Sunday School: Simple Paper Bow

Good morning CraftyStealers!

With Easter behind us, we still have quite a few important card-giving days coming up - Mother's Day next Sunday, Teacher Appreciation week (first week in May), and Memorial Day (armed forces past and present to thank).

While surfing the "tube" (YouTube, that is!), I came across this tutorial with Heidi Swapp, promoting Northridge Publishing's new idea book "Embellish" (which some of you picked up as a CraftySteal a few weeks ago!)  The tutorial shows you how to make simple paper bows.  Now, Heidi Swapp said bows are the "next big thing", and while I'm not sure if everyone will stop loving their flower embellishments any time soon, I do like the idea of this simple bow - a great way to use up scraps, and perfect for cards, gift boxes and altered projects. 

All you need is strips of paper cut in different lengths but the same thickness (mine are 12", 8" and 6" and 3" long and each 1" wide) and glue dots.  Yep, it's that simple!

Now take your first strip and make it into a circle, attaching the ends.  Repeat with all strips except the smallest.

With each loop, "smoosh" (the technical term of course) the middle down and secure it with a glue dot. Repeat with each loop.

Next, you layer the smooshed loops on top of each other with the biggest on the bottom, placing a glue dot in between each loop to secure them to each other. 

Take the smallest piece and wrap it around the center of all three loops.

That's your bow! Now you can embellish the center with a flower, some bling or a button.  For my card below, I used the paper and stickers from the KI Memories Heirloom Collection - available on the CraftySteals past steals page). I also used two more flat scraps cut to look like the ends of a ribbon as a base for my bow.

So what do you think? Are bows the next big thing? Or are you in my camp and think that while bows have their place (and can be the perfect thing on the perfect project), they aren't going to take over the papercrafting world. Opinions my fellow CraftyStealin' friends?

Have a great Sunday and Happy Crafting!