Children's Animal Bookmarks

 Because I firmly believe that it is of utmost importance that we as a society teach our youths the love of reading, I almost always give a gift of books to children.  Making a cute bookmark to go with gift books may further encourage a child to read and mark their place.  Coupling the new animal Sizzix dies with the Paper Smooches bookmark dies is an easy and quick way to make an attractive children's bookmark.

The animal die sets seemed to have more parts than I needed or wanted.  I kept the animals simple and drew in the lion's face and tail tuft.  I also added  two flat-back crystals for the eyes of the giraffe and tied some twine around his neck for extra texture.  (Tip: Since the die sets had some very small parts I put them in a Ziploc baggie before storing them in the plastic storage envelope that came with the set.) I glued all the parts together with 3 in 1 Beacon glue except for the intricate giraffe pattern which I ran through my Xyron sticker maker before adhering to the giraffe base.  The Basic Grey and Authentic 6x6 packs make choosing coordinating the papers for the bookmarks super easy because just about every paper in the pack works together.  Since the paper wasn't quite sturdy enough for a child's bookmark, I cut two of each animal base and two of each bookmark and glued them back-to-back.

I hope that you'll give children books instead of electronic toys.  Better yet, I hope you'll give a child a book AND read it to him/her.  Regular book reading will create a lifetime of memories.