Edgar Allen Poe bookmark.
I love books. One of my favorite gifts to give or receive is a book. My favorite thing to do in my downtime is crack open a book. There are books in nearly every room of our home and, as the hubby isn’t a huge reader, they are all mine. I usually have several going at a time, and my collection spans a variety of topics.
As I type this, my view is of the bookshelves in our Halloween-themed office. These shelves are home to books about Halloween, costuming, cosplay, catalogs, monster fiction, and the like.
The authors of classic monsters live on the shelves – Shelley, Stoker, and Stevenson, to name a few and, while I love all of those stories, today we are going to spend some time with another favorite, Edgar Allan Poe.
Poe was born on January 19, 1809, and in celebration of his upcoming birthday, I decided to make a bookmark or two inspired by his short story, The Tell-Tale Heart.
So, let’s get started.
We will need:
Velvet ribbon – I’m using this one
Jewelry lockets – new or repurposed, I grabbed this one, and this one
Ribbon crimps
Chain nose pliers (or similar)
Jump rings
Cardstock
Printable Vellum
Scissors
Cutting machine (optional)
We will also need the Edgar Allan Poe printables from the Haunted Library.
First, measure the inside of your locket to determine the size of the printout you will need. For example, my larger locket measures approximately 1.25″, and the smaller is 1″.
Download your desired printables. You can choose from Poe, an anatomical heart, or the eye.
To hand cut, select one of the sizes provided in the PDF File or resize the printables if needed. Print and cut with scissors.
To machine cut, upload an image from the Print Then Cut Zip Files to your design program.
(These images are ready to use so you will not need to remove the background.)
I selected Poe and the eye for the larger locket. I used the Print Then Cut feature in Design Space for my Cricut Maker.
Cut and place them inside the locket.
Next, cut a 24″ length of the velvet ribbon and fold it in half.
Place the folded end of the ribbon into the ribbon crimp, and, using the pliers, clamp it closed.
Open your jump ring and attach it to your ribbon crimp and your locket.
Add any other charms you like. For example, I added this heart that I found in my stash.
Finally, dovetail cut the ribbon ends.
Now we have a bookmark worthy of holding our place in the Complete Stories and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe.
For the smaller locket, I selected the anatomical heart and printed it onto printable vellum.
If you’re unsure how to print on printable vellum, check out our Ghostly Apparitions tutorial for more information.
I cut three 12″ lengths of ribbon for this bookmark and attached them using the same method I used for the larger locket.
I love how the light shines through the vellum, and I think this would make a great Valentine’s Day gift for any Poe enthusiast.
And, speaking of gifts, now I have a dilemma. I originally made these as gifts, but I’m rethinking that. They may have found a home in the office library.
What to do, what to do?
Until next time, keep reading.