Mother's Day Bookmarks

Mother's Day is coming up this weekend and I love helping Monkey make something to give to his grandmothers. Both of them are very avid readers, so when I came across this idea for homemade bookmarks, it was perfect. 

I found the instructions for this activity here: http://happyhooligans.ca/homemade-bookmarks-sharpies-rubbing-alcohol/

Supplies: Sharpie markers, eye dropper, 99% isopropyl rubbing alcohol, old milk or vinegar jug, polyurethane spray, ribbon

Last night I cut up an old four litre vinegar jug to make the two bookmarks. After they were cut, I scrubbed them clean. 

Monkey and I sat down to get started. I asked him to think carefully about which colours to use for each of his grandmothers. I also guided him into using the same sort of colour family for each bookmark as recommended in the blog above. 

Monkey started colouring. The more colour on the bookmark, the better the effect will look later, so I encouraged him to cover as much as possible.  

Here's what the bookmarks looked like when he was finished colouring them. 

I thought they looked so bright and fun, I was tempted to stop the activity right there! 

The next step is to pour some rubbing alcohol into a container and use an eye dropper to drip and blur together the colours on the bookmark. The rubbing alcohol has to be 99% isopropyl - trust me! We tried with a lower percentage and had to start over because it didn't work. 

You want to cover the bookmark with rubbing alcohol, but not too much. Luckily, if you think you put too much on, you can just wipe everything away with paper towel and start again (we had to do this when we used the wrong kind). 

You can see the colours start to swirl together as soon as you drop the rubbing alcohol on, which looks pretty neat. 

I wouldn't recommend moving the bookmark around too much, otherwise all the colours will just combine into one not quite as pretty colour, but I did tip them around very slightly to make sure the whole bookmark was covered. 

Once Monkey was happy with how the colours looked, we left them to dry. 

A few hours later, I took the bookmarks outside and sprayed them with polyurethane. Then I punched a hole at the top and added some sparkly ribbon, chosen very thoughtfully by Monkey. 

They look so beautiful!! Monkey's grandmothers love them. Such a special, handmade gift for two very special ladies. 

Mar