Make Your Own Bows!

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Before my daughter, Emily, was born in December 2008, I would see these PRECIOUS babies in stores and restaurants with the most beautiful gerbera daisy headbands in their hair! I thought they looked absolutely precious, but when I found them in retail stores, I thought they were a little pricey at around $10 each. Well, you KNOW I had to have one in every color of the rainbow, so I had to figure out what I was going to do to lessen the expense.

We decided to try our hand at making the hair clips ourselves, and they turned out great! 15 months later, and Emily still wears these things on a daily basis. They have held up extremely well, and people compliment her everywhere we go. Would you like to make some? I’d love to help! Here’s how you do it:

Materials:
(2) silk gerbera daisies from your local craft store
(1) large rhinestone jewel that has a FLAT, MIRRORED BACK
(1) small scrapbooking brad (the flatter the top, the better)
(1) small alligator clip from your local beauty supply store
(1) roll of 1/2” grosgrain ribbon in WHITE
(1) glue gun

Let me take a moment to explain about the materials. We have found that using two silk gerbera daisies makes for a more sturdy, fluffy-looking “bow” at the end of your project. You can do it with a single flower, but the double-flower hair bows look the best. Silk flowers are ½ off at Hobby Lobby about once every two weeks, so if you gather your arsenal of flowers during their sale, you will save significantly. The rhinestone is probably the most expensive ingredient to these hair bows, so you might want to wait until jewels are on sale at Hobby Lobby, or sign up for their weekly ad, and use their 40% off coupon. You can use any shape rhinestone that you prefer, but I have found that the large, round ones are the cutest and fit the flowers the best.

How-To:
Here’s how you assemble the flower “bows”:
1. Using a pair of wire snips, cut the flower off of the stem VERY CLOSE to the base of the flower’s head. Remove the thick, green plastic piece that separates the petals from the stem. Once you have done this, the layers of the flower will all be separate. Remove the pollen.
2. Add the two silk flowers to one another and layer the petals according to size (large on the bottom, small on the top). Clasp the layers of petals together using your brad. The TOP of the brad should be at the TOP of the flower.
3. Wrap the entire alligator clip with a length of grosgrain ribbon, tacking the ribbon to the alligator clip with hot glue.
4. Hot glue the rhinestone to the top of the flower where the pollen used to be.
5. Glue the ribbon-wrapped alligator clip to the bottom of the flower, covering the bottom of the brad that is visible. The FLAT SIDE of the alligator clip should rest on your baby’s head, and the angled side of the clip should be glued to the bottom of the flower.

These flowers are SO fun to make, and they are super easy. They take about 5 minutes once you have your materials set up.

You can use the alligator clip to fasten the flowers to a headband if your baby’s hair is on the sparse side, or you can use them to clip their hair back once they have some growth.

*BONUS TIP: If you find that your flowers are slipping out of your baby’s silky hair, purchase a sheet of foam in the craft section of Hobby Lobby and cut strips to fit the length of the alligator clip. Glue the foam to the inside of the alligator clip and your baby’s flowers and bows will stick like glue!

We have experimented with spider mums, and the end product is not as attractive as the gerbera daisies because the petals of the spider mums are a little on the rogue side. It is up to you, but we have found that silk gerbera daisies are the best flowers to use for your baby’s hair bows. I hope you try it and love it – let me know how they turn out!