Fluffy bow tutorial revisited

Hello dear crafter,

As so many people keep asking for the tutorial of how I make my fluffy bows, I decided to make a newer version as the old one dates from 3 years ago, and I have since "perfected" it a bit. So here the step by step how to make those luscious fluffy bows.

I start out with blank crinkle ribbon or seam binding. I wrap it around my hand about 5, 6 or 7 times. It depends on how fluffy you want it. I cut that piece off. This is your blank "canvas" now. Sometimes I stain it with distress ink, distress stain or distress markers. 

I am making a very Dutch themed tag, so I coloured the ribbon with red and blue distress markers, festive berries and chipped sapphire to be exact. I always mist a bit of water over it after colouring and immediately dry it with my heat tool. This makes the ink bleed a tiny bit.

I wrap the dried ribbon around my hand again, this time not all the way, I measure a piece (by eye) to cut off to fasten the fluffy part of the bow with.

So now I have a shorter and a longer piece of ribbon.

As you can see, I made a very Dutch themes tag, hence the red, white and blue ribbon lol. I take the shorter piece of ribbon and lace it through the tag. You use this to fasten the fluffy part of the bow to the tag. 

Once again I wrap the ribbon around my hand. Normally I just wrap it around my hand, not neatly like this, but I wanted the colours to stay where they are.

I slide it off my hand and pinch the centre of the loops. 

Now put the loops on the hole, with the shorter piece of ribbon. Now the next step is a bit teicky but after a try or two it will go super easy.

I put my pinky on the centre of the bow, to make sure it stay put. Same as you do when teaching a child to tie its shoes. With the rest of my fingers I take the short piece of ribbon and tie the bow down with a half knot. This way you can see if the bow is centred.

I am happy with my bow so I tighten the knot. And then make a bow on top of my bow.

This is how it looks unfluffed. I trimmed the ends of the ribbon and now we fluff the bow!

I gently pull the individual loops of the bow apart and scrunch them a bit.

This will puff up the bow...

And VOILÁ, you have a perfect fluffy bow on top of your tag, or even on your card. 

And here is the finished tag!

I hope you learned a bit and will create your own bows now.

Thank you for stepping by. Take care and keep your craft on.

Freddie

xox