Wooden Bead Bookmarks

For a quick and easy gift you can make with your children, try these Wooden Bead Bookmarks.

Requirements:
Wooden Bead with hole
Leather thong - cord would work just as well
Wool for hair
Glue
Paint for face

Just cut the leather thong to the desired length, remembering to keep it doubled.

Thread the doubled leather thong through the wooden bead

Wind some wool around your fingers, till nice and full and then thread it through the looped end of the thong, pull tight.  At this stage you may like to put a little glue underneath the hair to hold in place.

Paint a face on the wooden ball, anything you desire

Now all you need to do, is pop them between the pages of your book

The little wooden head pops up above the top of the book and the thonging is inserted between the pages

These make a great gift for teachers, family and friends

Enjoy your weekend, I may just relax on the lounge and finish reading this book.

Judy

Small gifts - Bookmarks

I have been busy - I was making some small gifts to sell at a Farmers Market in Narrandera last weekend, however other commitments kept me away...so I am going to upload these bookmarks onto my online store.

 

I love how these clip bookmarks turned out, bright beautiful flowers. I think I made about a dozen of these ones.  This is a closeup of one of the bookmarks. 

 

 

Continuing with the bookmark theme, I made lots more Elastic Bookmarks.  I must admit this is my favourite type of bookmark to use personally.  It does not slip out, is great if you read outside on windy days, it will hold your pages down ...  all in all, a great bookmark

 

 

Lots of different charms were used for these bookmarks.  This bird in a branch one would be a great gift for either a male or female... so rustic

 

 

 

I did make more little wallet, card holder keyring and emery board covers - sometimes in the same fabric so that they could be sold as sets.  I will take photos and show you later, as they turned out really well.

 

The online store has been updated with lots of new products:

 

The latest Amy Bradley Design quilt patterns - the two latest ones, Princess and "Meet The Tweets" are simply gorgeous - both use the fusible applique technique.

 

2013 release "Dress It Up" buttons - lots of new sew thru buttons, which are great to sew onto our quilts.  It used to be hard to find these buttons but now they are becoming more available in a variety of themes.

 

If you check out the "New Items" section in the online store, you will understand why I have not been updating my blog.... lots of new products to be priced and loaded.

 

Bye for now

Judy

Elastic Bookmarks - quick and easy gifts

I was thinking of what I can give family members for Valentines this year.  As we are all avid readers I thought I would make these little bookmarks.

All you need is hat elastic (thin elastic) and charms.

Cut your elastic approx 18" (I found this to be the best size).  Double it, and then thread the middle double section through the eyelet on the top of the charm,  Try to keep your ends even.

Bring the other two ends through the loop of the elastic to ensure the charm is secure

Now the hard part, just kidding!  Knot the ends ... all done!

One note, if you find the eyelet of the charm is too small to allow the elastic to be threaded through, just add a tiny split ring ..

Now it is easy to thread the elastic

The elastic slips around the pages of your book, and the best thing is that is does not fall out.  You can pop your book in your bag, drop or shake it and this bookmark will remain in place.

If you are giving these as gifts, you might like to package them accordingly.

I had purchased these packs of journal cards from Spotlight in their clearance section for $1.00 per pack, they were ideal.

I just pushed out the tags, and used the hole in the top to thread the elastic through. 

I completed the tags by printing out the name of the gift and using double sided tape to adhere to the card - I must admit this took the longest part of the whole process.

Six elastic bookmarks in less than 5 minutes.  I am definitely keeping one of these for myself.

Judy

Fabric Corner Bookmarks

Using just small scraps of fabric 2-1/2" x 5" you can make some fabric corner bookmarks.

These would make great gifts for the readers in your life, or for your school fete.

• I used left over charm squares, cut in 2 to make my bookmarks.
• Iron a thin piece of interfacing to the wrong side of the fabric you wish to have on the front. 
• With wrong sides together, sew a scant 1/8" seam all around leaving an opening for turning. 
• Turn to right side, and push out the corners. 
• Fold in opening, iron, and then top stitch all around.
• Fold in half (two short ends together) and then sew again on your top stitching down one side only ... iron flat with the seam at the back.  This forms the triangle as you can see above.

This was a quick craft and I did not take any photos of the process along the way, sorry.

Till next time

Judy

5 minute craft

Just to keep myself sane, I managed 5 minutes of craft time yesterday ...using just two items.
Jumbo paperclips and patterned tape

I first saw the idea on a french site, here

I tried, and I must admit my first response, was "what a non event" ... they looked boring, the paperclip looked too big for the tape.  Oh well, I tried.

Then I was looking through a cooking book that I had received for Christmas and wanted to mark the page I was up to.  I grabbed one of these paperclip bookmarks, and was pleasantly surprised.  How good they looked in the book, but more surprising how effective.  The tape was easily seen. (although this is not a good photo, to show you)

I popped some more in a novel, that I have yet to read. Maybe if I stayed out of the craft studio and off the computer, I may get a chance??  This photo shows just how effective this bookmark is.

So, even if you are going to give them away to family and friends, presentation is the key!

I amended the backing card that I had made for the button bookmarks before Christmas, and placed these on it ... I think they came out nicely

Just a closeup

All in all a good five minutes... there are many lovely Japanese masking tapes and decorative tapes available at the moment, that these can be a quick and easy craft to do.  I am going to get my nieces and nephews to make some when they next come to visit.  Maybe you could layer the tape and get different effects?  Worth a try!

I hope you managed to get at least 5 minutes of craft time today?

Judy

Button Bookmarks

Are you seeing a familiar theme in my crafts this week?  They all use buttons and are inexpensive to make, and these bookmarks are no exception.

I purchased a pack of  75 mm paperclips from our local newsagent - 25 clips for $2.50

Gathered together a selection of buttons and punched 1" circles out of black card stock (no photo).

Then it was just a matter of gluing them all together - glue the button to the paperclip and then the black circle to the back to tidy things up.

Then as always, presentation is the key, so I created a little backing card for the bookmarks using Microsoft Word. 

The saying is not my own creation, it was amended from a saying I saw in a book."What to say, and how to say it"

These will be going into the store today, ideal to pop into a card this Christmas, for just $3.50 each

Judy