Guest Post-Paperclip Bookmarks

Emily sometimes has posts that fall into the category of: “Crap my kids make.” Today’s post falls into the category of “Crap Emily’s friends make.” What qualifies me to make this post you ask? Well, I’m a friend of Emily’s and I make crap—need I say more?

Emily’s posts and crap (oops—I meant crafts!) inspire me to look at things and think: “Why buy that? I can totally make that.” Recently I even saved a Kleenex box and aluminum can because I had a vision for desk supplies (but that is for a later post and yes I probably need an intervention!)

Inspired by Emily one Saturday morning I found myself accompanying her to a mecca of sorts for us—a crap (I mean craft) fair—where there is a crap load of ideas of things you can make instead of buy. We made our way around as I tried to take photos of things we wanted but of course had no plans to buy. Soon we came upon a stand where a nice lady was selling fun little bookmarks. Since lady was standing there and not moving I knew I couldn’t sneak a photo so I ended up investing in one bookmark to utilize as a prototype for the project.

I would need a few supplies to make these and it was not hard to convince Emily (hello—she is the author of a blog entitled: “52 Weeks of Crap I Make”) to go to the 2nd mecca of the day—yep, you guessed it. The Lobby of Hobbies (where you should NEVER pay full price for anything and nobody is happy—but that’s for another blog post too!) There I picked up the necessary supplies-- a Fiskers punch, a glue gun and a few packs of large paperclips. You will also need several small pieces of decorative paper but if you are a scrapbooker like myself you have mountains of small pieces of paper to use!
Here are the supplies:

Use your Fiskars punch (I bought this one: http://www2.fiskars.com/Products/Crafting/Punches/Squeeze-Punches/Seal-of-Approval-Squeeze-Punch-Large) to punch out multiple shapes. I then used my Creative Memories cutter system to cut out smaller circles that could fit inside the punches I had just made (you could use any cutting system or perhaps you are more talented than myself and could free-hand cut the circles. If I did that it would like a kindergartener had cut them!) I then used glue sticks to glue the smaller circles onto the shapes I had punched out. The prototype I purchased used two punches from a solid color of paper per paperclip with a smaller circle from a designed piece of paper only glued on the punch that will be the front of your bookmark. You can get creative and mix it up any way you want. I also used some white paper and stickers from my stash (did I mention I am a scrapbooker? Scrapbookers have stashes!) to make some of them more personalized.

For the punching and creating of circles, I recommend you do it in an assembly line/mass production of sorts to make it most efficient for yourself—get all that cutting/punching work out of the way 1st and then get to the gluing!

Once you have created your punches the way you want them, pull out your trusty glue gun and glue them front to back to the top of your paperclip. I found it easiest to line the top of each side of the clip with glue and then match up the punches front to back to attach to the top.
I gave these as gifts at my book group holiday and they were a hit! They are also a great addition to an office/desk set you make for anyone (see Emily’s earlier post.) I really like that you can personalize them and no two of them are alike!

And here is the finished product:

So fun! And special thanks to Emily for allowing me to guest post about the CRAP she inspired me to make!