Continuing with my current obsession with Halloween crafts, I have designed a set of spooky bookmarks, free to download for personal use.
I used a Cricut Maker cutting machine to cut the bookmarks out, but if you do not have a cutting machine, you can print the templates and cut these by hand instead.
There are three types of bookmarks in my set, and I have written steps for each of these - Origami bookmarks, jumbo cutout bookmarks and printable bookmarks. I also have recorded video tutorials for folding the origami bookmarks, which you can watch here, as well as a short video on preparing and assembling the cutout bookmarks, which you can find here if you would prefer a more visual / auditory tutorial.
Halloween Origami Bookmarks
To make the origami bookmarks using Cricut's Design Space, follow the steps below to prepare and cut the file correctly.
1- Download the SVG file here.
2- Import into Design Space as a cut file. Add to canvas.
3- Ungroup the elements by clicking on the elements, clicking on Arrange, and selecting ‘Ungroup’
4- Highlight the top grey square and the two sides of the spider web and click ‘Attach’ on the bottom right. Repeat with the bottom grey square and the pumpkin shape.
5- If you only want to make one of the designs, use the panel on the right to hide the unwanted design.
6- Attach your paper to a light grip mat (paper with a different colour either side works best, but if you do not have any, a separate piece of paper in a different colour cut to the same size as the outline and glued to the rear of the design sheet after cutting also works, or you could use white paper and colour the paper in a design of your choice.
7- Change material type to ‘intricate cuts’ and change the pressure to ‘less’. ‘Washi’ and click ‘Make’. As this setting is designed for card, it makes 2 passes. Once the Cricut has completed its first pass, cancel the cut to release the project.
TIP: Use a brayer to ensure that your paper is stuck well to your mat, this will minimize the risk of tears in the design as it is cut.
To fold the Origami Bookmark:
1- Fold the paper diagonally, with your finished face on the outside.
2- Fold the triangle in half vertically and unfold again.
3- Flip the design so that the cut side is on your work surface, and the point of the triangle is pointing downwards.
4- Lift the top flap of the triangle’s point and fold upwards, aligning the point in the centre of the top fold line of the triangle.
5- Fold the side points of the triangle down and towards the middle, so that both triangle side points meet at the bottom point of the triangle and your design sides are touching.
6- Fold the bottom points up to the top of the diamond shape, creating a horizontal crease and unfold again.
7- Open out the design slightly and fold each triangular flap underneath and into the gap, folding along the crease made in step 6.
Flatten the design, pressing down all of the creases to ensure they are secure.
Cutout Bookmarks
1- Download the PNG file skull cutout design here, or the Halloween words cutout design here, and upload into Cricut Design Space
2- Import as a cut file
3- Resize the design to Width ‘17.076cm, Height 18.4cm.
4- Each part of the design is around 7cm wide and 18cm long. I cut out two different colored pieces of A4 card at 9 cm wide x 20cm long and placed them next to each other on a Light Grip mat so that the back piece is cut from a different colour to the front piece.
5- Click ‘Make’ and Set the cut to ‘Intricate’, with the pressure selection set to ‘less’ for thin card.
6- Once the pieces are cut, glue the cutaway piece to the back piece – I use a stick glue around the edges for this
TIP: Use a brayer to ensure that your card is stuck well to your mat, this will minimize the risk of tears in the design as it is cut. This is particularly useful to do on designs that have a lot of small cuts to make.
Print and Cut Bookmarks
I used Cricut Design Space to print and cut these, but they can easily be cut by hand. You can download the template for these here. I printed these onto good quality printer paper, glued the design onto thin cardstock, and then used the 'Cut' part of 'Print and Cut' to cut out the design. I used the 'Medium Cardstock' setting, due to the two layers of material. Before printing and cutting the designs, the design was resized to Width: 17.2cm, Height: 16cm.
I also laminated a few of these after they were cut, as my son wanted a laminated bookmark - I then cut these out from the laminated sheet by hand, ensuring to leave a small margin of clear material to keep the bookmark edges sealed. If you look closely at the third picture above, you can see the shine of the laminated material.
On the first bookmark above, I wanted to add a ribbon at the top. If you would like to do the same, you could use a hole punch carefully lined up to the black circle at the top of the design, if you are cutting these by hand or if you are using Cricut Design Space, you can follow the below steps for the hole to be cut at the same time as the rest of your design.
1 - With your design loaded into Design Space, click on the ‘Shapes’ tab on the left in Design Space, and select a circle.
2 - Resize the circle to 0.4cm, and place this over the black circle on the bookmark.
3 - Highlight both the circle and the bookmark and click on ‘Slice’ on the bottom right-hand side. This will cut the circle out of the bookmark.
4 - You can now delete the circle you created, along with the circle that has now been cut out from the bookmark, leaving you with a hole, that will be cut when you make your project.
I hope you enjoy making bookmarks using these designs!
Happy Halloween!
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