Tutorial: bow bookmarks

I was pretty serious about being on a bookmark kick. I can’t stop making them! (see here, here, and here) Maybe I am draining myself of creativity and all that’s left in my brain is bookmarks. Oh well, I have gifts for a year, maybe longer.

Besides my cross stitch button bookmarks, these are my favorite. Wanna see why?

They are so tiny and cute!

Let me state a little something for the record. When I made these about two weeks ago, I thought I was a creative genius. I have seen a couple versions of a bow bookmark, so needless to say I am bummed to learn that I am not the first one to think of this. Oh well. So please don’t comment and tell me I am a copy cat and you have already seen these. In my head, I was the only one who had even thought of this. Moving on…

Let’s get started.

Here’s what you will need – measurements and all. Felt, paperclips, and hot glue. My nasty hot glue gun didn’t make the pretty pictures cut. The felt is from Papertrey Ink. The best felt ever ever. I have talked about it before, I know, but it is worth repeating. It is 100% wool so no fuzziness and it cuts like a dream. It is $6.00 for a 5″ x 30″ roll, so you can make a ton of bows with just one roll.

Start by cutting the tails out of piece #1. Set aside.

Put a line of hot glue down the center of piece #2, fold the ends in, and press. Don’t smash the ends into the glue too much – you still want the gaps that make it look like a bow.

Put a dot of glue in the middle of your looped piece and squeeze until the hot glue cools. This gives it the look of a real bow.

Glue piece #2 to piece #1 like pictured.

Here is what you have so far. Now it is time to get it on the paperclip.

Put a very thin line of hot glue on the front of the bow only. Not on the back. Press down your long piece (#3) onto the glue.

Here is the back. See? No glue.

Put down a small amount of glue and stick on the paperclip. I keep saying small amount of glue because you don’t want to have glue seeping out – it is not very pretty.

Fold the top part down into the glue and cut off the excess.

Add a bit more glue and glue down the other tail and trim.

The cost to make one of these is probably less then $.25 each. Seriously. So, if you are looking for easy Christmas gifts or sweet wedding favors, this is it. I plan on keeping a few on hand for a simple gift.