Inspire Me Monday: Read All about It!

Hi everyone!  It's Allison here for Inspire Me Monday!  I hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day yesterday and were blessed with lovely gifts from your children.

Today I'm going to share with you a quick and easy project using your stamps.  This project would be a great project to do with your kids... maybe as a gift for that book lover in your family!

All you're going to need is:

• some fun stamps!
• ink
• neutral colored cardstock
• something to color with
• some patterned papers
• thin magnets (like fridge magnets)
• optional: rectangle dies

Let's get started!!!

Step One:
First we are going to make our bookmark base.  I took a piece of cardstock and folding it in half.  I'm using a scalloped rectangle die to cut a little bit more of a fancy edged bookmark but you can just use your folded piece of paper without the die cuts if you don't have a die like mine.

I positioned the die so that the top edge of the die was hanging beyond the folded part of the paper.  I secured it with some washi tape and then ran it through my die cutting machine.

Step Two:
Next I took some Memento "Tuxedo Black" ink and inked up the stacked book, cake plate and blooms image from the "Short Stacks" stamp set and positioned it towards the top of the bookmark.  I chose this image because the that sweet little book on the bottom... awwww! Then I stamped the simple sentiment form the "Good Thinking: Renewal" stamp set underneath.

Step Three:
Then I pulled out my Copic Markers and colored in my image and sentiment...

Here's a peek at the colors I used:

Step Four:
Then I die cut 3 pieces of patterned paper.  Two for the inside of my bookmark and one for the back side.  You could skip this step if you wanted too but I thought adding some fun paper might be cute!

Step Five:
Before adhering my patterned paper pieces to my bookmark I wanted to apply my magnets.  This way the magnets can't be seen and are hidden under the paper.

I used an adhesive backed thin magnet product from BasicGrey specifically designed for card making and paper projects.

A) I peeled off the magnet's paper backing off the negative side of the magnet and stuck it down to one end of the bookmark.  TIP:  Try using some old thin fridge magnets or magnetic photo paper in place of the thin magnetic discs.

B) Then I allowed the positive side of the magnet to stick itself to the negative side.

C) I peeled the paper backing off the positive side of the magnet pair and then closed the flap of the bookmark.   This ensures that the magnets are exactly opposite to one another underneath the papers.

D) I adhered all 3 of the paper panels to the inside and back of the bookmark.

And VOILA.... a bookmark is born!

This would make a great project as part of a teacher's gift!!  And... a fun bookmark is an easy gift to slip into a normal sized card along with maybe a gift card for your local book store!

I hope you've enjoyed this very simple tutorial today.  I hope it will inspire you to create and use your stamps in other ways.

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Happy creating everyone!

~ Allison Cope ~