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Tutorial: Quick and Pretty Junk Mail Gift Bow

December 20, 2010 by Michele

It’s that time! Yes, indeed. Time to get those gifts dressed up to the nines and pretty as petunias. Now, there’s no need to go out and spend good money on fancy papers or frilly bows! Goodness no. People will be ripping this stuff to shreds. No, what you do is head on over to your friendly household recycling bin, grab some of that Christmas flavoured junk mail and follow me!
Let’s do this thing. Time’s a wastin’!
Tutorial: Quick and Pretty Junk Mail Bow
You will need:
  • Christmas flavoured junkmail or any not-too-heavy weight paper from the recycling bin
  • String
  • Glue
  • Pair of scissors
  • Clothes pins or clips for clamping
1. Gather supplies.
2. Cut out 2 rectangular pieces of junk mail of the exact same size. Take one of these.
3. Fold in half lengthwise.
4. Fold up in quarters.

5. Fold up in eighths.
6. Make 2 cuts starting from the raw edge and diagonally toward the center fold.
7. Unfold the piece. It should look as mine does in #7.
8. Fold up like an accordion.
9. Pinch the accordion in the middle.
10. Fold in half.
11. Tie a piece of string around your accordion at the half-way point.
12. Fan out one edge of the accordion towards the other edge. This creates a half flower. Glue the two edges together. Use a clamp to hold it in place. Repeat steps 1 through 12 with the second piece of junk mail. These two halves glued together create the full flower.
13. Once you’ve glued both halves together, flatten the petals out between your fingers.
14. This way the petals will stay open.
15. Create a little coil of paper with a folded strip of junk mail.
16. Fasten the coil with glue to the center of your flower bow.
And you are done! Attach junk mail bow to the gift!
Quick. Pretty. And the price ain’t bad either.
Here’s a white poinsettia I made with telephone book pages. For the center, I balled up some little pieces and glued them to a tiny circle of paper. Once dry, I glued this circle to the flower (or leaves, for you poinsettia purists) center.
If you don’t want your gift recipient to rip up your beautiful handiwork, attach a little piece of gold cord to the bow and tell them it doubles as a Christmas ornament! See, now you’re thinking of all the angles.
Enjoy enjoy!
And please, have yourself a lovely day!

Filed Under: Christmas crafts, Christmas crafts, paper crafts, paper crafts, reuse, Tutorials Tagged With: bows, gift wrap, junk mail, recycling, tutorial

Previous Post: « A Giveaway Winner AND… AND A Fresh New Feature
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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Wipso says

    December 20, 2010 at 10:09 am

    What a brilliant idea. So effective.
    A x

  2. Lesly says

    December 20, 2010 at 10:52 am

    You are just the most creative person! These are adorable!

  3. Liszha says

    December 20, 2010 at 11:12 am

    Cool! I love the one with the telephone pages! Super idea!

  4. Mrs A. says

    December 20, 2010 at 11:29 am

    Very pretty. It is amazing the effect you can get from just white junk mail.

  5. Amy says

    December 20, 2010 at 12:25 pm

    They are beautiful! I love the telephone pages one in particular.

  6. Saraccino says

    December 20, 2010 at 12:51 pm

    I love the bow with the little paper balls in the middle!

    I also think that the wrapping is one of the best things at christmas! Especially if it is special!

  7. MandiCoulter says

    December 20, 2010 at 1:11 pm

    this is super!! so pretty and economical 🙂

  8. Rescued Goods says

    December 20, 2010 at 2:02 pm

    So pretty! Mine look more like the plain newspaper-no fanciness. I have to try some if I get my act together and start wrapping!

  9. Lora says

    December 20, 2010 at 2:50 pm

    that's so creative!

  10. CREATIVE MIND says

    December 20, 2010 at 5:34 pm

    How easy & smart…hmmm…another stylish idea..i will try this someday with foil sheet or any silver paper..newspaper & foil sheet combination will also be funnnnnnn…..thanks for sharing…

  11. Juliet A says

    December 20, 2010 at 7:54 pm

    I especially like the white one, but it is TOO nice for my non-crafty friends and family.

