Bookmarks

Yes, bookmarks. I NEVER use them. For one, I'm a dog-earer, from WAY back. I wholeheartedly believe that the shabbiness of a book is a fairly good indicator of how much it is loved. This makes dog-earing not only an act of self preservation, but an act of love (which just happened to be validated by one of my favorite college professors, who told me that reading without a pencil in hand to make notes in the book is just stupid). Secondly, I own a Kindle, so I've really cut down on reading print books. But I joined a bookmark swap on Craftster, pretty much because I couldn't call myself a self-respecting bibliophile without joining.

So for my swap, I was put in a group of five (counting myself), which means I had to make four bookmarks to send to my partners. I tried to go with individual bookmarks catering to the recipient's taste, but I didn't want to make them TOO different. I ended up with two that have cut felt letters, and two that are embroidered.



Starting from the left:
Green and blue: For my partner that likes Oscar Wilde. It has a Wilde quote, "Illusion is the first of all pleasures."
Brown: For my partner that likes dogs. It's embroidered with Milhouse's infamous quote, "Dogs are outstanding!" I've heard it said before, but I'll agree... I laugh like a moron every time I hear that!
Red: For my partner that's a big True Blood fan. It's an 'official' souvenir from the vampire bar Fangtasia. The logo is embroidered.
Purple and green: For my partner that likes fairies. It has a Charles de Lint quote, "We call them faerie. We don't believe in them. Our loss." I thought it was cute.

I'm hoping to get some super cute bookmarks in return. Don't know if I'll actually use them or if they will be strictly decorative. Either way, fun swap.

Cost breakdown of swap: $0.00
Cost of materials for bookmarks: $0.00. I continued using my current stash-busting momentum, and did not buy any new materials. The felt was $0.10 on sale at Hobby Lobby when I bought it, and the cardstock was purchased in a bulk package for $9.99 for use in a Christmas present for last year. So I guess, technically, it could break down as about $0.17 per bookmark, if you're going to get all picky about it.
Shipping: $0.43 each for stamps, $0.01 each for envelopes.

Total cost of entire swap: FREE in that I didn't have to buy anything, or $0.61 per bookmark if you count stuff that I'd bought before, working out to a grand total of $2.44 for eight bookmarks (you're probably asking yourself why I am counting eight, but only made four. I sent out four. I will receive four. Four plus four equals eight. Duh.).

Gotta love stashbusting.