Benjamin and Lyla both love to color, but right now all they do is scribble. I have stacks of sheets that Benjamin has colored all over and I was hoping to do something fun with them.

I saw this tutorial at Smile Monsters for making your own paper gift bows and I immediately wanted to turn the scribbles into bows. These are such a great idea for wrapping presents (especially for the grandparents).

Lyla helped color with markers. She loves the little (very washable) markers and gets them all over her face and hands. Lyla made the pink scribbles and Benjamin did the blue one.

First, cut the paper into strips 8 and a half inches long and 3/4 of an inch wide. If you have a paper cutter this step is very quick and easy. You will need 5 – 8 strips per bow.

Next, fold the strip in half to mark the middle. Then fold back and glue down each side with a hot glue gun, or another instant adhesive. Scotch tape would also work well.

Try to keep the ends somewhat pointy.

Once you have made all of these figure 8 petals, start gluing them one at a time. Glue down the first 3 petals so that you have what looks like a 6 petaled flower with a gap in the middle.

Next, add the last two folded up inside of the others. You can use any number of petals. For the pink bows I used 5, for the blue bow I used 6, and for the newspaper bows I used 7.

For thicker paper (like regular printer paper or scrapbook paper) it seems to work well to use only 5 or 6 petals. You can experiment with different numbers of petals and different sizes of the strips. I found that as long as they fit, the more petals you use the better it looks.

DIY newspaper gift bows

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