Parcel Bow

 

Make a beautiful paper bow to decorate your gift

I love decorating my gift parcels, so this week I thought I'd try and make a bow.

I've made this bow out of a piece of A4 printer paper that I printed some Christmas patterns onto, but you could use some wrapping paper - just as long as it's not too thick. If it was too thick, the paper wouldn't curl as well. This particular print was part of a digital scrapbooking kit I purchased from Nitwit Collections - click here to be taken to the website.

I've used Tombow multi liquid glue to hold the bow together. It's my favourite glue as it sticks almost anything together. You could use staples, hot glue gun or double sided tape. It needs to be a really strong glue to ensure your bow does not uncurl!

Follow the below link to find out how the bow was made

You will need

• A piece of printed A4 paper or some wrapping paper
• Glue, staples or double sided tape
• Guillotine with cutting blade (Can be cut by hand)

1. Cut the following strips from a piece of A4 patterned paper


• 2 cm wide by 26 cm - cut 3
• 2 cm wide by 24 cm - cut 3
• 2 cm wide by 10 cm - cut 1
  
  
  
  
  
  


2. Fold the longer strips in half so you can get a half way mark. Don't fold the 10 cm strip
   
   
   


3. Start with the 26 cm lengths. Put a dot of glue in the centre crease and then fold one end round so that sticks to the half way glue dot
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   


4. Add another dot of glue to the centre point and fold the other end to stick to that centre mark - you then have a piece of paper with a loop at either end
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   


5. Fold the remaining 26 cm lengths in the same way so you will have 3 double ended loops


6. We now need to stick the 3 sets of loops ontop of each other - put a dot of glue in the middle of the first one and stick the second one ontop. Add some glue to the centre again and add the third one. Make sure they are evenly spaced
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   


7. Repeat steps 3 to 6 with the 24 cm lengths of paper
   
   
   


8. Add a small amount of glue to the end of the 10 cm strip and stick it into a ring as per the below photo
   
   
   


9. Put glue in the centre of the 26 cm rose and stick the 24 cm rose ontop
   
   
   
   
   
   


10. Put glue in the centre of the 24 cm rose and stick the 10 cm ring centrally
    
    
    


11. This is your completed bow. I added a couple of tails by cutting two more strips of 2 cm patterned paper each about 8 cm long and glued them to the underneath of the bow
    
    
    
    
    
    

The bow looks beautiful on the top of your gift and you can make it any colour, even using cheap wrapping paper - really handy for any last minute gift wrapping.