Handmade Gift Bows Tutorial

If you love creating things out of paper, you will appreciate this tutorial on handmade gift bows! Each bow has it's own unique look. When you look at a store bought gift bow you may think it looks too complicated to make but it really isn't. In fact, gift bows are super simple to make and they are just as fancy as the store bought ones. What is nice is you get to pick out what colors and patterns of paper you want for your gift bow and the possibilities are endless. This is a great way to recycle paper too. You can even use newspaper, magazine pages, pages from a book, scraps of wrapping paper or you may choose to use new scrapbook paper or a page with your own art work on it.. whatever you like as long as it's paper it will work. The bows below I made with sheets of paper that I painted first with water colors. There are three different types of bows that I've learned how to make and I'm excited to share them with you. Enjoy!

This is the most common look for gift bows and they are super simple to make. Use any kind of paper to make these as long as it isn't too flimsy.

You will need: Paper, Paper Cutter or Scissors, Glue dots and a Stapler

#1) Take a 8.5 in by 11 in piece of paper and cut it into 3/4 inch by 11 inch strips. A paper cutter works great for this. Once cut into strips, stack them all together and fold in the middle.

#2) Start making each of them into a S shape and staple in the middle.

#3) Now start layering them together by putting glue dots on back of them in the center.. 3 will make a the bottom layer and then start stacking them on top, pushing down in the middle with a glue dot in place. The glue dots will hold them all together and start to form the bow. See illustration below.

#4) Once you have all the layers glue down, make a loop out of another 3/4 inch strip of paper and stick it in the center

There you go! A pretty handmade gift bow. Now stick a couple glue dots on the back, stick it to your gift and your ready to go!

This one is very simple to do as well. It has a little bit of a different look to it.

What you Need: Paper, Paper Cutter or Scissors, Staples and Glue Dots

#1)Cut a 8.5/11 inch piece of paper into 3/4 inch by 11 inch strips. Fold the stack of strips together and fold in the middle. Now take the ends of the strips and bring them together forming a circle and then squish the circle and staple in the middle where the fold is. See photo # 3 in the photo illustration below.

#2) Start layering them on top of each other as shown in the illustration.

#3) When you come to the last stapled strip, bend the loops toward each other and secure them together with a glue dot-like in photo #12. Then put a glue dot on the back and stick it to the top of the bow.

Wallah!! Another beautiful handmade bow.

This bow is more like #2 above but with a little twist.

What you need:8.5x11 sheet of paper, paper cutter or scissors, glue dots and stapler

Step1) Cut paper longways about 3/4 inch wide strips and then take the strips and fold them in half.

Step2) Now one strip at a time, bring the ends together and instead of stapling straight down in the middle, like in bow #2 above, slightly criss-cross the strip before stapling down the middle. It's hard to explain but I'm hoping the pictures below will help show you.

Step 3) Just like the 2 bows above, start layering and adhere with glue dots. See the illustration below. As you layer, the bow will get thicker and by the time you get the last strip stuck on your bow will be done.

Just apply glue dots to the back and stick it on your gift!

I hope you have enjoyed learning how to make your own gorgeous gift bows! Feel free to experiment using different widths of paper strips and more layers. One time I made some but instead of using a straight cut for the strips I cut the strips out with decorative edge scissors and they turned out really cute. I hope you have as much fun making these as I do.

Did you enjoy reading my hub? Please take a second to leave some feedback and tell me what you think. Any questions or comments? I would love to hear from you.

Happy Giftbow Making :)