I have the pleasure of guest posting over at Frugal Living NW today and sharing my DIY wrapping paper using fruit and vegetable stamps. While I love the way the paper turned out, I decided it was missing a little something. So I decided to make my own bows and tags to jazz up my packages.

Long before the days of Pinterest, I came across this tutorial for making bows using a page from a magazine. I added the page to my “favorites” and it has been sitting there for over 2 years. I was so excited to finally have the perfect project to use it for.

Initially, I followed the instructions from that tutorial but the scrapbook paper I used was a little to thick to work. Here are my instructions for DIY bows adapted for using scrapbook paper.

You will need:

12 X 12 scrapbook paper

1 brad

Glue dots

Cut the paper into (8) 3/4″ strips. Leave 3 of the strips 12″ long. Cut 2 strips to 11″ long. Cut 2 strips to 10″ long. Cut 1 strip to 5 1/2″ long.

Starting with one of the 12″ pieces, twist the strip into a figure 8. This is the hardest part to explain how to do. Twist one end in towards the center.

Twist the other end in towards the center.

At this point you can staple your twist to hold it together. I didn’t want the added bulk of staples, so I built my bow right onto a brad.

Work from largest to smallest strips of paper. Twist each into a figure 8 and stack onto your brad. Close the brad once the 7 longest strips are on.

Roll the 5 1/2″ strip of paper into a circle and fasten with a double sided glue dot. Press the circle into the center of your bow.

Gorgeous!

And because I find it difficult to do any craft project without busting out the Mod Podge, I decided to make some quick DIY tags for my packages as well. I used scrapbook paper and flat wooden ornaments. You can pick up these ornaments in a variety of shapes at Michaels/Joanns for about $0.15.

I just traced the shape of the ornament onto the paper, cut it out and Mod Podged it onto the ornament.

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