Craft Project: How to Make Laminated Bookmarks

Adult coloring books are one of the biggest and hottest hobbies going on right now. I admit, I’m a huge fan of sitting down during the evening hours and getting creative with a new design in one of my adult coloring books. I find it to be super relaxing and a great way to relieve some stress.

With that said, what do you do with all of those new designs that you colored? Well, over the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing some quick & easy craft projects with you that utilize those finished & colored pages that you made! The butterfly design that I’m featuring as this bookmark is a page that I colored from the Butterfly Gardens Adult Coloring Book that I review back in early August here on the blog.

Craft Project: How to Make Laminated Bookmarks

Colored Design (from coloring book)
Laminating Machine with Laminating Plastic Sheet
1/4″ Hole Puncher
Fiber, Ribbon or Yarn
Scissors

From paper (your colored design) cut out a strip that measures 7″ long by 2 1/4″ wide. You can make your strips as long and as wide that you like, but I typically stick to that specific size when I make them.

If you own a laminating machine, you’ll want to follow the directions that came with your specific unit. With mine, I turn it on and heat it up. I place my paper strip in between the two plastic sheets and then place them in the cardboard protective folder that came with my machine. When it’s hot & ready, I feed the cardboard folder through the machine. Once it comes out the other side, I take it and let it sit on my table for about 5 minutes (untouched) to cool. Once it has cooled, I open up the folder and remove my laminated piece.

Using sharp scissors, cut around the edge of your bookmark, leaving about 1/8″ space around the paper design. You need to leave that space, so that your piece stays sealed underneath the plastic. Once you have it trimmed out use a hole puncher to punch your hole at the top. Cut a 5″ long piece of fiber or ribbon and loop it through the punched hole. That’s it, you’re done!

Additional Tips: If you want to make reversible & double-sided designs, you can layer two of them back-to-back together before you place them in the plastic protective sheet. Since it will be slightly thicker to feed through your machine, you might need to turn up the heat setting slightly to accommodate it. You can buy laminating sheets with a matte finish or a glossy finish, I prefer using the glossy finish for this particular project. If you don’t own a machine, take your designs into an office supply store and use their machines. Since your paying a small fee to use them, make up several of them at one time (enough to fit into/onto one full laminating sheet) to get your money’s worth. When coloring in my designs I like to use glitter gel pens and metallic gel pens which gives the designs some added sparkle.

If you need a new laminator and looking for a really affordable one, you can purchase one from Amazon for a really great price!

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