Adventures in Hoarding 2: Bow Making

Last week or so, I confessed to some of my paper trash tag making adventures. I mentioned then that I always made my own bows as well. Since  Hundreds of you Jennie asked about it, I thought I would start the week with a tour of my handy dandy bow making kit.

Which is really just an old box from a clothing store.

I hoarded it.

It's the perfect size for the size and shape of the wrapping papers that I hoard inside of it.

If I like the paper

 and can salvage a section  approximately the size of an 8 1/2 X11 piece of paper,

 I cut it to size and save it in the box.

I'll save any paper which is interesting to me. 

This piece came from an old teacher's edition which was being taken to the recycling.

It has signatures of American authors and poets.

Liked it.

Hoarded it.

I particularly like reversible wrapping paper like this.

Aside from the paper, 

My little homemade kit includes:

A box of brads

Clothes pins

A paper punch

And a pair of scissors....

Which were missing when I opened it to show you this morning. Well, of course.  I have 4,782 pairs of scissors around this house which are each supposed to be stationed at their assigned posts.  They don't behave. Scissors, I have discovered, are  mischievous.

They have those little legs, you see...

And they run off

on scissor adventures.

That's the only explanation that I can find because whenever I am missing a pair of scissors... at its assigned post... no one seems to have a clue what has become of them.

I find that the scissors with the strongest legs tend to run the farthest.

T
his little set of stainless steel scissors intended for sewing  ran all the way to Macon, Georgia...
...where they partied it up with the college crowd  for several months until they had enough of the midnight madness and hitched a ride home with Super Dad.

But I digress...

To make the bows, I just cut the paper into strips. I don't worry a bit about uniformity. In fact, I like a few smaller than the rest.

Then fold a strip like this.

Then again like this, and punch a hole in the  middle.

That's why I keep the clothes pins.

 I make them all at the same time.

I usually make 9-11 of them.

I like odd numbers.

Then, just make the center (I use smaller ones here)

and attach it with a brad.

And then continue adding them to the back, alternating where it's logical.

And thankfully, it is logical.

As you can tell, I'm no crafting Einstein.

Fluff.

Ta Da.

That's it.

I have made them from the hoarded wrapping paper, from magazines (not as stiff, though)

from hoarded tissue paper (wouldn't recommend it) from magazine covers (love those!)

or any old paper. I just don't purchase new paper because the fun is in the recyling. 

So there you have it. Just another day in hoarder paradise.