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).

Friday Food Craft: Mounds Bars

Hey all, it's food craft time again! Everyone has their favorite treat on the cookie tray around the holidays, and this is mine. It combines the chocolate and coconut flavors of a Mounds candy bar with a super yummy graham cracker crust, and when I was little I would make sure that I got more than my fair share off the cookie tray, Santa never got to have these. Poor old elf.

When I was little I had always assumed that some great magic must be how they tasted so good, but in reality they are incredibly easy to make, and dare I say it, you'll never want to eat a Mounds candy bar ever again after you've had these, they make a Mounds bar look like a slow ride to grandma's house. I'm going to credit the graham cracker crust for this.

To make some tasty Mounds bars for yourself this holiday season you will need:

For the graham cracker crust:
10 whole graham cracker "sheets" (in every box I've ever had this is, annoyingly, one sleeve plus one cracker sheet from a second sleeve)
1 stick of unsalted butter, melted
1/4 cup packed brown sugar

For the coconut filling:
3 cups flaked coconut
1 (14oz.) can sweetened condensed milk

Chocolate topping:
3 cups chocolate chips


Start by mixing your coconut and sweetened condensed milk filling together and leaving it in a bowl. This helps all of the coconut absorb the milk and get a nice even texture. Set aside while preparing the crust.

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees. To make the graham cracker crust, I always use the tried and true method of putting my graham crackers in a large zip sealed plastic bag and thumping it with a rolling pin to make crumbs. There is something very satisfying about pulverizing graham crackers in the name of delicious baked goods, but if you prefer the food processor approach, be my guest. Once you have your graham crackers reduced to crumbs, add in your brown sugar and stir a little to get an even mixture and then add in your melted butter. Try to get the butter to coat all of the graham cracker and sugar bits so it will hold together in the pan. Once mixed to your liking, dump your crust mixture into a 9"x13" pan and gently pat down. You will bake this layer at 325 for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool slightly.

Once cooled about 5-10 minutes, add your coconut layer on top and spread evenly over the crust. I generally drop large spoonfuls of the coconut mixture evenly over the crust and then use an offset spatula to smooth them together into each other. The coconut mixture is pretty sticky, so you want to spread gently as to not pull up a bunch of graham cracker crumbs into the coconut and make a big mess.

After your second layer is spread evenly, pop your bars back into the oven for 15 minutes, still at 325 degrees. Your coconut will likely be slightly browned around the edges of the pan, this is a good thing. Those are my favorite bars out of the whole pan! Set bars on a cooling rack and melt your chocolate layer. This can be done in the microwave or on a stove top with the use of a double boiler. I opt for the microwave method most often. Simply put your chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl and heat at 30 second intervals, stirring between each interval. Once your chips are almost all melted, I switch to 10 second intervals. Melting my chocolate chips generally takes a total of 1 minute 30 seconds- 1 minute 50 seconds (sometimes I add a few extra chocolate chips so it takes longer). Stir well to make sure there are no lumps, then spread over the coconut layer of your bars.

Allow to cool to room temperature, then refrigerate. I store these in the refrigerator, but you can also freeze them if you are doing a lot of holiday baking all at once, they freeze for storage beautifully. If you feel like adding some fun decorations, you can add your favorite sprinkles on top of the melted chocolate layer, my mom usually did. The best part: these are great at room temperature or straight out of the fridge!

Enjoy!

DIY: Jumbo Gift Bow

Welcome back, or to you first time visitors, welcome! For those of you who have not yet entered, take the opportunity to check out my Happy Haulidays post and comment for your chance to win $500 in books from Chronicle Books. I think I put together a pretty great list of crafting, baking and children's books to make anyone's holidays brighter!


With holiday shopping season well upon us, I thought I would break out some DIY tutorials on gift wrap! This Jumbo Gift Bow is made from wrapping paper (about 28 inches wide, yours may be slightly wider or skinnier depending on the roll you use). These bows are great for larger packages, or those large oddly shaped presents that often times a large bow is good enough to use as wrapping all on it's own (things like wagons, bikes, etc.).

To start, select your wrapping paper. I am using some wrapping paper I got last year at IKEA. I think my husband and I bought it because we had never seen such "busy" and hideously gorgeous wrapping paper before in our lives. Blue snowflake background with bright red reindeer? Yes, please.

Next, cut your paper into 7 strips. Mine are all 3 inches wide. You will want 3 strips that are the same length as your roll of wrapping paper, 3 that all have the last 4 inches removed, and finally one strip that is about 12 inches long.

Once your strips are cut, you may use tape or glue (I used scotch tape for this tutorial, but I generally like to use glue sticks as they dry quickly and don't crinkle the paper like liquid glues can) to make "loops". Make sure that you have the same amount of overlap on each loop, to ensure they stay the same length. Each one of my loops has about 2 inches of overlap. I keep my taped/glued edge on the bottom of my loop, in the middle where they will all finally be glued together.

Arrange your 3 largest loops, spaced evenly, on the bottom of your final bow. If you like you can cut out a circle of card stock to use as a base, but that isn't necessary. Once you have your bottom layer arranged and glued the way you like, do the same with your 3 smaller loops. Glue these on top of the larger loops, and finish by placing your one small loop in the center and gluing it down. Attach your bow to some ribbon and tie it to your present, or use glue to attach to wrapping paper. :)


I will have more tutorials coming up for other styles of bows, tags and methods of gift wrapping so come back and check it out all this week/weekend!