DIY: Bookmarks

For bookworms like me, buying bookmarks can be very frustrating and at the same time expensive. Before, I used to buy bookmarks at FullyBooked and National Bookstore, and one bookmark would cost me a dollar or two. There are also times I lose my bookmarks or someone stole those from me. With those thing in mind, we why not make your personalized bookmark?

Personalized bookmarks are great gifts for your friends as well. Oh by the way! After taking part on the 2017 TFP Summer Institute, I decided to make bookmarks for my TFP 2017B Cohort as a way of thanking them for the friendship they shared to me for few weeks of being with them in Quezon City and Pampangga. I hope to send these to the main office.

TIP: You do not need to be super creative or genius when it comes to art to come up with a nice product. You can follow the simple steps I've made/prepared for you.

Materials needed:
Construction Paper (any desired color of yours will do)
A pair of scissors or cutter
Ruler
Cut-outs from Magazine or stationery set
Photo of the owner for the personalized bookmark
Glue/ paste

Procedure:
Determine the dimension of your bookmark. You can use your ruler while I decides to estimate the size and fold the construction paper as the base. Mine is 2 x 5 inches.

You can actually use any base frame for this one, but just make sure it is thick enough. Make sure also that the color of the paper contrasts with other paper so that it would create depth and style. You can even use a black frame base so that when it falls it would not be easily worn out and get dirty.

I used a gold thin board and a construction paper. I recycled the materials from paper bags and other materials. You can be resourceful like me too, just make sure that it would not be needed anymore.

I made sure that the base which will serve the frame is bigger than the other one.

I glued the base to the thinner paper so that oue bookmark would not be sloppy. You can actually use your cutter and ruler to cut better lines.

I glued the designs that I had in mind. I made sure the cut-outs would be relevant to the person I made this for. And since my friend likes to travel a lot and likes the sea too, I decided to put some seashells. I got these images from Pinterest and printed it on a sticker paper so that it would not consume me a lot of time. I even recycled the border that I glued from a wedding invitation.

If you reallt are so into it, you can actually draw images, paint it using water color, and glue it on your bookmark. I used water color and unipin to draw on my own version of seashells. The translucent effect of water color makes the drawing look softer.

Tada! I am finished with this one! I am still looking for my friend's quirky photo for this bookmark.

Do not worry, it would not take an hour to finish one bookmark.

Here are closer view of the bookmarks that I've made for my friends.

As you can see, I made a from for their portraits or selfies. It does not need to be perfect. And for this batch, I decided to put some island vibe to it. On a separate sheet of paper, I drew some leaves and painted with different tones of green. I then shaped it like a square frame.

The one on the bottom left is actually for Marco. I heard that he was assigned in Cebu so I used a mint-green colored paper and white for his background. I then copied images of seashells in Pinterest.

The same goes for this one though I decided npt to frame their faces and made it look like they're from a teenager's magazine like Candy.

You can really save a lot when you make personalized stuff. For this one, I could only spend less than a hundred peso for glue only. In creating something like this as well, you just need to think of the things the person wants and the things you can closely associate to that person. There must also be love while making something like this. Apparently, making artwork is same as cooking.

I hope you enjoyed my tutorial. Great day!