Bow Holder

One of my "Christmas To Do Gifts" was a bow holder for my new niece.  I have never done one before, nor have I ever even attempted, but I thought-surely it won't be TOO bad...and it wasn't!  I saw one I loved on Etsy, but I knew I didn't have the skills nor the resources to do one like that, and I am too cheap frugal to buy it. I love being a "maker" compared to being a "buyer".  It turned out to be so SUPER EASY!!!

I stated off with a wood plaque from Hobby Lobby, originally 1.99 and hit the 40% off coupon :) I bought some brown, green, white, and purple craft paint.  These are the Folk Art brand from HL and were .97 each, and then were the weekly sale at 30% off.  Whoo Hoo!  I went to the ribbon section and picked out a solid purple and a brown polka dot ribbon to match the paint.  The ribbon was the usual weekly 50% off ribbon by the roll sale.  So, altogether the total cost of materials was paint-$2.71, wood- $1.94, ribbon - $3.99, with is $8.64 altogether - and there is enough of everything, except the plaque, to make several more!! Now, that is a good deal!! (And I didn't even end up using the purple paint)

I began with painting the plaque outer edges with brown paint.  Once that dried, I painted the top part with white paint.  I only did one coat of the brown since it covered so well, but I did apply 2 coats of the white to make sure it had good coverage.  I then traced the paint bottles with a pencil to make the polka dots, and then of course, I painted them green.

 After it all dried, I applied my niece's name in purple vinyl.  I left it to sit overnight-I don't really think this step is absolutely necessary, but I have noticed that with some of my vinyls it works best if I allow time to let them truly stick to an object, so I am just cautious and do this regardless of the vinyl brand or quality.  Afterwards I did apply a layer of Shellac to seal it off and add shine that really gives it a kick.  The last step was just the ribbon.  I used a staple gun and applied three layers of ribbon to the bottom of the plaque to hold the bows and I put a small loop at the top for hanging on the wall.  I love the look of putting a door knob on the wall instead of a nail for hanging items such as this.  So, maybe my sister will do something like that when hanging it :) As you can see, it is super easy and I think that it turned out great-especially for a first time bow holder creation!  I could see this being super cute in pink or blue with zebra print, but my niece is just not the big girly girl.