DIY Gift Wrapping Bows

It’s Christmas week! Hopefully you’re not all tired of Christmas themed posts because that’s basically all I have planned this whole week, but I’ll try to keep it interesting for you.

Today, I’m sharing with you a gift wrapping post. I love wrapping presents, but I don’t really do anything interesting with my wrapping. It’s usually your standard gift wrapping. I’ve always wanted to do the brown paper, twine, and holly gift wrapping look because I think it looks so classic, beautiful, and simple. I didn’t do that this year, but maybe next year I’ll give it a try. This time around, I perused Pinterest looking for some creative gift wrapping ideas that didn’t look too difficult. That’s when I came across these bows. They look exactly like the bows you buy at the store with the peel-off sticky backs, but cooler cause you’re making them yourself so I, of course, had to give it a try!

Below, I’ll show you pictures and tell you what the instructions said to do and what I ended up doing.

I wrapped the gift and I made the bow with the left over paper that got trimmed off.

The instructions said to cut 3 strips of paper of 3 different sizes for a total of 9 strips. The strips were to be 11.5, 10.5, and 9.5 inches (all 1 inch wide) in size and then 1 final piece that was 3.5 x 1 inch for the center of the bow.

Fold each strip in half just to mark the center and then one end at a time fold it in a u-shape and staple. Keep the strips together by size.

The instructions used glue, but I just used tape because I didn’t need them to be perfect. Fit the pieces together by size. So I did the 11.5 inch strips together and then the 10.5 inch strips together. But once those were put together I really didn’t see how I could fit the 9.5 inch strips in there so I scrapped those and just stuck the loop in the center.

I think it turned out really well!

So, I tried with the next gift I wrapped and using the scraps of what I trimmed off the ends again. This time, the scraps were smaller so I made a smaller bow and it turned out super cute!

With this smaller bow, I did no measuring with a ruler like the first time around. It was less “perfect” in terms of making sure each strip was exactly the same and in fact, I only made one set of strips and then the center loop because the bow was small. In conclusion, after my first go following the directions, I now know the basics of how to make the bows and I’m just going to wing it from now on. As long as your sets of strips are generally the same size, you really can’t go wrong.

I still have a bunch of wrapping to do this week and I intend to make more bows with my scraps! Let me know if you give it a try and feel free to share some of your gift wrapping ideas!