B.A. D.I.Y. Bookmarks

This week, my daughter and I made Valentine bookmarks for her classmates. We could have just bought some Valentines, but I was feeling all uppity about having to buy something to celebrate a holiday.

I wanted to show her that caring doesn’t always mean buying, that it can be just as meaningful – if not more so – taking the time to create something.

So, I asked her about making Valentines, and she was all for it. I googled some ideas and found some pictures of cute homemade bookmark Valentines. Since my daughter is such a good reader, bookmarks seemed like a perfect fit. We chatted early in the week about what the bookmarks should say. I came up with, “You’re the best in my book.”

She was not impressed.

“Then come up with something better,” I said.

She couldn’t.

So, I googled Valentine bookmarks, and found that quite a few featured a similar play on words. I showed her this, thinking it’d prove my point.

“I don’t want to copy what those said,” she said.

Sigh. Sometimes, there’s no winning. Except I control the printer, so we went with my apparently unoriginal “best in my book” idea. So there.

Making the bookmarks was a simple process. I printed Side A of the bookmarks on label paper used for shipping labels. Since those labels print out a half page, we had plenty of half-used sheets available from some recent eBay sales. I cut out the labels, and we went through some old comic books for Side B.

That was a fun process, because it meant finding the perfect little slice of story – a bit of dialogue with some cool action. To do this, we used some old Spider-Man and Charlie Brown comics that she got from Free Comic Book Day. Once we found a suitable image, we stuck the bookmark to the other side of the page, and then cut it out. I have a nice paper cutter perfect for that purpose.

After we made a couple bookmarks featuring Spider-Man and Spider-Woman, I suggested that maybe the girls in the class would want different bookmarks.

She balked at the idea, and pointed out that Spider-Woman was kicking some butt in our images. “What girl wouldn’t want a B.A. girl on her bookmark?” she said.

Yes, she knows that B.A. means “bad-ass.”

She had a point. So, we rightly addressed the bookmarks regardless of gender. That just left the final two steps – adding some color to Side A with crayon, hole-punching a hole in the top of the bookmark, and tying on a ribbon. She took care of the crayon art, and I worked with the hole punch and ribbon.

As we finished up, we talked a bit about making stuff versus buying stuff. I pointed out that while we didn’t have to spend a dime on these Valentines, we did invest a bit of time on them.

“Time-shmime, as important as a lime,” she said. “Actually, less important than a lime.”

The limes of the world will be proud to know that the little dear was true to her word. She even took special care to draw a unique design on each bookmark, even though it meant taking a bit of extra time.

“That’s nice that you did that,” I told her.

“I guess I’m just a crafty girl,” she said.

When we’d finished and double-checked the class list to make sure everyone had a bookmark, I pressed her again. “You’re sure this was worth it? It would have been easier just to buy Valentines.”

“But then we wouldn’t have had this moment,” she said.

And that made it all worth while.