Did you know you can skip buying bows and instead use magazines pages (or any paper of your choice) to make your own gift bows?
If you’d like a different look, Oh Amanda gives a tutorial for using wrapping paper to make a bow.
Do you have a fun and frugal Christmas DIY idea to share? I’d love to hear about it! Read the submission guidelines and submit it here.
I made these last year and am making them again this year! They are so unique, and people love them! I find that full page pictures or covers work the best, with turning some of the strips over to show the text on the opposite side. Since I didn’t have brads, I used twist ties (from bread bags, etc.), and they still turned out wonderful! It only takes me a few hours all told to make all the bows I need (I grab spare moments here and there to make them).
I made a few of these last year. There was a learning curve on getting them to come out looking nice and my husband got very irritated with how much time I spent. Just a heads up that you might not want to count on this for all your bows!
Love it!! I was just thinking today about how much I hate plastic bows, financially and environmentally, lol.
Thank you so much for this project… I always make other bows by hand out of ribbon but this was a very fun project for me and my niece who is 4 she wanted to use her baby stapler for something… I think I will have her wrap all my presents now!
My daughter made several of these last Christmas – they turned out very well – nice and colorful:)
Thanks for linking to my giftwrap bow tutorial, Crystal! 🙂 I love the magazine one, too! I’ll have to try it this year!
Thanks for sharing!
Great tutorial. I think I’m going to try making it out of fabric scraps.
Here’s the direct link to the homemade gift bow Crystal posted about last year.
http://a-heart4home.blogspot.com/2008/12/handmade-gift-bow-tutorial.html
Enjoy!
Argh! Last night I went to dig up the old link and it wasn’t working on ehow for me (I wonder if their site was down or something?). So I spent 20 minutes looking for another similar link and finally found the one I posted today. And duh, now today, the link is working just fine.
I made these last year and was really happy with the way they turned out. Very simple and therapeutic:) Unfortunately, my two little ones very nearly ripped the bows to shreds, so make sure you delay putting them on as long as possible. Also, they flatten easily, so if you’re traveling, use caution.
What great way to reuse my magazines! Thanks!!
https://moneysavingmom.com/2009/12/celebrating-a-simple-christmas-homemade-gift-bows-from-recycled-magazine-pages.html
The link in that post doesn’t work anymore, unfortunately. 🙁
@Crystal, It’s working for me.
I found it here.
http://howaboutorange.blogspot.com/2009/10/make-gift-bow-from-magazine-page.html
I googled it and found the missing link ladies 🙂 http://www.re-nest.com/re-nest/how-to/how-to-make-a-gift-bow-from-a-magzine-page-100482
First link just goes back to origional post…this is a great idea!!!!
Your first link in this post needs fixing, as it doesn’t work. Thanks!
Fixed, sorry about that!
It wont open the page for the magazine bows, all i can see is the one at Oh Amanda about the wraping paper bow, please help.
It should work now, my apologies on the error!
What a great idea. I was just getting ready to take a stack of magazines to the library. What a great way to reuse!