Hair bows!!! Eeek! They are SO cute, and SO easy to make! These are the supplies you will need.
- 2 types of faux leather (I used The Ribbon Boutique brand from Hobby Lobby. Lots of great finishes and it is inexpensive. You can find it in rolls in the ribbon section of the store.)
- 1 Alligator clip (most craft stores sell them in the jewelry making section)
- Hot glue gun and a hot glue stick
- Cutting machine of choice (This was cut on an Cricut Air2, using the chipboard setting. It gave a perfect cut, but any of my machines could have cut this. I have a cameo 3 and a CM350 also).
- Your stickiest mat
- Holographic self adhesive vinyl (optional)
That’s it, let’s get to work!
The first thing you will need to do, is cut your faux leather. When you cut faux leather, look at the material to pick a plan of action. This bow has 2 types of faux leather, a glittered one and one with a holographic finish, with a smooth surface. You always want your smoothest side down on the mat. For this project, I cut the glitter faux leather, glitter side up, and the smooth faux leather, with the smooth top side down on the mat (make sure you mirror the cut on pieces that you are laying the top of the vinyl down on the mat). This is the cut file I used
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LINK FOR CUT FILE CLICK -> Here
I used the chipboard setting to cut mine (on an air 2), and it cut almost perfectly. If their are any small pieces that are still attached (generally if there are, it would just be tiny pieces of the felt side that are still attached. It’s an easy fix), don’t pull them apart to seperate, snip it with a sharp pair of sissors.
I didn’t have faux leather with the scales like the designer added, so I added my own scales using this overlay, cut in holographic self adhesive vinyl, but that is optional. If you do want to add the scales, very simple, upload this overlay, duplicate the largest pattern piece of the bow template (that is the folded over part with the scales in the image), and slice that piece out of this mermaid scales template. Then you can delete all the pieces from that slice except for the scales in the shape up that largest template piece.
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LINK FOR MERMAID SCALES FILE CLICK -> Here
I cut my scales in Holographic self adhesive, but the sky is the limit, use your imagination.
These are all of the pieces, cut, weeded, and ready for assembly (This part is super easy).
If you choose to cut scales, the first thing you will want to do is use transfer tape to move your weeded scales, from your liner sheet, onto your largest cut out template piece (the one that it was cut to size for). If you have any little bits on the edges, use your sharp scissors to snip them away.
At this point, you will want to plug in your hot glue gun. Once it is heated up, put a small dot of glue on the tab of the larger (lower) tail piece and attach the smaller (top) tail piece.
If you look closely, you can see, in between the 2 tabs, there is a dot of hot glue, holding the 2 layers together.
Now you will attach the largest template piece (the one with the scales, if you added them), to the tail.
To do this, gently fold the largest template piece together so its 2 tabs are touching, then apply a small dot of hot glue to the inside of one of the tabs. adhere that tab to the bottom side of the attached tabs on the already assembled tail pieces.
Next, apply a small amount of hot glue on the top of the tabs of the tail pieces and adhere the tab on the largest template piece in place.
The last step is attaching the alligator clip and the center piece of the bow. First add a small dot of hot glue on the center, top of the bow, in between the tail and the piece with the scales, and lay your center piece down. Next, flip over your bow, so you are looking at the bottom side, and put a dot of hot glue in the center on that side. Hold your alligator clip open, and lay one side down, right on that dot of hot glue (Be careful not to burn yourself), while continuing to hold it open.
Working quickly, while the hot glue is still hot, wrap one tab of the center piece you adhered, onto the glue on the inside of the alligator clip (You should still be holding the clip open at this point), Now, with the clip still open, put another small dot of glue on top of the tab you just adhered and fold over the last tab from the center piece. Continue to hold the alligator clip open for 30 seconds or so, so your hot glue can cool off and solidify.
That is all there is to it. Easy Peezy. Happy crafting. 🙂
