Two tutorials in One: Looped hair bows!

Do you want to know how to make this hair bow?....

Or possibly this hair bow?....

Well then I have the tutorial just for you!

What you'll need:

Blue, Pink, & White Bow

~1 piece of each colored ribbon (grosgrain) about 12 inches each

~1 piece of each colored ribbon (grosgrain) about 7 - 71/2 inches each

~Hot glue

~Jeweled center piece (adornment)

~Hair clip

~One piece of grosgrain ribbon to cover the hair clip

Red & White Bow

~2 pieces of white grosgrain ribbon about 12 inches each

~2 pieces of red grosgrain ribbon about 10 inches each

~Hot glue

~Jeweled center piece (adornment)

~Hair clip

~One piece of grosgrain ribbon to cover the hair clip

Step 1:

Measure out all of your ribbon

Step 2:

Make a mark at the half way point on each piece of ribbon. You can always eyeball the center but for the purpose of this tutorial I marked all the pieces.

Step 3:

Take each piece of ribbon and put a dot of hot glue just above the halfway point and fold just like this:

Step 4:

On the piece you just folded over put a dab of hot glue on the center and finish folding the ribbon so it looks like this:

Step 5:

Do the previous step for every piece of ribbon (6 total for the blue, white, and pink and 4 total for the red and white) so that you have this:

Step 6:

Once each piece is glued together it is now time to put the whole bow together. For the blue, pink, and white bow I started off by gluing together the blue and white ribbons forming an X.

I then added the pink ribbon to the center of the X that was just made.

Do the previous step again for the smaller sized ribbons so that you have this:

(sorry for the blurriness)

You now must take the smaller bow and attach it to the bigger bow using hot glue. To match them up I used the blue ribbon as a guide and lined the smaller bow with the larger bow so that each colored ribbon would make an X out of each other. This is what I got when I glued the two together:

As for the red and white Bow, I started off gluing together the two white ribbons to make an X and did this step as well for the red ribbon.

Which left me with this:

I then glued the red ribbon on top of the white ribbon so when they lined up it would look like each color was alternating every time. This is what I had once I glued the two together:

Step 7:

Glue the center jeweled piece on to the bow.

For the jewel piece I simply purchased these from Hobby Lobby:

They are called Adornments and come in multiple colors two to a pack for $2.99. I am sure with a coupon you could get them much cheaper but I just wanted to show this picture and the variety they have (there are numerous other colors as well).

The back of the adornments look like this so you can easily add a glob of hot glue and glue it to the center of the bow.

Step 8:

The very last step involves lining a hair clip with the ribbon.

This is what I had:

Glue a portion of the ribbon and attach it to the middle of the hair clip like this:

Add some more Glue on to the ribbon and attach it to the top of the hair clip and continue folding over until you reach partial way to the bottom of the hair clip.

Some people prefer gluing the ribbon to the whole hair clip but I prefer only part of it being covered.

Step 9:

Attach the hair clip to the bow.

Some prefer to use felt or another method to ensure the clip stays to the bow, but I have had no problem just attaching the hair clip directly on to the bow.



What do you think??

~Leslie

My first big project: A ribbon holder!

Does your collection of ribbon look like this?

Well fear no more! A while back, like back in October of 2010 I found a blog that featured a really cute ribbon holder. I LOVED what she made and I HAD to have one for myself! Jonie over at Just Between Friends was the mastermind behind the project and featured her first post here and then gave a more detailed tutorial here. Check her blog out!

So since I had to have one for myself, I went out and bought all of the supplies I needed to make this beauty. Here is what I got:

~3 pieces of wood from Ikea found here where one piece was cut exactly in half

~One pack of bead board that I purchased from Lowe's that looks like this

~ 4 wooden dowels that I purchased from JoAnn's. (Here is the thing about the dowels...now that my project is done I realized that purchasing the dowels from JoAnn's was probably a bad idea. They are not that thick and because of how thin they are each row hangs further down than it should, blocking out the next row of ribbon. I will be going out to Lowe's or somewhere else to purchase different dowels that are thicker sometime soon!)

