Handmade DIY Leather Bookmarks

If you're looking for easy handmade Christmas gifts to make for your friends and family, look no further. This DIY leather bookmark can be customized for anyone and everyone on your holiday shopping list.

Handmade Christmas gifts….it sounds exhausting just thinking about it, right?

You’ve already got the house to decorate, gifts to buy and wrap, baking to do, and parties to host…I get why some people think that they don’t have time for DIY Christmas gifts.

But here’s the deal…making your own Christmas gifts usually saves you money and they are so much more appreciated than the gifts you pick up at the big box stores.

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Leather Bookmark: Step-by-Step Instructions

This DIY leather bookmark is super simple to create…no crafting skills are required. I love that you can customize the design on the leather bookmark so it works for literally anyone on your list…male or female, young or old!

Related – Get more DIY bookmark ideas here!

I never knew that you could wax leather until I came across these adorable leather luggage tags. I thought it was so genius how they stained the leather with dark wax that is typically used on furniture. I thought “hey, I’ve got that! It’s worth a shot!”

UPDATE: Check out a video tutorial at the bottom of this post!

This leather bookmark tutorial contains affiliate links, but nothing that I wouldn’t wholeheartedly recommend anyway! Read my full disclosure here.

Leather Bookmark: Step-by-Step Instructions

Supplies needed:

Leather (each bookmark is 1.5” x 6-7”) – here’s how I got tons of FREE leather or you can buy it here
Dark wax
Clean cloth you don’t mind ruining or a staining rag
Stickers and/or adhesive shelf liner aka contact paper
Paint pen
Leather cording
Scissors
Rotary tool, cutting mat, and clear acrylic ruler

Step 1. Cut leather.

Cut the leather into strips using a cut mat, ruler, and rotary tool

I used a rotary tool, cutting mat, and ruler to cut my leather down to shapes approximately 1.5” wide and 6” to 7” inches tall. If you don’t have a rotary, scissors will work too.

Just be sure to mark the shape with a ruler on the backside first so you can get nice, straight lines. I was making 4 different leather bookmarks and on a couple of them, I cut the bottoms at a diagonal.

Step 2. Apply stickers and decorations.

Decorate your leather bookmarks with different decorations, like sticker and decorative paper.

Since I made four different designs of leather bookmarks, I had lots of room for creativity here. I used different various stickers I had on hand to create my designs.

For two of the bookmarks, I made my own stickers with contact paper (the mountains and cross).

Plan out your own leather bookmarks while keeping in mind that the part you cover with the sticker will be a lighter shade than the rest of the bookmark.

Step 3. Wax over stickers.

Use dark furniture wax to stain the DIY leather bookmarks

Using a clean cloth you don’t mind ruining (or a staining rag), gently wipe dark wax over the front of the bookmark…yep, right over those stickers.

This will stain the leather that is exposed. One coat is fine, but if you find that you want it darker you can try two coats.

Step 4. Remove stickers & let dry.

DIY leather bookmarks decorated with hearts, letters, and mountain shapes

After you’re done waxing the bookmark, remove the stickers. Then give the leather bookmarks time to dry. I left mine overnight and it was perfect.

Step 5. Decorate your DIY leather bookmark.

Decorate your own diy leather bookmarks however you like, like writing adventure awaits with white paint marker

This dark-stained leather bookmark has the words be still and know written with white paint marker

Here’s the fun part! Decorate your DIY leather bookmarks to your heart’s consent! I found the paint pen worked well while writing on the leather.

Decorating a diy leather bookmark with gold paint

You can also decorate by painting part of the leather bookmark with acrylic craft paint as I did on this heart one.

Step 6. Add a hole & tie a string topper to leather bookmarks.

Adding a cut leather string to a hole at the top of the diy leather bookmark

Adding a black cord string to the top of a diy leather bookmark

Next, add a hole to the top of the bookmark. If you have a leather hole punch, you could use that, of course.

Since I don’t have one, I just used scissors to make a small X. It worked perfectly!

Lastly, cut a piece of leather cording about 10 inches long and loop it through the hole.

diy leather bookmarks made with dark wax stain and different sticker decor

A personalized leather bookmark with the initial J and a black tassel

Simple as that! This DIY leather bookmark is such an easy handmade Christmas gift idea, right?

Bookmarks are also an extremely versatile gift, so they really do work well for anyone on your list!

The fact that you can design and decorate your leather bookmarks any way you want makes them easy to personalize for the giftee. Customize with their name, initials, favorite quote, or bible verse.