CAS Bookmarks

 

Hello friends!  Today's Stamp Simply project is a trio of ultra simple, assembly-line-stamped bookmarks using two of our beautiful scripture sets, Tim Holtz's Tag Collection dies, and a couple of sheets of Craft Consortium designer paper.  These were super easy and quick to make using a stamping platform to align the stamps (I under-stamped with grey ink and then over-stamped with shimmery silver).  

The paper is two-sided so I didn't really want to cover up the pretty colors on the flip side.  I opted to stamp another sentiment on the back, but because the paper is relatively thin, needed to reinforce the hole at the top for a little extra strength and durability.  In a way it is nice that they're thin...they won't mar your book at all so long as the ribbon and beads extend above the closed pages (who else still loves the look, smell and feel of a "real" book?!).  For this reason I had to really resist the urge to bling them up with rhinestones, choosing instead to splash them with diluted Delicata silver ink.  They are really shimmery IRL and I'm sad the photos don't capture that.  

Here's a close-up of one so you can see more of the details.  Isn't that paper just gorgeous?!  

And here's the back, showing the circle reinforcement, which is part of the Tag Collection die set.

There's lots of subtle symbolism here: there's a Trinity of beads, one for the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; the sheer ribbon is a symbol of the breath of Life that God breathed into Adam and Eve and all of His Creation; the colors are a gentle reminder of the rainbow and God's promise.  And of course, there are the scriptures themselves...that God's Word will stand forever, and that His love for us was why He sent His Son to redeem us.

These are the tools I used to add beads to that rustic jute string.  My friends on Ravelry (essentially like "Splitcoaststampers" for fiber artists) taught me the trick of using a dental floss threader for inserting yarn through tiny beads, and that did the trick here just perfectly.  A thin crochet hook will work too and I use that a lot (in fact, the one I frequently use belonged to Patrick's grandmother so it is quite sentimental), but for the jute and these small beads, I found the floss threader worked better.  (The hook had a tendency to fray the jute).  

Supplies:

Stamp Simply Clear Stamps - Autumn Silhouettes
Stamp Simply Clear Stamps - Salvation
Craft Consortium Designer Paper - Retro Summer
Tim Holtz Tag Collection Thinlets Dies
Memento Grey Flannel ink (for understamping)
Delicata Silvery Shimmer ink
sheer silver ribbon
jute string
beads from stash