Fancy Bows

Well it's that time where we begin decorating for the next 3 months (at least in the States). Every year my mom gets pretty serious and has me help her with window boxes. Usually only for Christmas do I need to make fancy bows, but this year I will be doing so for Halloween as well (she got some pretty neat ribbon).

The first time I ever had to make these bows, I was a bit at a loss and had to google my way through the process. This is the first bow I made in this style:

and a picture of the entire window box n_n

In order to help anyone else that may be stumbling their way through the same process, I have decided to share this tutorial by Chica and Jo. The written part is very detailed and accompanied by a ton of helpful photos.

I also I found this youtube video by craftsdotcupcake that shows the process really well. She has a blog too full of other crafty ideas and tutorials.

I will make a small note...sometimes the ribbon you want to use doesn't lend itself to this specific design of bow. The ribbon I am using for the Halloween bows for instance is much to wide. I could make a bow in this style but it would be ridiculously wide. It also lacks wire, which I find lends itself to this bow style the best. Because of this, we had to settle for a different bow for the Halloween window boxes:

My mom's display in the front garden

For this bow I just looped the ribbon in an S instead of an O as in the tutorials, and because there was no wire edging the loops only spread a little bit which created a more "normal" style of bow.