FirecrackerDesigns by Pamela presents: Punch-a-Bunch bookmarks!
Two bookmark ideas that will keep you busy making more and more for quick presents to give during the holidays or any season :)
Materials used:
- any card stock of your choice
- adhesive of your choice
- pigments (color) of your choice
- additional treatments like glaze or glitter
- ribbon slot punch, crop-a-dile or any other method of making holes or slots in your card stock
- raffia, embroidery ribbon or any other ribbon, thread, wool etc that you care to weave through your bookmarks
- usual stamping supplies like stamps, acryclic blocks, ink pads
- scissors to cut ribbon, cutter to trim cardstock
- eyelets and the means to set them
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I like the final size of my bookmark to be about 6 inches long and 2 inches wide, give or take a little depending on which stamps you want to use. You can make 6 double-sided bookmarks from one 12x12 piece of cardstock. Fold your entire piece of cardstock in half and then cut 6 2inch strips from that. The fold is at the top of the bookmark! You can of course use scraps and leftover card stock and you don't need to have a fold at the top. |
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Now stamp your main image/focal point on the front side of your bookmark. This can also be a verse or such, it will be an area that will not have ribbon going through it on the front! My example uses the upper body part of the 'Tumbling Scare Crow' plate. |
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Next you want to punch your holes or slots. I use a 1/4 inch ribbon slot punch in this example. Use anything that will make a hole that will accomodate the material that you want to weave through it. See how you can align your bookmark on the grid workspace (cutting mat for quilting) to get your holes where you want them :) |
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Once you get close to the image you may want to turn your punch upside down so that you can see where you will set your holes. Skip the main image and then continue to punch holes or slots all the way to the top of the bookmark, leave a space on top for a round eyelet. You may want to draw a thin pencil line in the center of the bookmark if you like to have your ribbon in a straight line. You can erase the line later after you are done punching. I punched even spaced slots with always aligning the first slot with the last one punched, making only one slot at a time. |
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| Once all your slots or holes are in place, you can add other decorative stamps and also stamp the backside of your bookmark. On the back, keep in mind the area where the ribbon will go across, so leave that space free of images. | |
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Color your stamped images with the pigment of your choice. I used Prismacolor pencils and Gamsol in this case. The flowers on the back of my bookmark are from the 'Hangin' Around Scarecrow' set. Make sure you open the window when working with odorless mineral spirits and don't snack! while you are doing this.... |
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OK, now you really have to go outside for the next step. I like to preserve my cards/bookmarks with a light coat of Krylon. You don't need to do this when working with gamsol, but this also protects the non_colored part from fingerprints etc. Krylon comes in matte and glossy. Here I used matte for a VERY LIGHT coat. I like using glossy for others, in a very very light coat, glossy will add just a touch of shimmer to card stock, very pretty, and of course, it prevents smudges and can be wiped off. You will NOT be able to add pencil or watercolor etc to this anymore after you have sprayed it, don't ask how I know ;) If you are unsure, use "workable" fixative. |
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Almost done! After your bookmark is dry, glue the two sides together, make sure your slots match up nicely. I used my ATG gun for this step, any type of adhesive that you like to use is fine. Weave a length of ribbon (be generous, you want some to hang over on both sides and you need to make a knot with it too) through your slots now. I used raffia in this example. I also added a large eyelet at the top and rounded the top corners with a decorative punch (fiskars). If you do round the corners, take that into account when you add your adhesive, you don't want the top corners to gap open, so make sure those angles are covered with adhesive as well. |
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Here are the front and back of the finished bookmark, isn't it fun?! To finish, add another one or two double lengths of ribbon and slide that through the top hole and bottom slot, take all tails together and make a slipknot close to the card stock. (see second example if you are not sure how to do that). Trim all tails and voila, you're done! I opened up the raffia a bit to mimic the scarecrow's hands. |
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This second example will show you how you can take this idea and make a completely different bookmark with basically the same techniques! |
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In this bookmark I used the snowman (woman?) from the 'Decorate my Tree' plate. She is my focal image on the front of the bookmark. I kept the width a touch larger than the previous example as I did not want to cut off too much of her body. I used the Crop-A-Dile to punch a row of small holes along the side and one larger hole on the top and bottom each. The holes will be connected with glitter ribbon/cord and represent the line for a garland that she is holding. See, you don't have to use a slot punch if you plan on using cord/yarn/thread and you can let it go every which way you want, just make sure you begin and end in the center of the bookmark ends (eyelets). |
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After you have all your holes punched, add your additional supportive stamp images. I added a bunch of ornaments (from the same stamp set) to hang along the garland that is not there yet :) The garland extends along the back of the bookmark and I also added two stars that look like the one that she is holding. Color your bookmark with pigments of choice. Here I used dye ink markers and gave the whole image a background wash with "stargazer" twinkling H2Os. This color glimmers nicely and makes the snowman stand out white against a not quite so white background. Yes the watercolor will make your card stock warp a bit but you can flatten this out in the step where you glue it together. |
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To make the ornaments a bit special I added Ranger Glossy Accents over them. There are many similar products on the market that do the same thing, just use what you have. Anything that will leave a shiny glossy surface on the ornaments will do. The star that she is holding and the two stars on the backside were colored with a yellow glaze pen (Sakura). You could also make them glitter, but use only things that can be smooshed inside a book and not come off or stain the book, remember you or whoever this is a present for should USE the bookmark :) Let this dry. Let this dry! did I mention, you have GOT to let this dry for a while before the next step, do your laundry or something.... |
 This time I used silver embroidery ribbon and ice blue embroidery cord (both Kreinik) to thread through the holes. I did two paths (up down up down) to make a complete line with the thread. At the end I added two more lengths of ribbon and cord, threaded them through the eyelets on the top and bottom and again made an overhand knot with all ends. To have your knot exactly where you want it, make a loose knot, then insert something thin into the knot (like the skewer) and while you are closing the knot (pulling on the free ends) slide your skewer towards where you want the knot to be. Last step, take out the skewer, pinch knot between thumb and forefinger of your preferred hand and slide towards the cardstock edge while you pull hard on the free ends with your other hand! I also used a corner punch on three corners of this bookmark. |
the finished bookmark:
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Go ahead, now its your turn to make some pretty bookmarks. I am so curious what you can come up with, be sure to share your creations with us! The fine print: ideas and photography (copyright to all text and photographic images) Etha Schuette All stamps used: (copyright all stamp images) Firecracker Designs by Pamela Etha's Blog |
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