Washi Tape and Recycled Plastic Bookmarks

Did you know that March is National Reading Month? 

Anytime is reading time around here!
 

This project is the 2nd in a plastic series that is once again, inspired by our recycling bin.
 

These bookmarks are fun and really easy to make and actually, quite resilient. 

We’ve been testing them for a couple of weeks. 

 
Also- It’s an excuse to use washi tape – which as you can see, I store on an embroidery ring à la so many Pinterest pictures.

It’s a very functional system.

 Materials:

#1 plastic- ours is from a clear egg carton.
Washi tape

Ruler and X-acto knife or scissors

Corner punch

Cut the flat top off the egg carton and recycle the rest of the carton (or make these butterflies I made for work a longtime ago); if you’re using another source for plastic -say from a salad container, you'll need to wash and clean any paper branding off (and it might take hot water and even some Goo Gone to get the glue off off).

 

Cut a 1” wide by 7” long strip of plastic (a wider version is pictured here).

Apply tape to one side then trim the edges and flip the plastic over.

 

 

Stick tape to the second side, carefully lining the patterns up on both sides (so they don’t compete with one another).

    

Trim the excess tape off the sides.

The trim the sides with scissors or use a ruler and X-acto knife on a protected surface (adults job).

I really like using the corner punch to get rid of the sharp corners- you could use a scissors if you don't have a paper punch obsession like mine.

We also tried punching a hole in one end and adding a ribbon but it’s just not necessary.
 

You can leave sections of clear plastic too.

When I showed my friend our bookmarks, she suggested making a wider bookmark and blocking out all but one line to help a young reader focus.

When my son was little, he read using his pointer finger to help him keep place; I was told that's developmentally normal so I made one like that for the instructions here. Do you have an early reader? Would this help?