The Handmade Christmas: bookmarks |Keeping it Real

Monday, November 24, 2014

The Handmade Christmas: bookmarks


When this week's project started my intention was to make only one bookmark.

My son is in second grade and just starting to read chapter books. He's been using one of my old bookmarks (after all, I always have tons of them around) but I promised that I would make a new one just for him. Since I'm sure he'll be getting new books for Christmas, I decided to add the bookmark to his Christmas list.

Well, I made his bookmark, and then I sort of got carried away and ended up making three more, all different. 

bookmarks, felt bookmarks, handmade bookmarks

They can be made with felt scraps, some pieces of ribbon and embroidery floss and a bit of fabric glue. And the best thing? They come together so quickly that, like me, you will not stop at just one.

This was the reason it all started:

bookmarks, felt bookmarks, handmade bookmarks





I've had the cars & trucks ribbon in my ribbon box for a while and decided it was perfect for a bookmark for my son. I embroidered the road onto the felt, sewed everything together and then glued on the red cars.

After that, I made the pink felt + butterfly one and this time I actually remembered to take a picture of the materials used prior to assembly: two rectangles of felt, embroidery floss, ribbon and whatever you choose for embellishment (in my case, a butterfly similar to the one I used for the sticky notes holder I posted about last week)

bookmarks, felt bookmarks, handmade bookmarks

I made it the same way as the first one but used a blanket stitch instead.

bookmarks, felt bookmarks, handmade bookmarks





And then I decided to try something else and use a larger portion of ribbon and smaller felt scraps, and came up with these instead:

bookmarks, felt bookmarks, handmade bookmarks




They are basically a folded ribbon with the ends tucked in between the pieces of felt at the bottom. In the hearts one, the two twin felt hearts were sewn, but the circles bookmark is 100% no sew, so I just glued the circles to each other with the ribbon in the middle.

bookmarks, felt bookmarks, handmade bookmarksbookmarks, felt bookmarks, handmade bookmarks

These ribbon bookmarks have the advantage that you can fit the book page you want to mark in between the folded ribbon and be sure your bookmark stays in place. This is particularly useful for me because I keep a book in my purse to read in the train to and from work everyday and I hate when the bookmarks fall off. So one of these will for sure be mine.

The other two still have to future owner in sight, but I'm sure I'll think of someone from here until Christmas.

bookmarks, felt bookmarks, handmade bookmarks

bookmarks, felt bookmarks, handmade bookmarks





Enjoy,





 photo featuredmeanderingmondaybadge1014200x200_zps09739a88.png

10 comments:

  1. These are so neat! :)

    Thanks for joining the Link Up this week and Happy Thanksgiving! :)

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  2. What a great way to use those extra pieces of felt I always end up with at the end of a project! These would be so cute as valentines for classmates or when gifting a book to a friend.
    Maren
    www.mainlymaren.blogspot.com

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    Replies
    1. Yeah, I never throw away scraps because I always think they may be useful. Then I have to find uses for them...

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  3. I really love this idea, my grandmother always would make something like this and put it in a book for a gift. Thank you for sharing with the Clever Chicks Blog Hop! I hope you’ll join us again next week!

    Cheers,
    Kathy Shea Mormino
    The Chicken Chick
    http://www.The-Chicken-Chick.com

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    Replies
    1. Thank you Kathy. My grandmother also worked a lot with felt, her specialty were felt flowers, someting I find I'm not so talented for, unfortunately...

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  4. These are really cute. I was looking for a fun, easy gift for the kids to make for Christmas. This would fit the bill perfectly :)

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    Replies
    1. I'm glad you enjoyed it Channon, thank you for stopping by!

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  5. These are so cute- thanks for sharing!

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    Replies
    1. You're welcome Christina, have a wonderful weekend!

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