark on 3 sides.Score to form 2 triangular flaps.

Cut a triangle by either cutting an 8cm sqare in half diagonally of taking a square corner and marking 8cm from the corner on two edges and joining , then cut along the line.

On the square card decorate the base , this will be the inside of your bookmark so to speak and will only be seen when the bookmark is not in use. Make sure you extend the decoration above the half way mark .It's a good idea to keep all decoration flatish as this will stop it being bulky when your book is closed with the bookmark in place.

Now take the triangle and stick it in place over the two flaps so it holds them down.I tend to use tape as if you use glue it can seep through the edges and then when you try to slot it over the corner of your page it won't work as it's stuck together. Make sure you go right to the corners then they wont lift.

Now you can decorate your book mark how ever you wish. On this one I used a cute wee piggy, and just added a strip of ribbon and punched vellum to the 'inside 'of the bookmark and some stamped piglets in pink brilliance ink. I mounted te piggy on an oval of blue card that I coloured with the same promarker I coloured the ribbon with.

I made 3 others, just to show you some variety. The fairy bookmark I started with a rectangle of card still 12cm wide but only 8cm deep, this just left me with a smaller back lip.I punched a fancy edge and coloured my fairy with promarkers and sakura glaze and glitter pens then added a few peel off butterflies for added intrest.The elephant bookmark I made with a 15cm piece of card and just kept it simple in decoration. I stamped a daisy in versamark on pale blue card and powder embossed with moonglow blue hyacinth jade powder. I then sparyed both this and the deep turquoise trianlge with tawny turquoise spritz also by moonglw. I coloured the elephant with Promarkers and just stuck in place.

The last one again is a 12cm square but this time I didn't use a triangle but the whole smaller sqaure which I cut down slightly and mounted on an 8cm silver mirri card squrae after punching the corners. Before sticking the squre to the flaps I added a cople of fancy beads on a thread to make a dangly charm like thing, the squre once stuck to the flaps holds it in place.The cat is coloured with promarkers ad sakuras and I also used a sakura pen to add stitching around the pink square. I then added some liquid pearls for detail along the punched edge and corners. a few flat rhinestones to kitty's crown and all done.

So as long as you keep you embellishment flatish you can decorate as fancy or plain as you like. Have fun and can't wait to see what you come up with.


Sorry about all the waffle,the steps are fairly simple .
Cut a square and triangle of card .
Score two flaps on the square.
Decorate the inside of the bookmark.
Stick the triangle to the flaps.
Decorate the triangle.
Bookmark complete.


Pop over to the Creative craft page or to our DT blogs and I'm sure all their wonderful projects will totally inspire you, dare I say may even make you want to read just so you can make a book mark?


Have fun.


I would like to enter my book marks into the following challenges;-
Fairy bookmark


Gingerloft-punches or diecuts
Meljens-punches
stamp insanity-punch it out
Sarah Hurley-go green




Piggy bookmark


Southern girls-add an animal
Lexis creations-ribbons no bows or knots
Pixie dust-lets go to the movies, I thought of 'Babe'
Colour Create-pastels  optional Easter


Elephant bookmark
Lollipop-no square or rectangles
Incy wincy-sparkle and shine
Totally papercrafts-cute and cuddly
Phindy's-all about animals
DYSU-shine on

Kitty bookmark
Crafts and me-anything goes
MAWTT-precious metals(hope my mirri card and silver cord are enough to count)
Tellens-textures
Whoopsi daisy-glitz and glitter(sorry no glitter but plenty of glitz) hope it still counts?

Finally I would like to enter all my bookmarks into the Fab n Funky-do it more than once challenge. It could be that you count that I folded my piece of card more than once or made more than one bookmark.