Magnetic Bookmarks

I used to have a really nice bookmark.  It was a true expression of me.  I loved having it in each book as I read along getting swept up in the story.  I was watching my son recently doing all the reading he does and noticed that he uses a scrap of paper as a book mark.  While I appreciate his recycling, I think he deserves to have a more special book mark. After all, he reads more than 30 books a year, not including school books! 

So rather than buying one for him, I decided to make one.  I'm going to show you how you can make a personalized magnetic bookmark.
Here's what you'll need:

• Digi or traditional papers of your choosing
• Trimmer, scissors or craft knife
• magnets
• adhesive

I'm using some old Basic Grey magnets that I had left over from other projects.  I've also made these by recycling some of those advertising magnets that you receive in the mail.  You know the ones with business cards, sport team schedules or small calendars attached?  You might still have some hanging on the side of your refrigerator.   You'll need two pieces of the magnet, just make sure that they will have enough attraction power to stick together with your designed paper and a book page between them.  I found that some of the magnets I recycled did not have quite enough power.

You can make your bookmark any size that you would like. For a young reader, you might want to make a slightly bigger one to make it easier for their small hands to manipulate.  You'll see that there is going to be a fold in the bookmark where it will go over the top of the page it is marking in the book.  So there is a front flap and back flap.  I decided to make my book mark 1.5" wide and I wanted the front flap to be 2.5".  I wanted the back flap to hang a bit longer than the front to make it easier to separate the magnet, so I made the total length of the bookmark 5.5".  This allows me to have a 2.5" front flap and a 3" back flap.

My bookmark is for my son who is an avid sports player.  I used some digi papers to create my book mark they are Sherwood Studio's Boy at Play Mega Kit and Quirky Twerp's Gridiron Grit.  I started in Photoshop by making a rectangle the shape and size of the bookmark and copied it.  One rectangle for the outside and one for the inside of the bookmark.

I did personalize the bookmark with my son's name on the inside piece.  In my photos, you will see a blurred area where his name is located. Sorry for this, but I'm just not comfortable putting names out on the internet.

OK here we go - print out your bookmark design and trim the pieces.  Keep in mind that while you may have designed and printed them both upright, you'll need to attach the inside piece upside down in order for it to be readable when the bookmark is folded.  You can see in the photo above that I've turned it so I don't forget to do that!

Next I scored the outside piece where I wanted the fold to fall, but I cut the inside piece at the same spot.  It just really helps the bookmark work better this way.  So you'll now have an upper and lower inside piece.

Now you can locate the magnets.  May be hard to see in the photo above, but I've actually adhered one of the magnets to the outside piece. I then placed the other magnet against this magnet so that I know where it needs to be to cause the seal.  Place some adhesive onto the exposed surface of this magnet and fold the bookmark closed.

Gently re-open the bookmark separating the two magnet and......Tada!  You've now placed the opposing magnets right where they need to be!

Apply adhesive to the upper and lower portions of the inside pieces and adhere them inside the bookmark.  And guess what?  That's it!!  You're done!

You've just created a really special personalized bookmark.  Here are a few more views of it.

Of course my son is reading a book about his favorite team!

Some other ideas for this would be to include them in greeting cards, on gift wrapping, as favors at a book group meeting or baby shower.  I hope you enjoy making them!