Five Days Down.....And Counting...

This morning I got out my bow maker(s).  My oldest and favorite is the homemade one that I did a LONG time ago. 

If you would like to make one, here's the instructions. http://caseymini.blogspot.com/search?q=bow+maker

While I am at it, I thought you might like to see a fancier version.

This is one that I got as a present from a former Wednesday Witch.  She gave us each one before she left town.  Her husband was a machinist and made them himself.  It is great, but I dislike taking the pins out every time to release the bow. 

It makes three different sizes of bows.  The pins store inside a compartment under the little knob at the corner and the handy dandy little tool is attached too. 

I do use it, because it is great for small bows and big bows.  I still use my hand held one for mediums.

I made several this morning because I wanted to see what other materials would do.

Tessie and Zar volunteered(as usual)  when it came to the photo opp. 

The orange one that Tessie is holding is the smallest one off of the machine. It is regular self stick holiday ribbon from years ago.

The green one that Zar is holding is the largest, made of silk ribbon with only two rows. Tessie couldn't force him to wear his in his hair...The other two bows were made medium size on my little board.

Sooner or later I will run out of the supply of the self stick ribbon. I am already out of red and green. So....I tried, on Tessie's head, #5 Perle cotton.  It works and makes a bow rather like the soft rope bows that you see pre made in the card section of stores sometimes.

As for the one that Spike is wearing for a wig, it is regular embroidery floss.  All six strands held together.  The last two don't look like ribbon, but I can see them used for this purpose. 

OK.  If you want to make the tool or do the ribbons, both are explained in greater detail on the above post.

See you tomorrow.  Happy bow making!

Using What's On Hand...

You don't have to drive yourself crazy with a bow maker and fancy papers.

This morning I shooed the Terrible Two out of the bedroom and barred the door.

If I didn't, they would unwrap gifts as soon as I wrapped them....Even though they know that they are just blocks of random sized balsa wood.  They have it in their heads that as soon as the block is wrapped, it magically turns into a real gift...Just for them. 

The first photo shows what you can do with card stock type scrap booking paper. 

The one with the tree on the left is partially wrapped to show you how to deal with the thickness.  I wrap the card stock around the block, creasing it sharply before gluing anything.  Then I wrap it around and at the corners I cut a V out that way there is no folding to be done. 

If you want to make bags, do it the same way, but only crease one end of the box.  The other end will be the open top of the bag.   The ribbon in this photo(box on right) was simply curled on a pair of scissors quite a few times and then glued down to the box.

Next, we have regular paper.  The three that kind of match are pieces cut from a regular sheet of wrapping paper.  It was striped and one of the stripes, the red one, was wide enough to wrap a small box...Inspect the rolls before you buy them sometimes they are striped like this and sometimes the background behind the larger illustrations are patterned.

The red and white one at the right is simply quarter inch Joe Hermes wallpaper.

The left front one is decorated with some of that self stick silver paper trim.  The other one in front is again, just coiled on scissors.

This last bunch is paper samples from the old Current Card catalogs from the eighties.

They used to be quite generous with their photos of papers and cards that they were selling.

I haven't looked yet, but I imagine that you could find similar images on the net, to print and use.

The cards were samples from the same catalog and I just attached them to some scrap booking card stock.

Now about those fuzzy pompom type bows on the packages....I took my tweezers and twisted the end of some of the metallic chenille stems in a circle and kept twisting until I got the size I wanted and cut them off.  It helps to cut a bit of the fringe from the bottom before gluing on the package.

There you have it.  No bow maker and no fancy paper. I used regular Elmer's white glue to put everything together.  Now it's your turn.  I have to go hide all of the presents before Tessie and Zar get a hold of them....I don't want to do it all over again.

See you tomorrow.

Before Bow Dazzlers

I meant to write these directions before Christmas. I never quite got around to it. Oh well......You can make Easter ribbons or Birthday ribbons. I was out running hither and yon with April this morning, so I decided that this was a good time to throw this tutorial in. No. I didn't work on the Clockwork cottage.

Back in the early 80s, when I was much newer at making minis, there was a fad for a while. Everyone was making mini Christmas trees. Some made them from natural materials. Some were loops of beads. Some were made with chenille stems. It didn't matter the materials. They all had to have tiny packages with tiny bows. Someone came up with the idea of making a bow maker. There were variations on the theme. I still have the first one that I made and it is still pressed into service whenever I need fluffy bows for a project. All you need to make one is a small piece of wood and some 5/8" brads.

The instrument of torture that you see at the bottom left is the one that I made. That one is about 3" long and made of bass wood. Don't try to use balsa or foam core. They won't hold the nails. I drew a 1/2" circle on one end and divided it into 10 equal spaces. Then, from the other side, I pounded in the brads. I then spread a bit of glue around the heads on the backside and let it dry.

Back then we were using either Hallmark or Tie Tie brand "sticks to itself" ribbon. It was easily split into thin(1/16" to 1/8") strips by tearing. I don't think that anyone makes this anymore. Sometimes you can get lucky and find old rolls in thrift shops or at yard sales. The reason for using it was that it worked with white glue. Some of the newer ribbons don't. If you use new ribbon, you may have to try some different glues until you find one that works. You can always make your bows with silk ribbon if you can't get the regular ribbon to work.

Anyway, here goes. It may help to number the brads on the outer edge of the wood with 1 to 10. First lightly glue a tiny piece of notebook paper in the center of the circle. This forms a base for the bow. Stick one end of the ribbon strip to this and let it dry a bit.

Second you start wrapping the ribbon around one brad and going to the pin directly opposite(6) for the next wrap. Put a tiny bit of glue between each layer of ribbon and hold it down with a toothpick. If you use the fancy Japanese toothpicks, you can use the pointy end for the glue and the blunt end to hold down the center. Coming back across you wrap around #2, then to 7, 3, 8,4, 9 and so on.... You keep doing this until you have 3 loops on each of the brads. Let it dry on the brads. Then gently lift it off of the pins with an exacto knife or tweezers slid under the center. You may have to go around and lift some of the loops one at a time.

When you get it off, start bringing the loops up towards the center top. I do this by gently pulling with my fingertips. Here you see the finished bow. These are another thing that takes practice, but if you do a few you will get the hang of it quickly. After that, it will be like Lay's pototo chips. Bet you can't make just one!

See you tomorrow