The first time I tried to get my three kids to sit quietly and read on a rainy Yorkshire afternoon, I made the classic parenting mistake of saying, “Right then, everyone, let’s have a calm story time.” Ten minutes later I had a cushion fort, a rogue glue stick, and someone had used a bookmark as a tiny flag for their dinosaur.

So I switched tactics. If they were going to be loud anyway, we might as well make something that causes the giggles on purpose. Enter: monster corner bookmarks with a sneaky pull-out tongue, stuffed with tongue-twisters and jokes. They look like they’re chomping your page, then the tongue slides out like, “Surprise. Now say this five times fast.”

A parent and child at a kitchen table holding a colourful paper monster corner bookmark on an open book, with the monster's paper tongue pulled out

What you’ll make

A paper corner bookmark that slips over the corner of your page. It becomes a monster face with teeth and googly eyes, plus a long pull-out tongue. On the tongue you write a tongue-twister, a joke, or a silly reading challenge.

  • Best for ages: 5+ with help, 7+ mostly independently
  • Time: 10 to 20 minutes each
  • Mess level: Low, unless someone “improves” it with glitter (I salute you)

Supplies

  • Square paper (origami paper is perfect, but any square works)
  • Scrap paper or thin card for the tongue
  • Glue stick (or a tiny bit of PVA)
  • Scissors
  • Felt tips or coloured pencils
  • Optional: googly eyes, stickers, washi tape

Quick size tip: A 10 to 12 cm square is great for slim paperbacks. For chunkier library books or textbooks, go bigger (around 15 cm) so the pocket has more grip and coverage.

No square paper? Cut a rectangle into a square by folding one corner to make a triangle, then trimming the extra strip. Instant square, no fancy kit needed.

Fold the bookmark

This is the classic corner bookmark fold. Once you’ve done one, you can do them half asleep while making tea.

  1. Start with a square. Place it like a diamond (one corner pointing up).
  2. Fold bottom corner to top corner. You’ll have a triangle. Crease it like you mean it.
  3. Fold the top layer’s left corner up to the top point. Crease well.
  4. Fold the top layer’s right corner up to the top point. Crease well. You’ve made a little diamond shape on top.
  5. Unfold the last two folds. You should now clearly see the pocket created by that first big triangle fold, sitting in the middle.
  6. Tuck the left corner into the pocket. Fold that same left corner back up, then slide the point into the pocket opening and press flat.
  7. Repeat with the right corner. Tuck the right point into the same pocket and press flat again.

You should now have a pocket at the bottom that slips over the corner of a page.

If you want more folding fun, my go-to is our origami joke teller guide. Same “simple fold, maximum chaos” energy.

Make it a monster

1) Add eyes

Googly eyes are the shortcut to instant personality. If you don’t have any, draw wonky circles and give your monster mismatched pupils. The wonkier, the funnier.

2) Add teeth

Cut small triangles from white paper and glue them along the pocket opening. Or draw zig-zag teeth directly onto the bookmark. For a less bitey monster, give it chunky square teeth like it’s been eating Lego.

3) Add details

  • Spots, scales, stripes
  • Eyebrows (very important for monster mood)
  • Horns (tiny triangles glued on the top edge)
  • A little nose or a single giant nostril (always a hit in my house)
Two children decorating folded paper corner bookmarks with markers and glue at a kitchen table with craft supplies scattered around

Pull-out tongue

This is the bit that turns it from “cute bookmark” into “bookmark that makes your child shout tongue-twisters at the cat.”

Step-by-step

  1. Cut a long strip of paper about 2 to 3 cm wide and 12 to 18 cm long. Round one end to make it tongue-shaped.
  2. Decorate the tongue with a couple of lines, dots, or tiny taste buds. Or make it gross and green. Your call.
  3. Write your tongue-twister or joke down the tongue. Keep the writing fairly big so it’s readable while it wiggles.
  4. Attach it inside the pocket: Put a small dab of glue on the unrounded end and stick it to the inside back wall of the pocket. You want it to sit inside and pull out smoothly.

