bookmarks?

[troisetoiles.livejournal.com]

two girlfriends and i are taking a vacation together this month and we have a tradition of making a gift bag for each friend and swapping when we get to our destination. i'm buying each of us a copy of the same book (we've been trying to do a book club for ages, lol) and i want to make a bookmark to stick in.

my question is this - i'm thinking of doing a decoupage sort of thing with inside-joke type media, but i want it to be thin enough and sturdy enough to be a suitable bookmark, so i want to check with you gals as to which materials would be best suited to this project. at first i was thinking about taking a bit of cardboard, maybe from a cereal box, then decoupaging my stuff on both sides and adding a tassel on the top, but i don't know if that will be sturdy enough. would it be worth going somewhere to get them laminated? i've already spent more than i should, lol, so i'd like to keep it cheep.