DIY: Small Gift Bows

Here is another great gift bow tutorial! These are a little bit easier to make than my Jumbo Gift Bows due to the smaller, more manageable size. They are also a great option because you can use almost any paper to make them! All of the bows you see here were made from pages out of a magazine. Holiday ads have great colors and images to make gift bows from. You could also use scrap booking paper, newspaper, gift wrap, or even get some rolls of ribbon at the fabric store and use it to make these decorative bows without having to cut strips yourself!

To make the bow seen at the top of the page you will need to start by selecting a full page out of a magazine and cutting it into strips:

For this bow I cut my page into 7 strips, all 3/4" wide as seen above. The first 3 are the entire length of the page. The second 3 have each had 1.5" removed, and the shortest strip is 4.5" long.


Next, you will make your loops into figure 8 shapes by looping your paper. Take one end and loop it in towards the middle like so:

You will notice that you want to loop it so that the "wrong side" of your paper is facing up on both the center of your bow, as well as the end you looped towards the middle. Loop the other end towards the middle as well, and you will end up with a finished loop of your bow that looks like this:

Secure your bow loops in the center with glue, double sided tape or a staple. You will make your 6 largest strips into the figure 8 loops as shown above, and the smallest strip will be made into a regular, circular loop. Once all of your loops are made you will have this:

Now your bow is ready to assemble! Take your 3 largest loops and arrange them to make the bottom of your bow. You can stick them together however you like, I chose to use glue. The type of glue you choose will depend on your material. I found this adhesive chart on Pinterest that is helpful if you aren't sure what type of glue works with your materials. Once you glue these 3 loops together you will have this:

Arrange and assemble your 3 other figure 8 loops in the same way and then glue them together. This will then be glued to the center of the bottom of your bow. Glue your circular loop down in the center to finish your bow!

Here is one I made out of some holiday cookie images from a cooking magazine (who doesn't want their present wrapped in chocolate macarons and cherry pistachio nougat?):

Here is another bow I made from magazines as well, it doesn't have a full tutorial, but is very similar to the jumbo gift bow. It is made from 1/2" strips: 5 of the bottom, 4 in the second layer and 2 circular loops to finish the center (lengths are the same as above for each layer).