Welcome back to the new school year! Are you all excited to be getting your school supplies? I know I am! However, this year I've realized that there is one school supply that I really dislike: bookmarks. Bookmarks are commonly sticks of card with fancy designs that you can pop in your books to hold your place. For a slightly disorganized person like me, who possesses a crowded bag that crushes every other unsturdy thing in it and who often drops things, this just doesn't do. I often find myself needing to use a paper clip to fasten my bookmark to my current page. Do you ever have the same problem? Well, fear not! I'm here to help.
What you'll need for this craft:
- Cardstock or construction paper
- Pen/pencil
- Scissors
- Glue/staples
- Ruler
Optional Supplies:
- Markers
- Envelopes
What you'll need for this craft:
- Cardstock or construction paper
- Pen/pencil
- Scissors
- Glue/staples
- Ruler
Optional Supplies:
- Markers
- Envelopes
Now, what we're going to do right now is make a basic bookmark. Once you get a hang of the design, you can worry about sizing it. You'll see what I mean in a moment. 1) Using your ruler and pen, draw a square in the corner of your page. On top of that square, draw another square of exactly the same measurements (or as close as you can get that connects to your square. Draw another square to the side of your current square. It'll look like an L shape when you're finished: |
2) Now draw a diagonal line across the uppermost square (using your ruler of course), from its bottom left corner to it's top right corner. Shade or place an X in the upper triangle of the square so that it looks like this:
3) Do the same to the square to the side of the central square, and shade the outer triangle so that you end up with this:
4) Cut out the entire shape that hasn't been shaded in so you end up with this:
Optional Step: At this point I like to cut out a square that is slightly smaller than the squares I originally drew from a piece of paper that compliments the one I'm currently using. For example, I cut out a brown square to go with my yellow figure for this bookmark. You attach this to the central square like so:
5) Fold one triangle in onto the central triangle.
6) Apply glue to the underside (the side that is facing you currently but will be laying on top of the other triangle when you fold that flap down) of the other triangle and fold this triangle down on top of the other one, holding for a moment or two to make sure the glue attaches.
Optional Step: Add decorations! I designed my current one with my name, but a very popular version is to give them teeth and eyes to create monster bookmarks.
Ta-da! You're finished! You now have a nice little bookmark that will hold onto your page for you without falling out or getting crushed into a ball when you aren't using it. So go hit those books!
Note: As mentioned before about the sizing, you may want to make the square smaller if your book is smaller so that the bookmark doesn't take up half the page. Again I recommend making it a fairly good size first before adjusting the size to be smaller.
Note: As mentioned before about the sizing, you may want to make the square smaller if your book is smaller so that the bookmark doesn't take up half the page. Again I recommend making it a fairly good size first before adjusting the size to be smaller.