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Today we’re celebrating the release of Cat Got Your Tongue by making a super cute and simple cat bookmark out of felt!
About Cat Got Your Tongue
Cat Got Your Tongue by Hannah Shaw celebrates phrases from around the world that have to do with cats. (Thanks to the publisher for sharing a review copy with me!)
In English we say things like “cat got your tongue?” when someone is hesitating to speak, or something really cool might be “The cat’s pajamas.”
But there are lots of expressions in other languages (and some in English, too, that you might not be as familiar with) that speak to our particular relationship with cats and their personalities.
Illustrated by Sophie Ludico Johnson, the book shares an idiom along with what language it is from, the original phrase and what it means.
For example, in Japanese there’s the expression “niko no hitai,” which literally means “cat’s forehead” and is meant to express when a space is very small and narrow.
“May the cat kick it” is the translation of a Hungarian phrase that basically means “damn it,” and Spanish has an expression translated as “don’t look for five feet on the cat,” meaning don’t overcomplicate things or look for a problem that isn’t there.
These phrases could definitely come in handy. When you’re really confused (or you want to make fun of someone who is perpetually confused, use the Romanian idiom “looking like the cat at a calendar.” When you’re overwhelmed and in need of help from any quarter, try the Japanese “I even want to borrow a cat’s hand.”
The book includes a bunch of phrases like this from countries all over the world that the author traveled to working on a book about cats around the world.
It’s a cute little book kids and adults alike will enjoy flipping through and would make a great gift for your feline loving friends.
Check it out at Penguin Random House or on Amazon, where you can see some of the illustrations.
Felt Cat Bookmark
I thought it would be fun to make a cat-themed craft to go with the book so I made this corner cat bookmark our of felt.
I used a outline of a cat face that I found on Canva; this cat face clip art from Wikimedia Commons would be a nice one to use as well, or you can just draw it.
Cut the face out of a piece of felt (mine is black because I have a black cat and a tuxedo cat, but use whatever you like). I stitched on eyes, whiskers and a nose. Not perfect by any means, but it’s cute!
To turn it into a cat bookmark, cut a little triangle of felt, and trim any edges that overhang the cat shape. The long flat edge should be the opening of the corner bookmark.
Use fabric glue to attach the other two sides to the back of the cat.
To use, just slide the cat face over the page you’re marking, with the triangle catching a few pages on the back. With the book closed, the ears will peek out over the sides of the book. So cute!
I hope you’ll check out Cat Got Your Tongue, and even if you don’t need a cat bookmark, you can use this idea to make a felt corner bookmark of any shape you like. Or check out my sewn corner bookmark tutorial.
