Quick and lovely copper Valentine Bookmarks

Here’s a sweet and super easy heart-shaped bookmark that’s a lovely gift for adults and kids alike, men and women… anyone who reads! They’re fun to make, and are great when you have several gifts to give. What a nice Valentine it makes!

You’ll need:

Solid copper wire, 16 gauge (18 can also be used, but 16 is more sturdy)

Wire forming tools — wire cutters, flat nosed pliers, round nosed pliers

Hammer and steel block

Wire choosing tip: These can be made with ordinary hardware store copper wire, or “jewelry making” copper wire. The hardware store version tends to be a little bit harder and not as clean or shiny as copper wire made for jewelry making, but it’s readily available and easy to find.

Here’s how to make the heart bookmarks:

Cut wire to size. To make a 1-1/4″ tall bookmark, use a 6″ long piece of wire. To create a larger bookmark, cut wire to 8″ length.

Fold the wire in half.

Secure/tighten the point with pliers. This will be the bottom point of your heart.

Using pliers, turn the ends of the wire into moderately tight curls.

Pull the curled ends apart from each other, forming a rough heart shape.

Adjust heart shape with fingers/pliers.

Once you have the wire in the shape you’re looking for, move on to the steel block. Make sure all your adjustments are made before hammering, as the next step will “seal” in your design. Hammering the wire shape on the steel block flattens the wire, so that it is easy to use in books as a bookmark, but also hardens the metal and ensures that it retains its shape. Once you have the desired shape, you can use the ball side of the hammer to create texture. When hammering, be sure to turn the heart over, and hammer both sides.

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Clean/polish if necessary.

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I recently posted another version of these little beauties, making them into leaf shapes. If you want to see that tutorial, click here.

Side note about wire “gauge.” Gauge refers to the thickness of wire. Now, normally you might think that the higher the number, the larger the width, or gauge, a wire might be. But it’s actually the opposite. Higher number, smaller gauge/thinner wire, larger number means thicker gauge/thicker wire.

Enjoy!