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Thursday, October 1, 2009

Practical Gift Bow How-to


I always love everything practical, because I'm a last minute person. That means I never spend half an hour, or more, to decorate my gifts. But what's a gift of box without a bow, eh? For you lazy crafters, like me, here's a cheat sheet.

First of all, like all good recipe, we start from the ingredients. Measure your 0.5" (standard) ribbon for around 8", twice, so you have two of them. I am using a blank white paper for this tutorial for easy viewing, but any ribbon will do, as long as they are not to silky. Gift wrapping ribbon works best, and that also reminds me, any scrap gift wrapping papers would do just fine. Find a 0.25" ribbon, or measure your first ribbon/paper and cute them half vertically, and make two of 8" each. You'll have 2 big ribbons and 2 thinner ones. You will also need a double sided tape (or any glue) and an office stapler nearby.

"Sandwich" the thinner ones among the big ones. Make sure they stay in the middle.

It's a good idea to make the snake's tongue end now. (this is optional)

Glue your ribbon sandwich at the top only (around 0.5" from the top), make sure all ribbons, thick and thin, are secured at the top.

Now this is the tricky part, staple the thick ribbon together, at around the red part I'm showing here. No precise measurement necessary, just remember not to staple along the thin ribbons inside, make the two of them stay in the middle.

See the red lines? There's where your staples go.

Yep, stapled it diagonally, at around 45 degree, downward, upward, downward, upward. Once again, don't staple the thin ribbons inside (you'll know why soon)

OK, now place your hand on the last staple, hold still, but not too tight, and pull down both thin ribbons with your other hands, automatically your staple will go upwards. See? Are you making the bump like shown here? Keep pulling.

Pull it until the top and you can't go no more. Voila. It's looking good, we're almost there.

Spread the remaining thick ribbons and now you got yourself a bow. Easy, no?

What do you do with the thin ribbon, you ask? Well, tie it around your gifts, your daughter's head, or simply curl it (with the back of scissors). Hint: You can always alter the length of your bows according to your needs.

I keep a lot of un-pulled practical bows around my house. I mean I love putting an effort to decorate a gift but there's always the time when a 1 minute bow might be needed. I hope this is helpful.

23 comments:

  1. wow, great stuff!! haa i will try to do this.

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  2. Seriously. You are my hero. I love how they are flat so I can make a whole bunch and store them so much more easily than store-bought bows (that end up getting crushed anyway).

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  3. wow, great one. thanks for sharing~

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  4. Your bows are wonderful! Thank you for sharing xo

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  5. That looks easy enough. I think I'll give it a try next time I need to wrap a present. You always come up with neat ideas! I'd be lost without you. :-)

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  6. I love this tutorial so much! Thanks for sharing..

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  7. Hello,

    This package looks smashing!


    ~ Gabriela ~

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  8. Glad you love it so much, ladies!
    Any photos of the bow I can take a peek on?

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  9. this is very interesting. belum lama ini kantor kami bikin parcel dan untuk menghemat waktu kami beli pita yang hampir jadi, yang teknik pembuatannya persis seperti tutorial kamu! kami dengan noraknya ter-kagum2 dengan pita ajaib itu..
    applause! kamu hebat banget!

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  10. Thanks so much for this great idea, I will try today and let you know if it works out as well as your.

    Much appreciated.

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  11. Thanks for this wonderful tutorial. I am sure to make one.

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  12. Thanks for this excellent tutorial

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  13. You know I always wonder how did they do this, and now I found the answer, thanks for sharing this ...

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  14. Great piece of article. It explains so much about the topic. I should say it is a detailed article. Talks about a variety of things - something which I never thought could exist. What I found different in your article is the way you have gone about to explain the topic in a simplistic way.

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  15. Thanks for this useful information ,can make a whole bunch and store them so much more easily .

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  16. Please one more post about that.I wonder how you got so good. This is really a fascinating blog, lots of stuff that I can get into. One thing I just want to say is that your Blog is so perfect

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  17. Oh my god, there's so much useful info above!

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  18. Thank you! I didn't know they picked up on it until I saw your comment.

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  19. Really great post, Thank you for sharing This knowledge.Excellently written article, if only all bloggers offered the same level of content as you, the internet would be a much better place. Please keep it up!

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  20. Great post! I just found this and decided to do it while I read. It came out very cute. Not as crisp as yours but Im sure they'll get better with practice. My daughter will love it on her birthday boxes next week!

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