Recycled Paper Gift Bows

Are you drowning in junk mail? Well, today is the day to turn this trash into treasure! Recycled paper gift bows can be made from practically any paper that you have at home. Junk mail, newspapers, sales fliers, phone books, magazines, even your child's school papers can be used to make bows!

Materials you will need:

• Junk mail/paper of your choice
• Cardboard (like a cereal box)
• Circle punch 1 inch or greater (optional)
• Scissors or rotary cutter and mat
• Ruler 
• Pencil
• Small hole punch
• Glue ( I use hot glue because I have no patience!)
• Metal brads (can be found at Hobby Lobby or any craft store)
• Tape or I like to use Zots to fasten the bows to a package ( I get them at Hobby Lobby)

Steps for making a recycled gift bow:

You need 8 strips of paper that are 2cm wide. I keep the length the same as the length of the paper that I'm using.  

Stack the 8 strips together and use the hole punch in the middle and both ends. 

Place a brad in the center hole of one strip. The top of the brad will be the center of the finished bow. Hold the brad with attached paper between your thumb and pointer finger. Your thumb should be on the top of the brad.

 With the other hand, take hold of one end of the paper strip. Bend the paper towards your thumb that is holding the brad. Then twist around to the back and attach to the prongs of the brad. 

Repeat step 5 for the other end of the paper. 

Add the rest of the strips in the same way as the first. Close the brad when you are done. You can straighten out you loops when you are finished. 

For a more finished look, glue a cardboard circle to the bottom of the bow. 

I stick on a glue dot called a Zot. I like them because they are sandwiched between two pieces of plastic. I take off one and stick the Zot to my bow. The other piece of plastic stays on the glue dot until I'm ready to use the bow. 

If you plan on making several bows, set up an assembly line. This will make the process go much more smoothly than making complete bows one by one. I cut all of my paper strips and I like to put groups of 8 together that have similar colors. You will likely need to make many more paper strips than you need if you are wanting to group by colors. Don't recycle the " ugly" strips just yet. I'll post another project in the future that will use up these strips. After grouping my sets of 8, I assemble all of my bows. Once you do two or three, the process becomes mindless. I make my bows in front of the television! When all of the bows are assembled, glue on the cardboard and add the glue dots.