DIY Planet Watercolor Bookmark

Hey there! I wanted to make a bookmark with watercolor paint so I decided to make a planet bookmark and I'll be showing you how to make the planet bookmark too.

You can add as many planets as you want and you can shape the bookmark anyway you would like. I cut around the planets while leaving a small border around them. The shape of it make it different from a regular rectangle bookmark.

You can also use any type of paint you would like. I used watercolor paint and watercolor paper but you can definitely use acrylic paint and cardstock paper instead.

To learn how to make this, you can watch the video below or you can read on. The tutorial for this bookmark starts at about 3:20.

What you'll need:

Watercolor or cardstock paper

Watercolor or acrylic paint

Paintbrush

Pen

Pencil

Ruler

Scissors

Tape

Hole puncher

Ribbon

Optional: Something circular to trace.

1. The first thing you want to do is that you want to measure and cut out a rectangle that's larger than what you want your planets and your finished bookmark to be.

Make sure you use watercolor paper if you're wanting to use watercolor paint for your bookmark or if you want to use acrylic paint instead you can use cardstock paper.

I measured my rectangle to be about 3 x 6 inches out of watercolor paper but when it was finished it measured to be about 2 1/2 by 5 inches.

2. When you're done cutting the rectangle out, you want to lightly draw out circles for your planets with a pencil. You can create the circles by tracing something circular or you can draw them without tracing anything. 

I drew five circles but you can draw as many as you want.

3. When you're done drawing your circles, you want to punch a hole into the bookmark with a hole puncher.

4. Then you want to tape it down. I taped mine down with clear tape on an old whiteboard and I also erased the lines of the planets so they're lighter but this is optional.

5. Then you can paint your planets with watercolor paint or acrylic paint. If you used watercolor paper you should use watercolor paint or if you used cardstock paper you can use acrylic paint. I used watercolor paint because I'm using watercolor paper for my bookmark.

I started off by painting the middle planet with pink and purple. Then I blended both of these colors in the middle.

When I was done with the middle planet, I painted the bottom planet blue and painted dark red wavy stripes on the planet above the middle planet. Once the stripes were dry, I painted in the white spaces in with a lighter red.

Then I painted the other two planets green and a dark purple.

6. When you're done painting, you want to wait for the paint to dry and once the paint is dry you want to carefully take the tape off of the paper.

7. Now you want to draw rings on your planets with a pen and if you want you can draw them on with a pencil first.

8. When you're done, you want to outline the planets with a pen.

9. After you're done outlining the planets, you want to draw a border around the planets with a pencil.

10. Then you want to cut on the border and erase any pencil markings.

11. The last thing you want to do is that you want to add ribbon and you can start by folding a piece of ribbon in half.

12. Then you want to pull the folded part of the ribbon through the hole that's on the front of the bookmark.

13. Then you can pull the ends through the folded part of the ribbon.

14. To finish off the ribbon, you can trim the ends of the ribbon.

That's how you make this planet bookmark!

What do you think about this bookmark idea?

I love how the watercolor paint came out and I like the middle planet the best. I also love the shape of the bookmark because it's different from a normal rectangle bookmark.