~Nails

~Screws

~Black Paint (I just bought 2 larger bottles of black paint similar to this but any spray paint or other paint would probably work just as well)

~Wood glue

How I made it:

*The first thing I did was cut the one piece of wood from Ikea exactly in half.

*Next we (my Husband and I) took one of the larger pieces of wood that would be used for the bottom of the shelf, and drew 15 dots that would be used to hold the dowel rods. We measured 1 1/2 inches up from the front of the wood and drew each dot 2 inches apart, which allowed us 15 holes. My husband then used a 1/4 inch drill bit and drilled out the holes but did NOT go all the way through the piece of wood! Here is what ours looked like before the holes were drilled:

*Next we put the three pieces of wood together using screws. I have no clue what size screws they were since my Husband got them out of his supply of nails and screws.

*Once the three pieces of wood were all together we had to measure out the bead board. Using the bead board from the package this is what the holder would have looked like without the bead board being cut:

*After my Husband did some measurements and then some cutting we applied the bead board to the back using nails. Here is the back of the holder without the last piece attached:

*Once attached we were left with this:

*The last few things we had left to do before painting including drilling holes on each side of the wood where the long dowel rods would go and then cutting one dowel rod into 15 pieces that were each 2 inches long, and then gluing them into the holes. Once this was done, I painted the first coat of paint. Here is a picture after the first coat of paint:

*After some sanding and another coat of paint here is the final outcome that I couldn't be happier with!

*I also added some containers to the top that are just sitting up there to hold random items that I work with a lot. Those containers were purchased from the Container Store.

Lastly, a picture of my craft table that is finally coming together!

Thank you Jonie for such a great idea!

~Leslie

EASY BBQ shredded chicken receipe!

Do you want an easy recipe for the crock pot? Well look no further! My Sister-in-law Gina and her friend Natalie were exchanging recipes on Facebook and I came across this one that Natalie recommended. And its sooo easy!

What you'll need:

~5 boneless skinless chicken breasts

~1- 6 fl. oz. can of Pineapple Juice

~Your favorite BBQ Sauce

~ A crock pot

And for those who may need recommendations, here are the things I used:

Now for the directions:

1. Place the chicken breasts inside your crock pot.

2. Add the can of pineapple juice to the crock pot

3. Add BBQ on top of the chicken

4. Turn crock pot on to high and cook for 3-5 hours depending on the pieces.

Once the chicken is done it will shred so easily and taste so yummy. If you did not use enough BBQ in the beginning you can always add it on top of the chicken once it is done. You can use less chicken or more chicken...just make it your own. In fact....my husband loved this recipe so much he made it again for himself the next day since I had to work late, and this time he added hot sauce and green peppers. You can do so many things with this recipe! Put the chicken on some buns and have shredded BBQ chicken sandwiches. Get some tacos and make a yummy shredded BBQ taco! So many yummy things!

Enjoy!

~Leslie

3 more hair bow holders plus more bows!

After making my first hair bow holder for my niece and posting pictures of it on Facebook, I had a couple requests from other friends wanting one for their little girls as well. I decided to be the nice giving person that I am and make those three cuties ones as well. I found out what the girls really liked and decided to make a Mickey and Minnie one for Chloe, a Spongebob one for Kaelyn, and an Elmo one for Megan. I decided to take an easier route this time around and the first thing I did was find a good picture of each of the three characters online. I then cut out each character after printing them on regular paper and turned to some good old Mod Podge to glue them onto wood that I already painted. Once the characters were glued down I then used Mod Podge to cover the whole piece of wood including on top of the characters, and then let it dry.

Here are my final products.....

Again, what bow holder would be complete without some bows? Here are some of the bows I made for the girls...

(Okay...I totally know what I am asking my Husband to buy me for my birthday...a new and better camera)! Lastly, here are some pictures of two of the girls (Kaelyn and Megan) opening their gifts and enjoying what I made them! It feels so good to see people enjoying gifts that were made especially for them!

Aren't they just adorable?! I will be featuring a tutorial on how to make some of those cute bows later this month, so until then.....what do you think?

-Leslie