Kid's Craft: Cheap Homemade Bookmarks

My girl loves to read. One day we introduced her to the bookmark. We told her she could insert the bookmark into the page where she stopped reading and come back to it later. She was delighted and immediately wanted to buy some bookmarks. (As soon as kids learn to speak, one of the first few words they master is the word "Buy!")

The bookmarks at the shop cost about RM1.50 to RM3.00 each. So cheapskate mummy decided to get her to make her own homemade bookmarks instead. Besides, it makes another easy activity to do with the kids.

And so making bookmarks became yet another activity for crafting time.

Here's what we used:

1. Coloured paper. (No need to buy. Just look around the house for some old thick brochure or annual report or whatever)
2. Scissors
3. Ribbon or Thread
4. Hole puncture
5. Stickers (For an older child who is artistic and likes to draw, drawing or painting would be better, but I'm lazy so we used stickers)

Here's what we did:

1. Cut out the coloured paper into various shapes and sizes (My girl wanted to make big square ones. She's not very conventional. Hehe.)
2. Punch a hole at the top
3. Thread a ribbon or coloured thread through the hole and tie them into place
4. Decorate (in our case, we used stickers)

And voila! You've got yourself pretty bookmarks that your child will be proud to use since she/he made them herself/himself.

Total Cost: You can get a whole page of stickers for just RM1 at the pasar malam (night market). So our cost for more than a dozen kids bookmarks was around RM1-2. If you draw, the cost is negligible.

Total Time: Only a few minutes of quality time spent with the child which translates to lots of fun for him or her.

So now we're using the bookmarks for all her lesson books and story books and she feels even more proud of them because she made them herself.

The car and fish bookmarks are my boy's. The other's are my girl's.

Note: Making bookmarks are an easy to do activity for children but they're not only for kids. These bookmarks make great gifts for friends or sweethearts. Anything thats remotely "make your own" with your signature touch make great gifts because they're so personal. (even if they're very simple to make). Years ago, I made a dozen bookmarks for my boyfriend (then) husband (now) as a Valentine's Day gift, all full of lovey dovey messages and hearts aplenty but that feller hoh, donch know how to appreciate them, simply chuck them here and there. Chey! (He still has some of them but I don't think its because he treasures it, its simply because he doesn't know what to do with it or where to keep them! He even gave some of them to his girl to play with before she made her own. Chey!X2)