Crafts & Fun

1. Help your child cut some nice 21 cm (8½ in.) wide paper (cover or card stock is a good weight) into pieces 4.5 cm (1¾ in.) wide.

2. Fold each paper in half the short way — for a precise crease, draw the point of a knitting needle along a ruler’s edge across the halfway point, before you make the fold, to give a professional look. Your child can decorate the front of the bookmark now — she can experiment with stamps, markers, stickers or a little watercolour design.

3. Apply two tiny pieces of magnetic tape about 1 cm (½ in.) long — one to the inside of the front of the bookmark, one to the inside of the back. You may want to help your child with this step because the magnets have to line up and be faced the right way to stick to each other. It’s this magnetic attraction that will hold the page securely in place.

These also make a very nifty gift for a fellow book lover.

Originally published in Today's Parent, Family Living, Winter 2004