I believe there is no better gift to bestow your children than the gift of reading. To learn to spend spare time losing oneself in a book is time well spent, for sure. So, in place of more candy this Valentine’s Day, I created these adorable Valentine’s Day DIY Bookmark and Tracker to go along with a handful of gently used books I found on Facebook Marketplace for under a dollar a piece! 

These are not only a fun way to hold a little one’s place while reading, they serve as a record keeper for all the books they’ve read throughout the year! 

I collected a few simple supplies to create these unique book markers. All I needed was cardstock (1 sheet for each bookmark), a sharp pair of scissors, glue (I used hot glue), decorative edge scissors, colorful yarn, hole punch and paint to decorate the front. 

Start by deciding the size of your bookmark. I was using pink paper that was precut in a 12″x2″ size for the book tracker. I knew my sleeve needed to be a bit larger than that. 

Next you will fold your cardstock to size. Make sure to allow a bit of space to cut the edge with decorative scissors as well as glue. Cut the extra paper as well as the decorative edge. 

Fold the front corner inside the sleeve. Glue the bottom and right edge of the sleeve. Punch a hole in the top center – this will be to hold the tassel. 

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For the tracker – I chose to create a simple bullet list on the computer using Word, but you could create this with a pen and ruler as well! 

To create the tassel, I wrapped a length of yard around my 4 fingers 10-12 times. With an approximately 6″ piece of yard, run through the top of the wrapped yarn and set the wrapped yarn down. Using another short length of yarn, knot the top of the wrapped yarn together securely. Cut open the bottom of the wrapped twine to create the tassel. 

With the larger yarn that was run through the top of the tassel, knot the tassel through the hole of the bookmark sleeve. 

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I decorated the front of the bookmarks with washi tape and painted hearts and polka dots. 

My kids adore these and have already begun filling the lines up with the books they’ve read! I may even make one for myself!