Practical Gift Bow How-to

I always love everything practical, because I'm a last minute person. That means I never spend half an hour, or more, to decorate my gifts. But what's a gift of box without a bow, eh? For you lazy crafters, like me, here's a cheat sheet.

First of all, like all good recipe, we start from the ingredients. Measure your 0.5" (standard) ribbon for around 8", twice, so you have two of them. I am using a blank white paper for this tutorial for easy viewing, but any ribbon will do, as long as they are not to silky. Gift wrapping ribbon works best, and that also reminds me, any scrap gift wrapping papers would do just fine. Find a 0.25" ribbon, or measure your first ribbon/paper and cute them half vertically, and make two of 8" each. You'll have 2 big ribbons and 2 thinner ones. You will also need a double sided tape (or any glue) and an office stapler nearby.

"Sandwich" the thinner ones among the big ones. Make sure they stay in the middle.

It's a good idea to make the snake's tongue end now. (this is optional)

Glue your ribbon sandwich at the top only (around 0.5" from the top), make sure all ribbons, thick and thin, are secured at the top.

Now this is the tricky part, staple the thick ribbon together, at around the red part I'm showing here. No precise measurement necessary, just remember not to staple along the thin ribbons inside, make the two of them stay in the middle.

See the red lines? There's where your staples go.

Yep, stapled it diagonally, at around 45 degree, downward, upward, downward, upward. Once again, don't staple the thin ribbons inside (you'll know why soon)

OK, now place your hand on the last staple, hold still, but not too tight, and pull down both thin ribbons with your other hands, automatically your staple will go upwards. See? Are you making the bump like shown here? Keep pulling.

Pull it until the top and you can't go no more. Voila. It's looking good, we're almost there.

Spread the remaining thick ribbons and now you got yourself a bow. Easy, no?

What do you do with the thin ribbon, you ask? Well, tie it around your gifts, your daughter's head, or simply curl it (with the back of scissors). Hint: You can always alter the length of your bows according to your needs.

I keep a lot of un-pulled practical bows around my house. I mean I love putting an effort to decorate a gift but there's always the time when a 1 minute bow might be needed. I hope this is helpful.