craft Sarah is the author of craftinvaders.co.uk where she blogs about her original craft tutorials, recipes, foraging, and developing wellbeing through being By Sa rah Wh iting creative, spending time outdoors and connecting with nature
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Recycled Gift Bows
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A BEAUTIFULLY WRAPPED GIFT IS ALWAYS A DELIGHT TO RECEIVE. BUT PRETTY PACKAGING COMES AT A COST TO BOTH OUR POCKET AND THE ENVIRONMENT
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any of us are looking for more environmentally friendly forms of packaging this holiday season. These recycled gift bows are one small
Materials: − Pages from old catalogues and/or magazines − Scissors
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A perfect place to put bird food balls
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way to cut the cost of packaging. Made from old catalogues or magazines they are super simple to make but look just as good as anything you might buy.
− Stapler − Glue, or glue dots (I use Bostik Extra Strength Glue Dots).
Ho ho ho! Happy Crafting! Steps: 1. Start by tearing colourful pages from an old magazine or catalogue. The height of the page will govern how big the completed bow ends up. 2. Cut the pages you have selected into strips 2cms wide. For each recycled gift bow you will need 3 strips of paper at their full length to make the outer rosette. 2 or 3 more pieces 2cm shorter than the first for the inner rosette, plus a short length for the centre. Don’t worry if that sounds confusing, it should make more sense once you work through the steps, and your first bow comes together! 3. Take the first strip of paper and turn one end over looping it into the middle as shown in photo step 3.
4. Repeat with the other end, so the two
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ends meet and staple into place. Repeat with all the other strips apart from the middle one which you just use in a simple tube shape. Use the glue or glue dots to secure the first three looped strips into a rosette as shown in the photo below. Then repeat the process with the next size down looped strips. The size of the paper you started with will govern how much space you have to fill and how many you will fit in. We fitted three in on our larger size bow but only two on the smaller. Finally, roll a tube of paper and stick it in the middle of your recycled gift bow to finish, and that’s it!
