Paper Bows...

I love to give matching homemade cards and gifts for birthdays. Something I've been lacking on is the packaging. Usually I'll just throw them in a bag or a box. Sometimes I'll wrap them. That's why I was so excited when I found this tutorial on how to make paper bows.

I made this matching notebook and card to give to my daughter's friend for her birthday. We also included a washer necklace and anklet and some flower clips. They probably didn't even notice, but I love how the matching bow tied everything together!

And here's a shot of the dressed up box from the front.

Here's another example of matching the bow to one of my cards. This one was for my little sister. She's been wanting some M&M cookies, so I made some for her on her birthday and dressed up this plain styrofoam box with a cute paper bow.

After making the bows with scrapbook paper, I wondered what they would look like using newspapers or ads. We like to recycle our paper at our house, but reusing it to make something cute saves me a trip to the recycling bin.

This one is made from a newspaper.

It's hard to tell, but this one came from a shoe ad.

I loved the colors of this ad. I think it was for a local health food store.

The possibilities for this are endless. I think these bows would look great using the Sunday comics...I've got to find someone who subscribes to the paper so I can steal theirs! Also, these would look so cute on Christmas gifts using Christmas themed scrapbook paper! Or for Valentine's Day, or Easter....you get the idea!