Mother’s day is just around the corner, and here is a super simple gift that your kids can make and give themselves! A personalized photo gift can get pricey fast, but here is a simple DIY photo bookmark project that is cute but frugal! The supplies couldn’t be simpler and you most likely have most of these things in your home! Any mother or Grandmother that loves to read would love a pretty little bookmark adorned with their favorite kiddos faces. Every time they open their book, or mark their spot, they have your smiling faces looking back at them! A fun gift that is easy to make and costs very little, but that keeps the smiles coming for that special Mom or Grandma in your life!
This was a quick impromptu project that we did last year before mothers day as a sweet little something for the kids to give to their Grandma. You can read about 25 other easy DIY Mother’s Day gift ideas here too if you need some more inspiration, but this is by far the quickest and easiest of all of them. Just a couple minutes, a few supplies, a great photo and you have a darling little gift for your kids to give this Mother’s Day.
You will need:
A roll of clear packaging tape
scissors
a small section of ribbon
a hole punch
a photo booth photo strip or other photo cut into the shape of a bookmark
The kids and I were out and about one day, and I randomly decided that it would be fun to stick a couple bucks in the photo booth machine and get some silly pictures to commemorate our day together! We had a great time making silly faces and acting all crazy for the photos! The pictures were even printed on some cute photo paper with adorable graphics and lots of choices. We chose to go with a little PB&J sandwich graphic that said “happy together” cause the kids found it to be super silly. You could easily esit and print some photos on your home computer too instead of visiting the photo booth. I liked the novelty of the photo booth strips, and thought they brought a fun, goofy touch to the gift.
Once we got home I was thinking how much the photo strips looked like book marks, and that they would make a super fun gift for the kids to give their Grandma for Mother’s day. So we got out a few supplies that we gathered from around the house and got to work turning our photos into bookmarks.
The process took only minutes, and was very very simple:
- We decided to make our bookmarks short, so we cut each photo strip in half and taped the pictures together (blank backs together) so there would be pictures on both sides and then laminated it with packing tape. If you want to leave your photo strip long just add a piece of pretty paper to the back to make the bookmark look more finished.
- Cut and trim off any writing or graphics that you don’t want before you start laminating it.
- Lay out a strip of packing tape, set your photo in the center of it, and smooth it all out. Then carefully line up another piece of tape to go over the top. Lay it over, smoothing carefully to prevent bubbles or ripples. Then trim the tape leaving a small amount of clear tape around each side to keep the photo sealed in the tape.
- Then you can punch a hole in the top using your hole punch and then run a small piece of ribbon through that and tie. Be careful to make the hole far enough into the bookmark so it doesn’t rip the tape while you are adding the ribbon.
That’s it!
Just imagine your own Mom’s smile each and every time she opens her book to see her kid’s and grand kids! A super fun little gift that means a lot! This and the Painted Pet Rocks that we made for Grandma’s garden last year has been have been really fun gifts for the kids to make and give Grandma for Mother’s Day that I know their Grandma’s both really enjoyed!