Dry-time note: If you’re using PVA, give it a minute to go tacky before you test the tongue, otherwise everything slides around like a soap bar in the bath.

Pro tip from the craft trenches: Use a glue stick and only a little. If the tongue gets glued to the front by accident, you’ll have invented the world’s least exciting bookmark.

What to write on the tongue

Pick one per tongue, or write a few short ones down the strip. I like a mix: one tongue-twister plus a tiny joke at the bottom as the “reward.”

Tongue-twisters

  • Red lorry, yellow lorry.
  • She sells seashells by the seashore.
  • Eleven benevolent elephants.
  • Busy buzzing bumblebees.
  • Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear. Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair.
  • Four fine fresh fish for you.
  • Truly rural. (This one makes grown-ups cry.)

Monster mode twisters

  • Giggly goblins gobble gooey grapes.
  • Slurpy slithery slime slides slowly.
  • Chompy monsters munch crunchy chips.
  • Spooky spaghetti splashes super-speedy.

Mini jokes

  • What do you call a sleeping dinosaur? A dino-snore.
  • Why did the book go to the doctor? It had a bad spine.
  • What do you get when you cross a monster and a snowman? Frostbite.
  • Why don’t eggs tell jokes? They’d crack up.

If you want a bigger stash of kid-safe humour for your next craft session, our kids jokes guide is basically my emergency supply cupboard for awkward silences.

Make it sturdier

  • Use slightly thicker paper for the base fold, or fold from thin card.
  • Double up the tongue by folding the strip in half lengthwise and gluing it before trimming the rounded end.
  • Reinforce the pocket edge with a thin strip of tape on the inside, especially if your reader is an enthusiastic page-flipper.

Please skip laminating unless you love wrestling with curling plastic. In my experience, a stronger paper choice is easier and less shouty.

Variations

One-eyed monster

Big single eye, giant eyebrow, and tiny teeth. Looks adorable and slightly confused, like me at 6 a.m.

Shark monster

Blue paper, lots of sharp white teeth, and a pink tongue with a sea-themed tongue-twister.

Rainbow chaos monster

Use scraps from the recycling pile. Different colour teeth. Different colour eyes. A monster that looks like it ate the felt tips.

Challenge tongue

Instead of a tongue-twister, write a mini challenge:

  • Read this page in a robot voice.
  • Read this paragraph like a sleepy sloth.
  • Find 3 words you love and say them dramatically.

For more quick, low-cost makes, pop over to our kids crafts guide. It is full of projects designed for normal homes with normal levels of patience.

Safety and setup

  • Scissors: If you have younger kids, pre-cut teeth and tongues so they can focus on decorating.
  • Glue: Glue sticks are your friend. PVA works too, but it can wrinkle paper if it’s applied like frosting.
  • Table protection: An old cereal box opened flat makes a brilliant craft mat.

Troubleshooting

Too loose

Crease the folds again firmly. If the paper is very thin, start over with slightly thicker paper. If it’s still slipping, try a larger square for thick pages, or a slightly smaller square for very slim books so the pocket grips better.

Tongue won’t slide

Too much glue is usually the culprit. Next time, glue only the very end of the tongue to the inside back wall of the pocket, then let it dry for a minute before testing.

Doesn’t look like a monster

Add eyebrows. I’m serious. Eyebrows are the difference between “triangle with eyes” and “monster with opinions.”

Quick game

Once you’ve made a few, stack them up and play Monster Mouth:

  1. Everyone picks a book (or the same book, different pages).
  2. Put the monster bookmark on a page.
  3. Take turns pulling out the tongue and attempting the tongue-twister.
  4. If you manage it three times in a row, you win that round.

If you want more easy, indoor family games that require approximately zero equipment, our party games guide has loads that work just as well on a Tuesday as at a birthday.

More crafts with jokes

And if your monster bookmarks turn into a full-on monster invasion, I would like to say: you’re welcome, and I’m sorry.