Monster Bookmarks

My, but it's been a long time since I've posted anything!  I'll have to write about things more often.  This fall, we started up an Arts and Crafts Club, to take the place of the Jewelry Club we had last school year.  Between the change from jewelry to art, and the widening of the ages to include both elementary and middle school, we have grown our club already! 

In September, we made Monster Bookmarks, the instructions to which I found posted all over the place, and with varying degrees of difficulty (though they all ended up the same).  This is how we made them here.

You will need:
 - Construction paper or other heavy paper, cut into a square (it doesn't matter what size, but we used 8x8 inch paper)
- Scissors
- Glue
- Markers or crayons to decorate with

1) Fold your paper in half and then in half again, so you have four equal squares.

2) Cut out one of the squares, leaving the remaining 3 squares connected.

4) Holding your paper like a V, cut each of the edge squares from the bottom corner to the top corner, like this:

5) Repeat on the other side, so it looks a bit like a kitty face.

6) Fold one of the triangles into the center square, then put glue on top of it.  Fold the other triangle over the first, sticking it down carefully so it lies flat.  

7) Be sure you don't get any glue under the first triangle!  It should make a pocket, like this:

 8) Use markers or crayons to decorate your monster face. If you would like to add teeth, be sure to add them to the inside of the front flap, like so...

 9) ... So they will stick over top of the page when your monster is placed in a book. 

Mmm! Pages! Nom nom nom!

You probably want to avoid decorations like googly eyes or anything else that would prevent a book's pages from lying flat when closed with the monster inside, or anything that might fall off and get stuck in a book, like glitter.

This project was super easy, despite the many steps.  The kids (ranging from 8 to 12) each made about 4 of them in half an hour; some of the kids used the square we cut out in step 3 to make smaller ones.

My next Arts & Crafts Club is on Tuesday, and I have been asked what we're making.  The truth is... I'm not sure yet!  Stay tuned!

- Miss Kat

Today, Lucky is wearing: a Geek the Library shirt and a firefighter's helmet
Our scratch-n-sniff bookmark is: Cinnamon buns