Basic Bow Making tutorial!

Good Afternoon,,,,,,

I get a ton of compliments on my bows, and  a ton of people saying they have "bow envy". Why, I do not know, bows are SIMPLE!

So, today, I am giving out my bow making "secrets", although, really, it's no secret :) Bows are very easy on a peg bow system.

I am not the inventor of the peg bow system,,,,,,,,,,and there are plenty of them on the market. Not everyone does theirs exactly the way I do, either,,,,,,,,,whatever works for you. I'm simply going to show you what works for me.

Today, we'll make two bows,,,,,,,,,what I consider my "basic" bow and a simple "butterfly bow.

This post is my basic bow tutorial, and I recommend getting this one down pat before attempting anything more complicated.

So, you'll need a peg bow maker. This is really easy to make. You don't need anything fancy or expensive, although they do sell for anywhere from 10.00 to 40.00.

Although you CAN buy them, they are simple to make,,,,,,,,

you'll need a piece of wood for the base,,,,,,,two dowels,,,,,,,,and holes drilled across the base. I recommend about every inch for up to six inches,,,,,,,,,you probably won't need larger than six inches for any card or scrap book page,,,,,,,

but if you make wreaths or whatever, you CAN make a longer bow maker and make bows as large as you wish.

I also recommend the LAST hole be 1/2 inch from the one before it,,,,,,,,this way, you can make any size bow from 1-6.5 inches and everything, whole and half inches in between. You change the size of the bow by simply moving the dowels closer or farther apart.

If you're like me, and you don't care if your bows are EXACTLY 3 inches, and you eyeball everything,,,,,,

I bought this at Michael's Craft Store,,,,,,,,,I have no idea what it's original intention was,,,,,,,but it was with the wooden letters,,,,,,,,,,,,it has TWO rows of holes, which is NOT necessary,,,,,,,,,,this is just the way it came, and I use only one row of holes. So if you're making one, one row of holes is all you need to drill. However for 59 cents (and it came with several dowels),,,,,,,I couldn't go wrong, So if your husband isn't thrilled about making you one, and you don't want to spend your month's scrappy allowance on a bow maker,,,,,,,,,run to Michaels and see if you can't snag this baby for next to nothing.


On to bow making!

for ease of understanding, directions are UNDER the pictures,,,,,,,
you'll need a bow maker
a length of ribbon (about a foot for this bow)
scissors
you.

place the length of ribbon across the dowels. I have them set at about 4 inches apart here, and am using 1.5 inch ribbon for this bow (my favorite size). The ends of the ribbon should be in the back,,,,,,,and you should be sitting at the front. This is the front of the bow, where you can control how the bow will look.

cross the right tail over the left tail (you can do this with two hands,,,,,I was trying to one hand it because I was taking photos with the other LOL). Now you have a top tail and a bottom tail.

Pull the top tail down and the bottom tail up so they are "twisted" in the back.

Now the top tail goes down over the TOP of the bow. I like to fold it i n half at this point, so my bow center bridge  is nice and neat. Tuck that underneath the bow so that it is under the other tail now. You can see your bow forming now!

Now that you have both tails happy together again in the back of the bow, cross the top over the bottom. See that loop there? I've stuck my fingers in there to show you the loop. tuck the top one under the loop and bring it up through the loop to make a knot.

Grasping each of the tails now, PULL TIGHT (but not toooooooooo tight!)

you now have a bow on the bow maker. Slide the bow off the top, or if you'd rather, pull the dowels out.

You can also cut the ends here, or wait til it is off the bow maker, whichever you like.

Finished,,,,,,,,Easy peasy. It takes a few tries, but it is WELL WORTH it! You can tighten the bow by pulling on the tails, and shape it a bit by pulling on the ears. This bow works well for satin ribbon too!

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial,,,,,,,,,,,,really, they are TOO EASY!

Next up,,,,,,,,,a butterfly bow!

Just ADORABLE little gift cards!

I don't know about you, but if you're anything like me,,,,you give a ton of gift cards at the holidays. Frankly, my kids and grands (especially the boys) love video games,,,,but I never buy them because unless they tell me specifically which ones they want, I'm at a loss,,,,,,,not to mention they have so many game systems, I never know WHICH game system to buy for! And the girls? who KNOWS what style shirt they want??? So I give either American Express gift cards,,,,or Game Stop gift cards,,,or one of a million clothing store gift cards coming out the wahoo.

So I'm ALWAYS looking for new, creative, EASY ways to present them that's a bit more personal than just a gift card. And I tell you what,,this one's a keeper!

I totally STOLE this idea from my friend Melissa. You can find her gorgeous creations HERE! She used this tutorial over at Two Peas here!

And they're ADORABLEEEEE. But I quickly found out that although they're EASY,,they are time consuming. Unless you can get an SVG file and your cutter will cut it, you're pretty much cutting them by HAND because of the curves on them. If I'm making one or two,,,,no problem,,,,,,,,but I need DOZENS of gift card holders for the holidays,,,,,,,

so I put on my thinking cap,,,,and I adjusted this little recipe to my own needs.

I just made square cards,,,,,,,

I used my trimmer to cut a piece of 8.5x11 kraft cs down to a 7 and 1/4 by 41/2 rectangle for my base (this is the same size the cards in the Two Peas tutorial are,,,,i just didn't bother with the curves on the flaps.) I got two out of each piece of paper. Then I cut 2 flaps, 1 at at 2 1/2 X 4 1/4 and the second at 1 1/2 X 4 1/4 out of patterned paper. Again with my trimmer, and simple rectangles.

I scored the Kraft base at 2 1/2 and 5 1/2 (the same place the two peas tut scores), folded on the score lines, ommitted the brads (I HATE brads!), and secured the smaller flap with ATG on the sides only. I glued the smaller patterned paper pieces to the flaps, and I was done,,,,,,,


almost.

I sat looking at the gift card holders thinking that a corner book mark would sit nicely on that corner,,,,,and so I made some! Really, there are tutorials all over split coast stampers and youtube for these, they are ridiculously easy to make.

And so I made some corner book marks and sat them on the corners of the gift card holder,,,,it serves to hold them closed as well, so no closure needed! A nice poinsettia,,,,,or a diecut or a bow on the bookmark, and it's decorated too! The recipient can remove the book mark, then open the gift card,,,,and they will have a decorated book mark to keep as well as the gift card. Easy Peasy, I tell you,,,,,

So in my pics today, you'll see 3 photos,,,,,one is the gift cards I totally CASE'd from Melissa,,,,,one is the square ones I adjusted from her recipe to make them faster and easier to make,,,,,and the other shows the book mark removed so you can see it.

Quick, fast, easy and fun!!!!! Hope you enjoyed, and thanks to Melissa for the awesome ideas!!!!!

Oh,,,,,and for the record,,,,,,my daughter told me all the JUNK in my photos made it look more like Mardi Gras than Christmas,,,,,,,


hmmmmmmmmmm she may be right LOL.