Crafts and fun: Letter Bookmarks

Hello  there everyone!

I´m writing from my father´s computer, since my poor laptop´s power cord died on me.....and I have to wait for the new one I ordered to come. It´s actually quite strange, not having a laptop to use whenever I feel like it. Thank goodness for my smartphone: I can actually check my email.

I thought blogging was definitely out of the question until my father brought his work laptop home, though. A big thank you for him, since he was nice enough to lend it to me for awhile----

Now, these past few days I´ve been feeling "crafty". I´ve seen what wonderful things some of my friends have made, and decided that I wanted to do something creative (that doesn´t involve cosplay in any shape or form, hahaha). However, it´s not like I usually have many materials on hand--quite the opposite. Ask me for a gajillion sewing supplies, and I´ll probably have them and shove my surplus in your direction. Craft supplies? Not so much.

That´s when I saw my pride and joy--my letterbox. I had the greatest idea flash!! Being the lengthy letter-writer that I am, I am forever buying letterpaper. However, most writing paper brands seem to think that the acceptable length for a letter is 2 pages--when I write a 5-page minimum amount on principle. Not to mention those writing paper brands (Western, all of ´em) that for some strange reason make envelopes in which the paper doesn´t fit because they´re too effing small. The result should be quite obvious: I have a lot of leftover unused envelopes lying around, doing absolutely nothing. Well, nothing but existing and being there and completely useless and taking up valuable space..

Besides being a letterwiter, I´m also a reader. I read a lot. Most of the time, one or two books at the same time (not literally!). I use lots of bookmarks. But.....I am a complete disaster and always end up losing one or twobookmarks for every six or seven books I read. That´s just not fun! I like cute ones, but end up using pieces of paper because I don´t want them to disappear randomly.

Combine these two situations?

Yes, that´s it! I decided to use the extra envelopes I had to make bookmarks. After all, it´s not like I was going to use those too-small envelopes, really. As an experimental procedure, I decided to use two differnt kinds: one bunch of envelopes with a flower (daisy) theme, and another with a Tinkerbell theme, since those are the ones I had the most of.

Here are the original daisy envelopes (no pictures of the Tinkerbell ones alone, sorry!):

And here is my "Daisy bookmark", compared to the envelope. I made each side of the bookmark "different", trying for an "opposite" look, to make it more interesting and use the envelope material in the most thrifty way:

Side 1, the "front"

Side 2, the "back"

I used three envelopes to make it, as well as half of a soft thin cardboard card that came as "support" in the pack of writing paper.

The Tinkerbell envelopes had a lot less decoration on the original envelope, so they had less "creative possibility". I ended up making a cute Tinkerbell "character bookmark".  I also switched where her name was from one side to the other, because I thought that it´d be boring otherwise.

Side 2, the "back"

Side 1, the "front"

I used two envelopes for this bookmark, since there weren´t any particular designs that I could "thrift" as it were. Also, the other half of the soft cardboard "backing".

I wanted to add tassels to the bookmarks too, but I thought that it might be a bit too much.







What do you think about these designs? Do you like them? Which one do you like better?











Which sides do you like best? Have you ever done anything like this? I´d love to know! I really enjoy getting comments! <3