A wonderful crafty friend, Julie (YT: thriftypapergarder), has two daughters who are both starting as new third grade teachers. She has\u00a0asked her crafty friends to make bookmarks so that her daughters can use them as little reading encouragement prizes for their students.<\/p>\n

<\/a>I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to get out a couple\u00a0of the cute Art Impressions mini front and back stamp sets and my Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers<\/a><\/span> and get my watercoloring on! I used the Art Impressions mini front and backs Cat & Dog Mini Set<\/a><\/span> and the Bunny & Ducky Mini Set<\/a><\/span> and the following Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers:<\/p>\n

Dog: Light Gray (091), Brown (060), and Black (010)
\nCat: Dark Pink (027) and Black (010)
\nBunny: Flourescent Pink (003) and Gray Brown (094)
\nDucky: Yellow (050) and Orange (070)<\/p>\n

I fussy cut all the fronts an backs of the critters, and I made sure to ink the edges of the critters and also color on the backsides along the edges to make sure that any slight misalignments or white edges wouldn’t show. I think these types of details are important to keeping a clean and finished look to projects, especially in the case of using thick watercolor paper\u00a0(I used Strathmore 140 lb watercolor paper)\u00a0like I have here.<\/p>\n

<\/a>For the bookmark bases, I used kraft card stock and used Recollections clear embossing powder to create some shine and texture with the Lawn Fawn wood grain stamp from the Woodgrain Backdrops stamp set<\/span><\/a>. I love how these bookmarks ended up looking like boards from a wood fence, and in addition to adding great depth and texture, the clear heat embossing made the bookmarks feel weighty and sturdier too. \u00a0And on the back sides of each of the bookmarks I added the following coordinating sentiments that I printed out on my computer that I matted with scrap pattern papers from my scrap box. I positioned them so that the critters looked like they were standing on them to peek over the fence boards.<\/p>\n

Dog: “Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend. Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read.” — Groucho Marx
\nCat: “Books, Cats, Life is Good.” — Edward Gorey
\nBunny: Some bunny loves reading! “Today a reader, tomorrow a leader.” — Margaret Fuller
\nDucky: “Just tell yourself, Duckie, you’re really quite lucky!” — Dr. Seuss<\/p>\n

The following is a process start to finish video sharing how I made and colored up these bookmarks (there’s also a peak at tomorrow’s post):<\/p>\n