  12. CandaceAshley says

    December 21, 2010 at 1:46 am

    LOVE IT!

  13. Lori says

    December 21, 2010 at 2:45 am

    I love these! I think I need to get more fancy with my wrapping this year so I can try these.

  14. Gio says

    December 21, 2010 at 12:26 pm

    Bellissimi questi pacchi! Beautiful!

  15. KC says

    December 21, 2010 at 4:02 pm

    I LOVE this….. I posted this to my FB and will be Linking it to my Blog….. TY…. I love recycle crafts

  16. Michelle L. says

    December 21, 2010 at 6:32 pm

    Oh, wow, these are so pretty. The tiny balls on the poinsettias are just the coolest!

  17. Mandy @ Sugar Bee Craft Edition says

    December 22, 2010 at 2:25 pm

    Thanks for linking to Take-A-Look Tuesday at Sugar Bee Craft Edition – I featured you today! – Mandy, http://www.craftedition.blogspot.com

  18. PEACHES says

    December 22, 2010 at 7:56 pm

    BAH, how did I miss this?! This very morning I needed to wrap a last minute gift for a holiday lunch (zero materials on hand)…this would have been great. Grr…next time!

    And they really do look like poinsettias, too!

  19. InMyOwnStyle says

    December 22, 2010 at 11:49 pm

    Hi Michele-
    These flower bows are so cute – I love them. I always love finding new ideas that re-use. I have wrapped with pages from the phone book, but never made a flower. So pretty with the bling in the center.
    Happy Holidays-
    My best- Diane

  20. patricia says

    January 2, 2011 at 7:25 am

    Great idea Michele! I specially like the look of the phone book pages. Happy new year!

  21. The Mighty Sprout says

    January 2, 2011 at 9:09 pm

    So pretty!

  22. Nzqu says

    March 4, 2011 at 6:49 am

    Thank you for this tutorial and thank you for posting a comment to my blog! 🙂 I used staples instead of string and glue, that way it took only 2 minutes to make one flower. I've already made some garlands with those flowers, I'll be posting about them soon in my blog.

    Feel free to link to my blog; it's all in Finnish but there are pics to watch, though. 🙂

  23. ckh says

    March 17, 2011 at 4:22 pm

    This is great!

  24. ruby murray says

    March 18, 2011 at 2:55 pm

    Fantastic idea and absolutely beautiful, I get tons of those stupid flyers and usually chuck them straight into the recycyling bin, not any more. I could even get my hubby to master these I'm sure, he keeps 'threatening' to take up Origami haha

  25. JULITA says

    May 21, 2011 at 8:32 pm

    oi

    Já lhe disse uma vez e volto a dizer, você é fantástica. Bjs

    (Brasil)

  26. Mel M. M. McCarthy says

    October 15, 2011 at 2:13 am

    Just genius & oh so pretty!

  27. Alissa@CraftyEndeavor says

    December 4, 2011 at 2:24 am

    Great idea! I particularly like the phone book idea. I'm pinning this.

  28. Anonymous says

    March 4, 2012 at 5:36 pm

    I think this is really neat

  29. Fiona says

    April 22, 2012 at 6:35 am

    THANK YOU FOR SHARING! This is brilliant. Got to you via a convoluted detour on Pintrest. Glad I found you!!!!

  30. R says

    October 24, 2012 at 9:04 pm

    I like

  31. Linda Walker says

    October 26, 2012 at 5:07 am

    Stunning and such a great idea! I put a link on my blog because I like to share such brilliance.
    http://www.kidsgetcrafty.blogspot.com

  32. mare says

    October 29, 2012 at 3:25 am

    Thanks for sharing your ideas with us!

  33. Dawn says

    December 6, 2012 at 5:58 pm

    Brilliant idea! Love it!

  34. Melissa Kojima says

    December 22, 2012 at 5:18 pm

    Ooooh, it's so simple and pretty really love it.

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I am ecstatic if you choose to link to this site, use a brief description, one photo, or link back to any of my posts. Do not republish entire posts without my permission. Tutorials, patterns and printables are for your personal use only and are not to be used to make items for sale. Thank you.

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