All of my library kids are in love with bookmarks. They love using them for school books, workbooks, journals, library books- pretty much everywhere in their daily lives. And since one thing we highly encourage is for them NOT to dog-ear our books, having an abundance of bookmarks and bookmark crafts is a good thing. One of the easiest self-directed stations I’ve had has been a bookmark station. Whether it’s using origami paper or odds and ends from the craft stash, my kids can spend an afternoon making bookmarks.
Below I’ve pulled together ones that have worked the best for self-directed programs using duct tape. Have a favorite? Share with me!
Sensibly Sara has a really good tutorial for the duct tape bookmarks that my teens love. They like to make monsters, faces, and show off their favorite patterns. The best part is that these can be rotated either way so that you can mark a particular side of a page, especially if you use different patterns of duct tape on different sides.
Over on craftionary, they take duct tape and make flag bookmarks with paperclips. Extremely easy to do, I’ve done this before with Washi Tape and colored paper clips for book committees and research. They take maybe two minutes per bookmark, and it’s an excellent way to code books, journals, and other things that you need to mark without making permanent damage.
On Handmade Cuties, they turned a duct tape feather earring craft into bookmarks by adding string. These were a blast at our Hunger Games party. With a little ingenuity you could modify it to use duct tape tassels or hearts.
Over on Cute lil’ Cupcakes, they have an awesomely easy tutorial for a woven bookmark. I’d recommend using plain colors, or one color and one pattern, as multiple patterns just end up a mess. However, once a teen gets set on something they get running and nothing can stop them, so enjoy the eye-bending creations they come up with! You can also use the same weaving technique in a variety of different duct tape crafts, such as bracelets, necklaces, and headbands.
Finally, there is the Duct Tape tutorial, which gives you a four-color bookmark: a full pattern on one side, and three overlapping colors on the back:
What are your favorite bookmark crafts?