My All Time Favorite Bookmark and How to Make

My All-Time Favorite Bookmark, and How to Make It

If you’re an avid reader, then chances are you’ve been through your fair share of bookmarks.
We’ve all received a fancy one as a gift at some point or another (where is it now?, I wonder as I write this). And all of us book lovers have picked up nice looking bookmarks for ourselves at least once or twice over the years, maybe in a bookstore or a museum gift shop. It might have been one with a quote we liked.
Some readers like to dogear the page where they stop reading. That’s OK, and of course it works. Personally, I don’t like to do that. I prefer to place something between the pages, that is, to use some sort of bookmark.

If you happen to be like me and can’t seem to manage consistently transferring a nice bookmark from one book to another each time you start a new one, or if, again like me, you sometimes read more than one book at a time, then maybe you too tend to use pretty much anything to mark your place. Any receipt, ticket, postcard, shopping list, or simply a scrap paper lying around will do. We can even stick a piece of string between the pages and go about our day, can’t we?

I used to do that until about a year ago, when I stumbled upon a different type of bookmark. I started making them, and they quickly became my favorites. They still are.

I recently attended a big children’s bookfair in Bologna, Italy. I thought it would be fun to make a limited edition of my business card for the event that would double as a bookmark. And so, I designed 3 versions, and then printed and folded them.

At the conference, I was pleased to see how many fellow book lovers responded to these little bookmarks/business cards. I found myself showing others how to make them, and exchanged ideas with them for new ways to use them.

Several people asked me to post a demo of how to make the bookmarks, so they can make them for themselves and gift them to others.

With pleasure, I promised all of those nice people in Italy (you know who you are) I will dedicate my next blog to this little project – bookmarks for the corner of a page that are easy and fun to make and use.

For me, the best part of showing my bookmarks to people was listening to the creative ideas they came up with for how to leave little surprises between the pages of books we enjoy. People just kept suggesting wonderful new ideas to communicate, to express themselves, or simply to personalize the little bookmarks for themselves and other readers in their lives.

Should you decide to join us in making them, you’re all welcome to share your ideas and designs on Twitter or Medium.

General tips

The paper you use has to be square.
Square origami papers work perfectly. They are easy to find, relatively inexpensive, and are already cut and ready to fold.
There are countless patterns and designs to choose from. Almost any size can be folded into a bookmark. I personally prefer 10cm X 10cm (4inch X 4 inch).
Don’t use paper that is too thick, such as cardstock paper (pasteboard). It will be harder to fold, and the bookmark will be less practical.

Creative ideas

Use colorful or patterned paper, or doodle, draw, or add stickers to create your own design. This is a great activity to do with children for bookmarks for their favorite books.
Add a bookmark with a dedication when you gift a book to a loved one.
Leave a bookmark with a quote you like inside the book it comes from.
Make bookmarks from plane tickets, city maps they hand out in hotels, concert tickets, and so on. They make nice memories, especially when left inside the book you were reading at the time. It’s nice to find them again at a later date.
Leave a few little bookmarks with personal notes in different parts of a book you lend or gift to a friend. Write or doodle on them—but be sure to avoid spoilers.
Finally, let these little bookmarks be your friends throughout your adventures in the book and in your life. Write on them whatever has meaning for you. It doesn’t necessarily have to make sense to anyone else. Use a quote that speaks to you, or even just a note from you to yourself.

A Jar of colorful bookmarks makes a wonderful gift to a librarian, a teacher, or in my case my favorite aunt

Below is a demo video. As you can see, I slowly folded paper into a bookmark, and repeated this several times. I hope you decide to try it for yourself. You’ll find that after folding just a few bookmarks, you can do it easily from memory. Then, the real fun begins!

As I said, I prepared business cards that could be used as bookmarks, with a QR code to scan to view my portfolio. Below the demo, I’ve added the spread, for those of you who might be interested in designing your own.

Thank you for reading my blog. I wish you happy bookmark making, and countless hours of pleasurable reading.

For those of you who wish to design a bookmark of your own, here are the spreads of my business cards/bookmarks to help you plan your design.

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