Hugs in a Card

The first time I saw a shaker bookmark in a video tutorial, I fell in love with it and told myself I have to make one too someday. That was 2 years ago. I couldn’t start the project because all the tutorials I saw required a fuse tool. I am new at cardmaking, or paper crafting in general and investing in one is a bit costly for me.

Then I found some blogs suggesting to use a hot glue gun instead. I thought that sounds feasible so I bought myself one for just $11 at Spotlight.

The tutorial I saw just needs to run the tip of the gun through the plastic sleeves. Sad to say it didn’t work for me. The plastic sleeves would not stick to each other to create a seal no matter how many times I ran the hot tip.

I was tempted to try a soldering iron gun or a wood burner but I thought they’re too dangerous so I said maybe I could sew the edges instead. It would definitely take longer but I enjoy sewing anyway.

In the end I discovered that it will only work with chunky sequins. The smaller sequins I used went through the stitches so I had to brainstorm again until I realised that I could use a double sided tape!

I’m gonna share here the steps on how to make a shaker bookmark.

First, I used a bookmark die cut on my designer papers. You can use another die cut of your choice, a tag label punch or just cut the shape you want. Stamp your sentiment then also cut a piece of plastic sleeve just enough to cover your bookmark.

Next, line up the double sided tape around the bookmark as in the photo below.

Then release the backing paper of the double sided tape except on one side. I left one of the wide sides unreleased because that’s where I am going to insert the sequins.

Then carefully close the plastic to seal the bookmark.

Cut off the excess plastic around the edges of the bookmark except the side where you are going to insert the sequins.

Then comes the best part, filling in your bookmark with sequins! You can be creative as you want but make sure you don’t overdo it. You don’t want a lumpy bookmark after all hehehe…

You can now release the other double sided tape to seal your bookmark, cut around the edges and start creating your design for the outside front part.

Stick on your image, add a matching twine and voila! You’re done. It’s so easy and economical to make. I’m so glad I discovered this technique.

Here are some of the bookmarks I have finished. It’s the perfect project to make if you have plenty of patterned papers lying around untouched.

Also is you have stamp sets with small images, then this is the perfect time to get them out and use them.

For more thrifty tips, you can buy the plastic cover from Officeworks, for only $5.99. It’s called the Kadink Clear Roll and you can already make lots of bookmarks out of this. For the twine, Officeworks also has a set of paper twine for $4.98 in lovely colors or you can buy bakers twine online. They’re very cheap.

For the sequins, you may opt for the sequins mix that most online crafting shops have but they’re quite expensive (around $10 for one color theme). But if you’re looking at more variety of colors, you can get a pack of sequins from the Red Dollar (10 colors or so in a pack of $5) and mix it with this glitter shaker set from Kmart.

Hope you’ll enjoy making your own shaker bookmarks soon! 🙂

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Here is a video of another way to create a shaker bookmark without fuse tool.