Sunday School - Bows, bows, and a knot!

Good morning CraftyStealers!

Last week, on National Scrapbooking Day, many of you took part in our challenges on Facebook. One of them called for projects with ribbon - and boy did you all show us some creative ways to use ribbon! We wanted to make sure all of you ribbon lovers have stocked supplies, so today's CraftySteal is an American Crafts ribbon box!

Looking over all of your beautiful ribbon projects, I thought it might be fun to have some bow and knot tutorials for Sunday School today. Especially since (don't laugh) I actually had to RESEARCH how to tie a bow (well, how to tie a pretty bow!) when I first started scrapbooking. It's harder to get those perfect bows than you would think!

So let's start out with the basic bow:

Take a length of ribbon and make two loops (aka "bunny ears").

Cross one loop over and under the other (just like tying a shoe).

Pull through and straighten out, adjusting the middle.

Now you can trim the ends to make sure the length is to your liking. Trim at and angle to make sure they don't fray.  Now you can glue the bow to anything!

Next up, are two ways to tie ribbon directly on your paper - one is a knot, the other takes the knot up a notch and makes it a bow.

For the knot, first you punch your paper using a ribbon or rectangle punch (or cut two slits in the paper if you don't have a punch).

Thread each end into a hole, coming from the front to the back.

Cross one side over the other, and thread the ribbon through the opposite hole, feeding it from back to front.

This is your knot, and you can trim the edges to your desired length.

This next bow, is a little more complicated, but I personally think it looks much more neat than a bow I tie myself and glue on.

First, punch your paper using a ribbon or rectangle punch.

Take a length of ribbon and put each end of the ribbon through one hole, going from front to back. This will become the middle of your bow.

Now, turn your paper over and cross the ribbons in the back.

Bring each ribbon end up through the opposite end it went down through.

Each of these ends will now become the loops of the bow. Take each end back through the holes (going back through the same hole, but don't pull it all the way back out - leave some sticking out - as long or as short as you would like your loops to be).

Now turn the paper over and cross the ribbon ends one more time.

Pull the ribbon ends up through the opposite holes. These will become the tails. You can cut these as long or as short as you would like them to be!

 Pretty, isn't it? So what about you, what is your favorite bow to make? Feel free to share here or on our Facebook wall, we love to learn new techniques!

Also, if you are looking for some inspiration for what to do with all of the ribbon you will get in today's steal, take a look at our Facebook photo album and see the entries for the ribbon challenge - there were a ton of beautiful cards and pages shared! In fact, the first card I posted today, was inspired by this card that Melissa D. posted on our wall (except mine doesn't do hers justice!).

Have a great Sunday, and happy crafting!

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!