Well y’all in a few short days it will once again be my favorite time of the year: Bridgerton Season. And while last year I whipped up these adorable Bridgerton themed t-shirts and set a super cute Featherington themed tablescape this year we’re going in a different direction.
With Bridgerton themed bookmarks!
There are so many beautiful Bridgerton special editions these days and I ordered the newest set the day it was announced! I LOVE THEM. They’re so pretty with the gold foiling and I love all of the hidden easter eggs. You can watch the full un-boxing series for all 8 books here (we’re up to book 4 but I’ll keep un-boxing them as they arrive so check back!) but in the meantime I decided to whip up a few cute Bridgerton themed bookmarks for my annual re-read.
Let’s get started.
Supplies:
- Cricut Maker 3
- Fine-Point Cutting Blade
- Cricut Light Grip Mat (that’s the green one!)
- 1 Solid Glitter Cardstock
- 1-3 Patterned Cardstock
- 1 Vinyl
- Transfer Tape
- Weeding Tool
- Spatula Tool
- Cricut Cut Files
- Glue Runner
- Straight Edge
Check Out the FULL VIDEO Tutorial:
Step 1: Upload your SVG’s
Alright y’all first things first… let’s hop into Cricut Design Space. From here you can use my link to grab the cut files for this project. They’re already formatted for you so you’re ready to go!
The black layer is going to be your actual bookmark… for my project this is going to be the gold glitter cardstock. From here you have a few options… if you’re using a double sided cardstock you can turn off the blue layer of icons and you’re good to go.
But if (like me) you’re using a single sided glitter you’ll want to cut the blue icons out of the same material as your bookmarks.
Then you can cut the gray icons out of your patterned cardstock… and your two pink icons out of your vinyl.
Then we’re good to go!
Go ahead and cut, cut, cut!
Once you’ve cut your files you’ll want to remove them from the cutting mat… which is easier said then done. When you’re working with paper the main goals are: don’t rip anything and don’t curl anything.
Which means you always want to curl the cutting mat away from the paper (and not the paper away from the cutting mat!). Go ahead and flip that cutting mat over… then start to curl it up and away from your cardstock. Then you can use a combination of your fingers and the spatula tool to remove the cardstock from the cutting mat.
You’ll want to keep the cardstock as flat to the table as possible during this process. I typically use the spatula to get under the tiny pieces of cut cardstock and then hold it flat to the table with one hand while curing the cutting mat away with the other hand.
It sounds harder than it is… and if the paper curls a little we can curl it back! But in this case we want to keep our paper as sturdy and curl free as possible.
Step 2: Glue your Bookmark Together
If you’re using a double sided paper you can skip some of these steps… but if you’re using a glitter (like I am) you’ll need to add that blue layer from the cut files to the top of the bookmark first.
Otherwise the main focus of the bookmark will be the backside of the glitter cardstock! And no one wants to see that! Here’s the best solution I’ve found for putting all the pieces together.
We’re going to be working on one of our teacup bookmarks so we have a small teacup cut out that was our blue cut layer in Design Space. We’ll start by adding glue to the back of half of that tea cup. Which half doesn’t matter but you’ll only want to do half or it will get very messy, very quickly!
Once you’ve added glue to the back you can line up the teacup icon with the matching portion of the teacup bookmark… they should be identical. Line them up and glue it down!
Now we’re going to make our first fold. Go ahead and line up your straight edge so that it’s going straight through the middle of your teapot. Then fold back the bookmark portion of your glitter cardstock so just the teapot is on top.
Go ahead and crease this fold all the way back. Then add glue to the other half of your teapot (the backside of your teapot! You’re essentially filling in the rest of the back with glue.)
Now line it up with the outline of the teapot’s handle on the other half of our golden glitter bookmark!
So now we have a teapot on top of a loop of cardstock.
Go ahead and carefully crease the end of your glitter cardstock… this is the bookmark portion of the bookmark. The part that will actually go in the book! The teapot will then sit just outside of the book (either on top or on the side!).
Once everything is creased and folded I did stick my glue runner inside the two sides of the bookmark and added just enough glue to hold it flush. That way the bookmark’s two sides stay together.
Ready for out last layer? Let’s move on to the patterned cardstock now!
Step 3: Assemble your Bookmark
At this point we’re almost finished… our layer of patterned cardstock just needs to go behind the glitter cardstock teapot we just assembled!
It can slide right on… but I wanted it to be a little sturdier so I added a bit of glue to the front of our patterned cardstock teapot. Then when I slid it behind the glitter cardstock teapot I was able to press firmly and glue them together.
Just be careful when you’re adding your glue dot. Some of our bookmarks (like the carriage and the bee!) have more cutouts in the glitter layer. So you’ll want to add your glue to a section that won’t be visible once they’re glued together.
Like behind the bee’s head or the main body of the carriage.
If you add it behind the windows everyone will be able to see it! Plus it will be super sticky. Yuck.
Step 4: Enjoy!
Now you’re all set! Whether you’re making one of these bad boys or the whole set they’re super cute! I’m thinking they would be a fun project for book club!
Everyone can make their favorites… plus it would be super easy to make these as gifts. I’ve seen them as butterflies and dragons quite often (which makes sense… the wings lend themselves to this design super easy!) but how cute are these for Bridgerton.
I think Lady Whistledown would approve.
Leave a Reply