A Bookmark For My Baby (And A Love Note For The Road)

I was feeling especially motivated yesterday and so I set to work on a number of new and creative pieces (which will eventually make their way onto here and into my Etsy shop - hint, hint). While I was working (and making a lovely bit of a mess) in my living room, Don (my absolutely wonderful husband!) was finishing up the reading of Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America and preparing to move on to his next big read, Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone, when he asked if I could make him a bookmark. So, still riding my creative high, I immediately set to making him a nifty little placeholder for his politically charged paperback pages.

I wanted to decorate both sides of the bookmark so I began by creating a digital collage to place on the backside. Initially, I was going to have the whole thing focused on books and knowledge as power and on taking the time to read (he's a very, very busy man) or something along those lines. However, after I had the collage for the back side completed, I was pretty much tired of working with the theme of books and reading.

To be sure, I was really enjoying the process of making something special for my hubby and, truth be told, was feeling more and more than a little bit schmoopy as I worked and watched him reading there on the couch across the room. So, against every Obsessive-Compulsive urge in my body (the meds must've been working well yesterday!) I decided against my initial plan of a cohesive theme of books and reading for the two sides of the bookmark and chose instead to get a little lovey on the other side.

The words that I chose for the front side read: Love is ... the MASTER KEY which opens the gates of happiness. In the center I placed a transparency of an old key and then added bits of scrapbook paper around the outsides which I edged with some hand-drawn stitches to compliment the antiqued look of the key and to give it the comfy-cozy feeling of home and of something handmade with love.

It warms my heart and sets a smile on my face now whenever I look over and see the bookmark peeking out from the pages of my Donnie's new book. And, just in case you are wondering ... he absolutely loves it!!!