How to Make Your Own Bows

As the holidays are right around the corner, more and more of us will be wrapping presents.  Throw in birthdays, showers, weddings, and other special occasions and you can find yourself spending a pretty penny just wrapping gifts. 

I'm willing to confess that I'm cheap.  (Yes, you can call it frugal if you'd like.)  I just can't bring myself to spend $7 on stuff that is intended to be thrown away.  I just can't do it.  Just last week I was looking for wrapping paper and ribbons/bows for a wedding gift...even on sale, the wrapping paper was $2.70, the matching bow was on sale for $1.99 and a role of ribbon was $1.50...and all of this stuff was on clearance!

So, I did what every self-respecting cheapskate would do.  I decided I could do something at home.   I headed home and pulled out my stash of ribbons and wrapping paper.  (Acquired at various points for very low prices.)  All of my ribbon, however, is on a spool or a roll.  Time to make my own bows.

I thought you might want to see how to do it yourself, so I took pictures along the way:

First cut pieces of ribbon roughly the same length.  The number of pieces is determined by how puffy you want your bow.  I used 8 or so pieces that were about 10" long for a small bow.  (Later I used about 12 that were 12"-14" for a big one.)  Anyway, take your pieces of ribbon and hold them between your thumb and forefinger in a stack like this:

Staple the pieces to a little piece of paper, roughly 1" square.  (I confess to having borrowed one of the inchies my sister sent to Buttercup.)  You don't actually have to use a piece of paper, but it just aids in the stability.

You want the staple to be perpendicular to the pieces of ribbon, so you'll be able to fan them out.

Using your scissors, curl both ends of each piece of ribbon and fan them out from their neat stack to create fullness.

Attach a tape loop to the back of the paper and then tape the bow to the package.

There you have it...a bow.

Oh, and here is how the wedding present looks with a bow made out of two different colors of ribbon.  I even added spirals made out of the narrow white ribbon.   Pretty, isn't it?

Ikea paper I had on hand, a few pieces of gold ribbon from an old package, and white and gold ribbon I had on hand...all that and about 20 minutes gave me a pretty present to give to a newly married couple.  I'd say I did pretty well.

Only 364 more days...

For me, Christmas Day is bittersweet.

Don't get me wrong. This is my favorite time of year and I love, love, love Christmas. I love the kindness and generosity of perfect strangers as we go about our days. I love the spirit of giving and caring that seems to infuse everything we do. I love the sense of the holy that graces us when we least expect it. I love trying to come up with the perfect gift for each person. I hate that it ends so quickly. Months of thought and planning go into making this day special. Heading off to bed with a Christmas Tree surrounded by festively wrapped gifts and I'm excited to see the faces of my children when they get the barely dreamed of perfect gift. Yet, scarcely an hour and a half after we wake up, the presents are open, the kids are thrilled and the day seems to be done. We still have a terrific breakfast, followed by an awesome dinner, but it seems so quiet! The excitement seems to pass so quickly. I miss the Christmases of my childhood, surrounded by extended family and friends...beginning Christmas Eve and boisterously continuing long into the night on Christmas Day. Maybe my parents have completely different memories of those same Christmases, but for me, they set the gold standard for holidays.

The decision to move away from So California meant that we were moving away from our respective families and the possibilities of those times. The holidays are when we feel this distance most poignantly. We are aware of the empty spaces at our dinner table. We try to fill those spaces with phone calls throughout the day, but we all know they are a poor substitute for the smiling faces we miss. We're making more and more friends here and our children are getting older, so we're not too far away from the time when our children will be bringing their special guests to our dinners. I, for one, can hardly wait.

In the meantime, only 364 days til Christmas!