Christmas in July - Make your own bows!

I have an awesome little tutorial to share with you today that I also posted as one of the challenges on Cookin Up Creations Christmas in July Crop.  You can get a head start on your gift wrapping! This would work for any holiday and it only requires a 6 x 12 (or I also did a 6 x 8 bow with one less layer) piece of scrap paper, gift wrap, or I have even seen some people using magazines and some hot glue! I tried the tutorial with sticky dots but if you use a heavier scrap, they seem to pop apart.

Then I couldn't stop making more! I even played and made one with less layers and punched the edges of the pieces to make a lacier bow!

The first bow took me about 15 minutes to make. After that, I was whipping them out and couldn't stop! My daughter and niece were amazed. How cool to use your scraps and make something special to decorate a gift. Bows like these cost over a dollar each at the store unless you buy the bags around Christmas time. I find that they often don't match the package and smush easily. These are very strong and solid and look amazing! Your family will be totally impressed. I plan to make a lot more of these for wrapping all types of gifts for any holiday!

The tutorial from Split Coast Stampers is very thorough - http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/tutorials/dsp_bow. The only tricky part that I found is that when you are cutting, you cut the 6" strips, turn the paper and cut the 4" strip, then turn the paper back to cut the 5" strip. That way you only need one 6 x 12 piece. By using hot glue, I didn't need to use brads but either way would work!  Now go and build a stash for the future!