Discover the joy of crafting with our budget-friendly handmade bookmarks – a delightful DIY bookmark idea for any book lover. These plain bookmarks, equipped with tassels, are a fun way to unleash your creativity. Transform them into unique cosmic galaxy night sky designs using acrylic paints, paint pens, or markers for a cute and personalized touch.

Follow our simple steps to create your own bookmark with stars, a serene moon, and silhouetted trees – a perfect companion for a good book.

I used a similar galaxy night sky design in these DIY wood round ornaments project.

These charming bookmarks make for thoughtful gifts and offer a fun way to explore various bookmark designs. I made a bunch and gifted them as Christmas presents to my kids teachers in elementary school.

Whether you’re creating for yourself or selling them on platforms like Etsy or at craft fairs, turn these humble bookmarks into miniature works of art that will enchant book lovers everywhere.

Bookmark Surface Ideas

In this project I painted plain wooden bookmarks I bought in a bulk set (of 100) on amazon. They came with the hole punched already and came with string tassels in matching colors.

If you don’t want to buy these wooden bookmarks, you can recreate this project with either thick piece of card stock paper, or mixed media paper which is thick enough to handle acrylic paints. The size of these bookmarks are 4.8 x 1.2 Inch.

If you’re a watercolor affection-ado check out this fab tutorial to create watercolor bookmarks on card stock paper.

Yield: 1

How To Make Bookmark DIY

Learn how easy it is to make your own DIY bookmarks in this step by step tutorial. Learn to paint this cosmic galaxy scene with stars and a crescent moon.

Active Time 1 hour

Total Time 1 hour

Difficulty Easy

Estimated Cost $10

Materials

Plain wooden bookmarks (or mixed media paper cut into 4.7x1.3inch size)
Phthalo Blue acrylic paint
Titanium White
Mars Black
Teal
1/2 flat brush
size 1 round brush
sponge brush (or sponge)

Instructions

Base coat thew wooden bookmarks with 2 layers of gesso and let completely dry. This will allow the colors to pop and be brighter. It will also prevent the wood from cracking.
Mix phthalo blue with a smidgen of mars black to make a dark blue paint. Use your 1/2" flat brush and paint the entire bookmark with the dark blue paint. Paint with up and down strokes so that it's a smooth application.Don't wait for this paint to dry.
Mix some light blue paint with phthalo blue and white paint. Use your sponge to apply blobs of it in random areas on the bookmark.
Use your sponge to blend. and smooth out the paint with light downward "blotting" movements.Make sure not to cover all the dark blue behind, we want to preserve the dark background.Don't wait for this paint to dry.
Mix an even lighter blue by adding some titanium white into the mix. Use your sponge to blob on some of this light blue paint in random areas. Then using the sponge blend this color. Make sure that you don't cover the dark blue and medium blue color completely. We want all blue layers to show through in the end.
Add some pure teal/turquoise paint in a couple areas (closer to the bottom). With very light blotting strokes, blend the teal into the paint below, making sure not to cover all layers.
Touch up the colors if you wish. I added another layer of paler blue and blended it, to bring extra dimension to the galaxy night sky. Wait for the paint to dry before next step.
Thin down some white paint with water until its a liquid consistency. Load a small brush with this liquid white paint. Tap this brush on another brush over the bookmark to create splatter stars! Alternatively, you can take your small size 1 brush and paint on each star individually.
Using your size 1 round brush paint on a crescent moon. I used a small round paint cap and traced the circular shape, but you can free hand the moon shape too.Clean off the brush and load some black paint and paint some silhouetted pine trees at the bottom edge of the bookmark.You can also add a couple of shooting stars and sparkly stars if you wish 🙂
You can seal the dried bookmark with some clear gloss varnish if you will be selling them or want some extra glossy finish.