Paint Sample Valentine's Day Bookmark

These are the Valentine's I am giving to my students this year. I love them - especially the fact that they won't go right into the trash as soon as the kids get home, And that I inadvertently chose the paint sample with the color "hot to trot" smack dab in the middle. Perfect for Valentine's Day, don't you think? If you'd like to make a few, here's what you'll need:

paint samples - one per Valentine (I got mine at Lowe's)
hole punch
heart punch (optional)
corner rounder (optional)
permanent marker
narrow ribbon (mine was 3/8 inch wide)

1. Round the corners of the paint sample using the corner rounder. The samples I got were already the perfect size, so I didn't have to cut them down. If you want smaller bookmarks, you could cut the samples down or even use a different size or style paint sample.

2. Punch a hole in the center of the top of the bookmark, about 1/4 inch down from the edge. I just used a standard size hole punch.

3. Write your message in permanent marker. I went with the book theme, but you could write whatever message you wanted to. I also signed mine after I took the photo. I discovered that water based markers smeared and didn't look nearly as nice as the Sharpie did, so use a permanent marker. If you have a ton of them to make you could print your message on clear address labels and stick them on, or use a white label and stick your message on to the back.

4. Punch a heart into the center of the bottom of the bookmark. If you'd rather, a sticker would look cute here, too. I used the punch I already had to keep my costs down. (All I had to buy was two spools of ribbon for $0.50 each at Jo-Ann's. One spool made about 25 bookmarks.)

5. Cut the ribbon into about 15 inch lengths, or whatever you like for the size of your bookmark. Find the center of the length of ribbon and fold it in half. Thread the looped end through the hole you punched in the top and then bring the two ends up through the loop and tighten. Viola! You've got a lovely Valentine's Day card / bookmark that (hopefully) isn't headed right for the landfill.