Tuesday 29 January 2013

Make you own Bow Maker!

Hello, my dear crafty friends! Today is my last post as a Guest Designer on Really Reasonable Ribbon blog and this will be a small tutorial I want to share with  you.
And if ribbons are the main issue of this blog/shop, how about your own portable Bow maker and this time I am pretty sure it's a new and never seen tutorial. Why I am sure about it? As I used a dental supplies to make it and I am pretty sure   about not having so may dentists crafting with ribbons around the web.
So here it is- my Portable Tin Bow Maker for you. Look as a cute  altered box? So it is, but wait for the inside of it.


Don't worry- dental supplies are not obligatory, you can use any paper clay or polymer clay to make this tool.
Pick a tin with a lid- can be recycled one too (I used Making Memories tin, but any mint tin about 3*2'' will do the job.)
Now pick some molding paste (can be bought in any craft shop, but if you have a dentist friend it's even better as our molds  smell better and mine has this great grape taste and smell). Make 4 3'' wooden sticks from your BBQ wooden sticks or use an old chopsticks we all have at home as you will need them during  the process and after. Now mix the equal parts of both pastes (all molding pastes have 2 parts to be mixed for a minute or so) , make a rectangle about  3/4'' flat and fill the inside of your tin.


Now stick 2 of your wooden pieces about 1/2'' from each side (it will give you 2'' ribbon  bow) and another 2 in the middle to make this 1'' bow. Let it dry with sticks inside. Now pull the sticks and your bow maker is done.




Here are some photos to show you how to make 2'' bow. The box will use those wooden sticks storage and  you don't need to buy any fancy one (anyway, my fancy bow maker was lost  after all)
Please note that the pearl pins are just my add on to make the more clear photos, you don't need to use them during your bow making at all.
First tie the ribbon around the pegs as shown .

 Now take the left   ribbon end (the upper one) under the loop as shown.

Now move the same ribbon above  the loop as shown

This was a moment to take my pins off (as I said you don't even need them) and to make a tie with both free ribbon ends.

Pull the pegs of the mold and your bow is made. Trim the ends as wanted and use it as I did to embellish my bow maker box.

Now just take time to embellish your Bow Maker box.
First of all pick some Score tape and embellish the lid with Jute  Natural 3/8'' ribbon, cut the edges to fit the tin lid. Add some thin tape around and glue Hemp Cord from Multi Weight set. For my tin lid it were 3 layers of 3/8''width. The bottom was just perfect for one layer of Natural Crochet Lace  trim and I added the same hemp over it.


I  glued a nice flower branch over the lid (Prima) and added my pink bow I made with Swiss Dots Light Coral ribbon.
And now here are some examples of using this Bow Maker  on my other projects.
And as I said- any mold will make the job and if not- try some Paper clay  or some Polymer clay (can be baked with a tin, but don't use Microwave as the tin is metal)
Product list:
Really Reasonable Ribbon:
Jute Natural 3/8 ''
Hemp Cord Multi Weight set
Natural Crochet Lace
Swiss dots grosgrain Light Coral
Tin (Making Memories)
Flowers (Prima)
Other: molding paste, wooden pegs
That's it for this post and for my Guest Designing for Really Reasonable Ribbon shop. Thanks for great products and this fantastic exposure!
See you again in my blog with more ribbon posts!

2 comments:

ionabunny said...

That's helpful. I always have trouble tying a nice bow. I shall have to give this a go

Laurart said...

Lovely idea! xxxx

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