Paint Your Own Bookmark Valentines

Create paint your own bookmark valentines using watercolor paper and stamps! These fun valentines are simple to make and a great alternative to candy valentines!

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Hello crafty friends! Today I’m excited to share these sweet paint your own bookmark valentines! They are so sweet and are simple to make. They would make adorable gifts for Valentine’s Day or the perfect classroom valentines for little ones. The bookmarks are made by stamping designs on watercolor paper. Attach them to a set of watercolor paints for a great Valentine’s Day activity. Kids can paint their own bookmark and then use them year round.

For my bookmarks, I used a cute set of stamps, called Kindness on Purpose by Laura Kelly. The stamps are part of her collection with Thermoweb that includes stamps, foil transfer sheets and toner sheets. The stamps are really sweet with lots of great phrases and cute illustrations. After making these valentines I made a few extra bookmarks to paint myself and they were so much fun to paint – especially the rainbow and cupcake!

Below is the tutorial for making your own bookmark valentines. I made mine to fit a set of watercolor paints but you could also give these with crayons, markers or colored pencils. The stamped designs can be colored in so many different ways.

Supplies Needed:

Stamps – I used “Kindness on Purpose” by Laura Kelly for Thermoweb
Clear Acrylic Stamp Blocks
Black Waterproof ink pad – make sure it is archival so you can paint the stamped designs.
Watercolor Paper
Watercolors Paint Set
Yarn for tassels
Paper trimmer, scissors and hole punch

Step by Step Tutorial

Step One: Cut the bookmarks. Start by trimming watercolor paper to the size of a bookmark. I made my bookmarks 2″ x 7.5″ which fit well on top of my watercolor paint sets.

Punch a hole at one end of each bookmark.

Step Two: Stamp the bookmarks. This is the fun part! Use stamps and black waterproof ink to decorate each bookmark so they are like coloring pages ready to be painted in. For my valentines I used clear stamps for the first time and was really happy with how simple they were to use. I needed to purchase clear blocks to use with the stamps but they are reusable. Now that I have a set of blocks, I can use them with any set of clear stamps.

For anyone new to using clear stamps, they are simple to use. Peel a stamp from the plastic backer and stick it on one of the blocks that fits. Then you are ready to stamp! Lightly tap the stamp on the ink pad until the stamp design is evenly covered. Bring the stamp to your bookmark and press the stamp down with even pressure. Then lift the stamp straight up and you have a stamped design! When you are done using the stamp, clean it (I used a baby wipe) and then return it to the plastic sheet.

Decorate the bookmarks with the stamps. The stamp set has really cute sayings like “Throw Kindness Around like Confetti” and “You Make Me Hoppy”.

For a couple of my bookmarks, I used the flowers and confetti stamps to create a cute field of flowers. I used a black Micron pen to draw stems and leaves after stamping the flowers.

After all of my bookmarks were stamped, I let them dry.

Step Three: Add a yarn tassel. After the bookmarks are dry, use yarn to create a cute tassel.

Step Four: To complete these cute valentines, attach the bookmark to a set of watercolor paints. I used the yarn again and added a small tag cut from watercolor paper with TO: and FROM: on it.

The valentines are finished and ready to be gifted! I love how cute they are. With so many candy valentines, these are a great alternative and I love that they come with a fun activity.

After making the bookmarks, I made a few extras so I could test them out and color them. Both my daughter and I painted a few and had a lot of fun. The ink from the stamps didn’t bleed at all and the watercolor paper kept the bookmarks from curling and warping.