til Easy to Mako Baw Makers wi Py Jou Dy r. € 2 a aR ‘Through my Etsy shop, | have been selling packages of strips of ribbon in over 20 colours to customers who are making miniature bows. These ribbons are from my collection of vintage ribbon that sticks to itself. This style of vintage ribbons strips down into pieces smaller that 1/8” and since it sticks to itself with water it is very easy to glue. After receiving emails from customers asking how to make bow makers, | came up with this easy way of making bow makers that needs very few tools. Plastic erasers such as Staedtler from an art supply store, work very well to hold straight pins. Cut the erasers with a straight blade or Xacto knife into smaller squares. Push the pins in a design as shown on the template up through the bottom of the cut erasers to create a bow maker. Itis often difficult to push them straight but give it a few tries. If you start by using plyers to push the pins in they might stay straighter. If you have a drill press and tiny drill to drill the holes that would work really well. You can snip off the needle points if you want but | found they didn’t interfere with the bow making. ‘The photos below show the process of making a bow with 6 pins, the more pins, the more complex and fancier the bow, you can use 8, 12 or more. Put a piece of plastic over the pins first, you can pull off the plastic when the bow is made. Use thick glue and a few round tooth picks. To make a bow with 6 pins, start by gluing the end of a strip of ribbon to the center at 1. Wrap ara around pin 2 to form a loop, then glue in the center again, hold a toothpick in the centre. Go 8 around pi ina figure 8 pattern and continue around the circle 2 or 3 times, always gluing in the center. When finished, wrap the end of the ribbon around a tooth pick and glue to form a loop in the center. Once dry pull it off the plastic. Twist around each row and puff up.N Wy é a: \ | we z For the 2 pins in the first photo, leave a bit of ribbon end before gluing in the centre, make figure 8 loops gluing inthe centre foreach loop. Push upa loop shape forthe tm centre. _ For the 3 pins, make figure 8 loops, gluing in the centre, go around the pins 2 or 3 times. Take it off the plastic and shape it and twist a bit. ‘ When using 4 pins, glue in the centre and do a figure 8 loop around or the outside pins first and then the inside two pins, finish off your bow with a loop in the centre. You can do a similar bow just using 3 " of the 4 pins or enlarge the loop in the centre. uO bil Curly ribbons are fun. For the pink ribbon on the pin in the middle right photo, strip the ribbon narrower, dampen it and wrap it around a pin. Once dry, pull off the curl and stretch it out a bit. You can also dampen and wrap a piece of ribbon around a tooth pick or needle depending on the effect you want. Then glue a few together at the top of the curls and add a bow on top. In the photo on the right, | am showing a very simple bow made with 9 close together knots in a row. Then knot the grouping of knots a couple of times together The knotted bows would look good with curly ribbons. You can strip some of the slightly wider ribbons in half and use 2 different colours together to make a bow. Layer different colours on different parts of the bows. Finishing the bows can be fun with a few small no hole beads in the centre, tiny flowers, leaves and gift tags. You can find free miniature Christmas and other gift wrap on my website and blog. Cutting out prints from shiny ads works well too. There are many tiny plaids on photos of shirts which are perfect for Christmas. There are wonderful prints for baby gift wrap too. | hope you might enjoy trying out bow making. The bow makers. probably have a short life span but you can have fun working with them, ©2014 Jean Day, Jean Day Miniatures Formatted by Jean Day http://jdayminis.com on in my Etsy shop, www.etsy.com/ca/ shop/jdayminis ee