Beachside Bookmark

If you're someone who loves to take a bag of books with you to the beach, you're going to love this cute Beachside Bookmark.  Made with colorful embroidery threads, this DIY bookmark is a great way to make sure you don't lose your place in your favorite beach read!  Best of all, you can easily make several bookmarks in a couple hours, so if you're plowing through several books at a time, you can create bookmarks for all of them in no time!

Materials:

• 4-6 satin embroidery threads (or cotton yarn strings), 18 inches long each, colors: orange and white
• 4 waxed jewelry making cotton strings, 18 inches long each, color: light blue
• Small-sized, smooth, rounded, light gray (or white) beach pebble, with a hole drilled in its upper part
• 4 small sized beads, in various shades of blue
• A strip of light blue lace (or lacy ribbon), about 0.7 inches wide and 3 inches long
• Scissors
• Glue

Instructions:

1. Hold all your strings together.   As you’re holding them, measure 4 inches from their one end and make a knot. 
    
2. Use masking tape to keep this end fixed to a firm and flat surface (like a table or desk) and start braiding your strings.  Make a braid 15 inches long and then make another knot, for the other end, holding all the strings together again.  After you’ve made this second knot, free the braid from the masking tape.
    
3. Go back to the braid’s end where you’ve started from, pick it up and cut the orange and white strings to half their length (2 inches).  Leave the light blue strings long, as they are. 
   
   
    
4. To continue, thread 2 of these light blue strings through the beach pebble’s hole.
   
   
    
5. After you’ve passed the 2 light blue strings through the pebble’s hole, place the strip of light blue lace (or lace ribbon) on top of the pebble.  Hold the 4 light blue strings 2 in one hand and 2 in the other, to make a double knot over the lace strip - make it tight. The lace strip should look like a bow now. Cut all 4 strings short.
   
   
    
6. Put some glue on the knot you’ve made with the light blue strings, to secure it .  You could also burn the knot with a match, but only if you’re experienced with burning waxed cotton strings for jewelry making – if you have no or little experience with this technique, it is better to use glue so you won’t ruin your project.  Wait for the glue to dry.
    
7. To add more of a beach look to your bookmark, glue a tiny sea-shell or/and a piece of sea-glass on the beach pebble.
   
   
    
8. Now cut the strings at the other end of the braided bookmark to a length of 2 inches.  String your beads and secure them with a single or double knot after stringing (it  depends on the size of each bead’s hole).  Trim as you wish.
   
   
    
9. Your Braided Bookmark for your summer reads is ready.  The final length of the braided bookmark, from its one end to the other, is 14 inches.