Birthmarks

Let's talk about birthmarks, shall we? Well, birthday bookmarks, that is. It seems that a few of you thought it might be a good idea for me to make some holiday bookmarks, and I love that idea, I really do, and I'm going to get right on that, but I don't want anyone slinging any blog snot at me for putting my Christmas pretties up before Thanksgiving, so I'm going to hold off a bit.

In the meantime, I thought these little guys might hold you over for a bit.

I'm totally giving these to my sixth graders for their birthdays. It's a perfect teacher gift, don't you think? I think it would be a nifty party favor too. Or a great gift with a Barnes & Noble gift card. Or a fun little somethin' somethin' to stick inside a birthday card. Oh heck, just make some for yourself and celebrate your birthday all year long.

You can't have a birthday without cake, right?

I tweaked the one on the left a wee little bit, so if you're wondering why it looks different down below, it's because these are my prototypes and I thought the one was a little blah.

Oh dear, how did these get in here? You weren't supposed to see these.

Close your eyes and don't hate, okay?

Remember how I made my last batch of bookmarks with freebie magnets from the phone book? Yeah, well . . . I ran out so I had to go and buy some magnets.

And just between you and me, I'll never go back. These are worth the ten cents per bookmark because they have the adhesive already on them and they are STR-O-O-O-NG.

Notice that it's a box of 50 magnets. And each magnet is good for three bookmarks.

And, oopsie, I used all of those (yes that means 150 bookmarks, but really, who's counting?), and I had to go out and buy the gigondo box of magnets so I could bring you some more magnet love.

Can you believe it? I'm a little magnet happy lately. You could say that the kids in my life aren't lacking for bookmarks and you wouldn't be wrong.

As I was saying, I looooooove the self-adhesivity of these babies.

Remember I said that I can get three bookmarks per magnet? This is how I cut them up. I cut them in half, then each of those halves into thirds. I'm reeeeeeeee-al good at fractions. A fact that my sixth graders do not appreciate one little bit. They sort of hate fractions.

Then I cut a little extra off the edge of one of the pieces for each magnet. I do this because the little suckers won't line up perfectly for some dang reason. They go all magnet-mind-of-their-own on me and repel each other when I try to stack them perfectly lined up.

So I had to smother my symmetry issues and deal by making one of them shorter. It still bugs me.

Here's the longer of the two magnets.

And here's the shorter one on top and ready to be stuck to the opposite side of the bookmark.

Smackdown! And there you have it, another magnet bookmark. Bet you needed one too.

Here are the jpgs for you. In case you didn't see the last batch, print these as 4x6 photo prints, cut them in half lengthwise so they are 2" x 6", then fold over for a magnet bookmark.

Also, don't forget to click on each image before saving them to your computer so you get the best resolution.

Happy Birthday!

Pretend, okay?