Michele Made Me

One birdie's attempt to figure things out. Oh, and crafts.

Tutorial: Quick and Pretty Junk Mail Gift Bow

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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!

Reader Interactions

Comments

  6. Saraccino says

    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!

  10. CREATIVE MIND says

    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…

  18. PEACHES says

    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

    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

  22. Nzqu says

    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. 🙂

  24. ruby murray says

    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