Magazine Bow - Tutorial

Well it's that time of the year ya'll!!!  What time, you ask?  Time to start wrapping presents and spending large amounts of money on wrapping paper and bows that are going to be destroyed by those excited little hands!!!  So why not use this time to be frugal and green at the same time!!! 

We all get magazines in the mail and if you don't there are plenty of places online that you can request magazine's from for FREE!!! This is a list of places I have compiled for ya'll of some of those places.....

Land of Nod

Ballard Designs

Through The Country Door

The Home Marketplace 

There are many many more you just have to do some looking online to find them.

Ok, now onto the tutorial!

First I want to show you what we'll be making

Isn't it pretty and doesn't it look like a store bought bow?!  And not to mention, it was free because everything you need to make this you probably already have!!!  The best part about these is you can decide what color you want it to be and how you want it to look.

Ok enough chatting let's get to it.

Supplies:  Self healing cutting mat, rotarty cutter/or exacto knife, Magazine, a glue stick, and a ruler or something else to use as a straight edge to cut along.

Step 1:  First you want to decide which page you're going to make your bow out of and either rip it out or cut it out.

Step 2: We're going to cut the magazine page into 3/4 inch strips width wise.  Ok did I loose you?  We are not going to cut from the bottom to the top of the page, we're are going to cut from one side to the other width wise. 

You will end up with an entire page of strips.  You will only need 7 strips for each bow. So set your other strips aside becuase you can use them later for another bow!!!


Step 3: We are going to be making the bow loops for our bow.  You are going to add some glue to one end of your paper and loop it around to the middle inside of your paper strip, and then rotate and do the same to the other end.  You will do this to 6 of your strips.

First loop

Second loop

 Keep in mind that you are making a figure 8 shape with your loops.  You don't want to end up with something that looks like wings on a butterfly!! 


Step 4: We are going to make our center loop for our bow.  With your 7th strip of paper you're going to cut it down to 4 inches.  We're going to make a circle out of it by adding glue to one end and gluing the 2 ends together.

At the end of this step this is what you should have.

Step 5:  Now it's time to actually start layering and putting our bow together.  You are going to take one or your loops and use it as the bottom and take the next loop, add a bit of glue to the middle of the back of the loop and start layering adding your middle cirlce at the very end.

Isn't it pretty?!  I know that this seems like it's a long process but it only takes maybe 10 minutes from start to end and once you've made 1 you'll want to keep going.  I've made about 20 or so because they are so easy!!  All you'll need to stick them to your package is either 2 sided tape or you can just use the same glue stick and glue them in place.  I hope ya'll enjoyed my second ever tutorial!!!! 

Don't forget to pat yourself on the back because you just saved yourself a little money by making these cute little bows yourself!!! So until next time..........

Happy Crafting!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

I hope this post finds all of you having a wonderful day with all of your loved ones!!!

I am thankful for my beautiful babies, my wonderful honey who works so hard to make sure that we are taken care of, my wonderful family and my great friends!!!  I am also thankful for all of the blessings that have been bestowed upon me and my family!!!

I hope yall go to bed with full bellies and happy hearts!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

Thrifty Thursday

I want to start off by saying hello to everyone that reads my little blog and I'd like to appologize for my abscence here lately!!!

Ok, now on to fun things.  Today is Thursday, so that means that it's thrifting day!!!  I feel so much.........

today because I found lots and lots of great things today for only $10!!  Yep that's right I said $10!!

I found 4 wooden shutters, 3 vintage (and wonderful) pillow cases, a wooden embroidery hoop, 3 wooden letters (which I just posted a photo of above) and a cars ball for my son!!!  I will probably paint the letters a different color and use them for Christmas decorations for now, but they will serve a much different purpose after the holidays!!!

Please excuse the really crappy photo my camera died as soon as I snapped the photo so it's very blurry.

Aren't they just wonderful!!!  So until next time (which I'm hoping will be soon)........

Happy Crafting (and thrifting)!!!!

Thrifty Thursday

Wow it has been quite a while since I posted a Thrifty Thursday post!!! 
I found some really great things today and what made it even better was all together I spent $7.  It was a little more than I usually spend, but this time I had the 2 year old with me and we had to get some toys too (ofcourse). 

Ok I have to say, the turquoise/teal and white cup with the silver handle and the matching bowl along with the white owls with turquoise eyes are by far my favorites!!!

Oh and the ice cream cone cup is going to be part of my very next tutorial that I will be working on next, aren't you just so excited to see what it will be (wink, wink).  And I'm sorry to say I didn't get a chance to take photos of the toys they were pre-occupied when I took these photos. 

I hope everyone enjoys thrifting as much as I do, you find some of the greatest things at the thrift store!!!  So until next time.......

Happy Crafting ( and Thrifting of course)!!!

100% reusable wreath tutorial

I'm finally doing it, I'm posting my very first tutorial!!!  You know what makes it even better, it's 100% reusable!!  You can take it apart and re-use every part of this project.  Right now I have it decorated more for halloween-fall.

What you need:

1. Styrofoam wreath for (mine came from dollar tree $1)

2. Masking tape (helps keep the thumbtacks in place already had)

3. Nikel plated flat head thumbtacks (I used about 600 for about $2 from the dollar store)

4. Ribbon ( I already had some so this was free)

Directions:

1. First of all you need to wrap you wreath with the masking tape.  I suggest doing this so that your tacks stay in place better, because if you don't the taks will start to fall out because they break the foam down and it starts to crumple. If you choose to skip this step go straight to #2.

2. Next you're going to start pushing your tacks into the wreath form, make sure to overlapp them so that all of your masking tape (or wreath form if you choose to not wrap) are covered completely with the tacks.  I chose to go in a slanted pattern to cover my wreath.  I only pushed the tacks into the top half and left the back half plain.  Your wreath will be kinda heavy when you have finished pushing in the tacks.

Oh and this is a lengthy process so I would do it in a few sessions so that your fingers aren't killing you.  I did complete mine in one afternoon over the weekend when I didn't have kiddos.

4. Now you can use anything to embelish your wreath, I used ribbon and wrapped it around my wreath and tacked the starting end and the ending end to the back of the tack with 2 tacks, then I cut about a 6" piece of ribbon to create a hanger and I also tacked it to the back of the wreath.  I used several tacks to hold it in place.  It's been hanging on my wall for several days and we haven't had any problems with it so it holds just fine.

This is what the 2 ends look like after wrapping
them around the wreath.

This is what the hanger looks like.



And finally hang it on your door or somewhere in your home!!!  The best part is that it can be taken completly apart and re-used.  You can use the tacks, ribbon and wreath form over and over again in many  different projects!!!  I hope you've enjoyed this tutorial it was exciting for me to finally post my first very own tutorial!!!



Happy Crafting!!!