Reindeer & Snowman Magnetic Bookmarkers

Hello, Crafters.

When I sent out the new catalogues to my customers last weekend, I enclosed a bookmarker I'd made using the reindeer from the fabuous new Seasonal Chums Stamp Set.

It was a toss up whether I made the bookmarkers using the reindeer or the snowman - they're both great!

Having painted three of the snowmen yesterday evening, it was clearly a sensible choice to go for the reindeer - so much easier! 

Colouring the reindeer was very quick and easy and I made all the bookmarkers I needed in next to no time.

I stamped the reindeer using Basic Black Archival Ink on Crumb Cake Cardstock (CS). 

The areas I painted first were the hooves, antlers and the spots on the body back and front.

I used Marker Pens, and started with Crumb Cake for the body parts, then Old Olive for the ribbon around his neck, a Real Red nose - of course! - and finally I used my Gold Wink of Stella Glitter Pen for the bell. 
 
As we don't sell the Gold Glitter Pen anymore, when my one runs out I'll start using Crushed Curry and then paint over it with my Clear Wink of Stella Glitter Pen, which we are still selling. 

When I thought I'd finished the reindeer, it didn't look complete, something was missing!

I added a Crumb Cake shade line inside each ear and that did it! Finito!

Finally I added two 3mm - approx 1/8" - googly eyes to complete the look! 

I used the die from the Seasonal Tags Framelits Dies to cut the reindeer out, and was ready to convert him into a magnetic bookmarker! 

When I folded the first reindeer, it took a few seconds to make sure the front lined up with the back.

As I was trying to get the legs and feet together I was creating quite a thick fold line between the heads.

When I'd succeeded in getting the back and front lined up, I finished with a fold line that can only be described as somewhat messy! 

To get round this problem, I put the the centre where the fold would be going, onto a round pencil and turned it slightly to create a curve. 

This gave me time to manipulate the feet and legs together, and as soon as I was happy, I was able to press one fold line down!

For the magnets, I used offcuts I had from the self adhesive sheets I had been buying for my old die storing system. 

Both pieces of magnets measured approximately 1" x 1/2", and although the magnets are not massively strong, they are certainly strong enough to be used on our catalogues to save a page. 

My final touch was to tie a bow through the hole using our 1/8" Sheer Ribbon in Old Olive. 

I found this worked easiest if I tied the knot in the ribbon while I had the back of the reindeer facing me. 

Then I made sure the part of the knot where the two parts of the ribbons crossed, was sitting in front of the tab with the hole.

I then folded both tails of the ribbon in to "bunny ears" and looped one through the other.

I found this made the reindeer turn round to face me and gave me a very nice looking bow!

For the snowman I used Whisper White CS and coloured him in using the following Marker Pens: 
Hat - Basic Grey
Hat band - Basic Black
Bird on back of hat - Crumb Cake
Holly leaves, scarf and mittens - Wild Wasabi
Holly berries, scarf and mittens - Real Red
Rabbit - Smokey Slate
Carrot - Pumpkin Pie. 

The only extra for the snowman is that I painted all the remaining visible white areas i.e. the snow, using my Clear Wink of Stella Glitter Pen.

The ribbon is the same as the reindeer except in Whisper White.

This is another set I think are going to be very popular in the run up to Christmas!

Until tomorrow, happy crafting. 

JanB.