When I posted about our ladies’ luncheon at church, Sally said she wished she could see the gold curly things in the centerpieces a little better, and Mama Bear asked if I might do a tutorial on the bookmarks we used as favors. I am happy to do both.

Here are those curlicue thingys en masse.

They were a dark reddish brown and came four to a stalk at $1.98 at Hobby Lobby, and I got them at half price. I don’t know what they’re called, but they were in with the floral stems. I spray-painted them in gold to go along with our color theme. We used about three per bud vase, varying the heights. Here’s a hastily reassembled one to give you an idea of how we used them.

Bookmark tutorial:

1. You can buy book-marked sized cardstock at craft stores, usually in white or off-white. You can also cut them out of any color or style of card stock. If you cut them 2″ x 6″ you can get 12 out of a sheet of 12 x 12″ card stock, but you can make them larger or slightly smaller than that as well.

Unless you have a very steady hand, it’s best to use a paper-cutter. Either the craft or office variety will work. I don’t usually use decorative scissors on this base piece, though you could.

2. The second layer is usually decorative paper. Scrapbooking paper works great, but anything will do. If the base is a solid color, I like for this part to be patterned, although a complementing solid color will do. I often do use decorative scissors or paper punches on this layer. It should be cut slightly smaller than the base piece and glued on with a glue stick. You could use two different patterned pieces as well — one on the top third or half and another on the bottom.

3. The next layer is usually where a verse or quote goes. Those can be printed on the computer or with stamps or hand-written on solid-colored paper. If I am making several bookmarks at once, I’ll print several on a sheet of paper from the computer or stamp several on one page so they’re “at the ready.”

This layer should be cut slightly smaller than the decorative second layer — maybe 1/8 of an inch less or so all around. It can be cut back way more, depending on what else you might be using for a design, but be sure to leave the same margin of “white space” all around so it doesn’t look lopsided. Again, decorative scissors or paper punched can be used.

4. Add embellishments — stickers, bits of ribbon, etc. Just remember that for the main part of the bookmark you want it to lie flat, so put anything that is raised near the top so that part can stick out of the book.

If you are laminating the bookmarks, you don’t have to glue things that securely, but if not, be sure that everything is glued down really well.

Here are some examples. Most have appeared on my blog at some time, but I wanted to put them all in one spot here.

This is the one from the ladies’ luncheon. It’s very simple, all solid colors, little embellishment or decoration, mainly because we needed to make so many of the same type.

You can see what I mean here by trying to have the same “margins” all the way around — though, technically, the white part with the verse should have come down a little. The circle at the top was printed on the computer using clip art and Avery 1″ circular stickers (#5410).

Here are a few our ladies’ group made to send to our missionaries:

You can see that some use the decorative scissors and paper punches on different parts. The two in the middle have corners rounded off by a paper punch made for that purpose.

Here are a few more:

This one also has most of the corners rounded off. The little heart design across the bottom of the white paper is from a paper punch.

Some people like to put ribbons at the top that would then stick out of the book. Personally I don’t really care for ribbons sticking out of my book, and this adds an extra step in the process. But you can punch a small hole or two at the top and add a ribbon if you’d like (I’ll have to add a picture later as I am running out of time.)

These make for a fun group project, especially if everyone isn’t making the exact same type. Everyone brings their own equipment, and we all are spurred on by each other’s ideas. It is good to make more than you think you will need, as you’ll have to go through them and do a little quality control afterward.

I hope this is clear! If not, please let me know and I’ll try to clarify.

I am linking this post to Kelli’s Paper Crafting Wednesday. She’s much better at tutorials than I am!

Kelli at There’s No Place Like Home hosts Paper-Crafting Thursday where we can show cards, bookmarks, etc. that we have made — or, I would guess, that others have made and given us.

Our ladies had another session of making cards to give to our missionaries for their use. This first one was made by someone else with what one lady calls “cheater cards” — cards that you buy with a background design already there, and all you have to do is add your embellishments. I thought this was really simple and really cute.

The rest here are mine. This is another one that was simple, but I like its simplicity. I was also trying to make some that weren’t quite so feminine-looking so they could be sent to or from a man. I printed out several phrases like this from the computer that we cut out to use on the cards.

This is one of my favorites — I think it looks so cheery. The saying came from the same stamp I mentioned last time. I stamped it out in several colors on a sheet of cardstock so we could cut them out and use them on different cards.

And this is, I think, my favorite of the night. The papers came from a small pad from Michael’s, so they all coordinated well. Then the ink pad was in “plum” and matched so perfectly. I didn’t have these papers in mind at all when I bought the ink pad, so I was delighted that they all worked so well together.

Sorry for the bit of glare at the bottoms of the pictures. It’s an overcast day, so I had the lights on, but it was hard getting enough light to see but not too much.

Stop by Kelli’s today to see some other great examples. Kelli usually includes instructions for how she makes hers as well.