Celebrating the Chinese New Year which was on February 16 and the festivities go on for a week, Sandy Sandler, Creator of the Bowdabra, shows us LIVE how simple it is to make strikingly beautiful Chinese New Year fun projects with the Bowdabra, the World’s Easiest Bowmaker.
In fact, these bows and crafts can be used for any holiday once you change the color of the material used – such as 4th of July, Christmas, New Year, St Patrick’s Day or pretty much anything.
Sandy takes the Large Bowdabra and combines two Christmas ribbons of Chinese New Year colors, both dove-tailed. She tucks them in to the Bowdabra, pushing down the ribbon with its right side facing up. With a slight twist she puts the wrong side of the ribbon in the inside of the fold. She continues the fold-twist-scrunch with the ribbon till the entire piece of red ribbon is scrunched in. Sandy follows the same step with the gold ribbon too and the bow starts taking shape in the Bowdabra.
To make the floral loop, the last bit of the ribbon is scrunched in without the twist. Tied up with the Bowdabra Bow Wire it turns it into a beautiful two-colored bow.
Useful Tip: Sandy says when you give the final shape to the bow, it is always better to first place the bow where you want to place it and shape it up as it stays on the hard surface.
Chinese New Year floral bow
Next Sandy takes the gold mesh ribbon and cuts thin strips to stick on to the bottom side of a Chinese New Year card which has a piece of red scrunchy ribbon as the base. With the Mini Bowdabra she creates a tiny scrunchy ribbon bow with an added tinsel. With 3 such scrunchy ribbon bows on the corners with a Christmas decoration with bells stuck down the middle of the card, Sandy turns out a cute and bright Chinese New Year card, in minutes, while chatting with the viewers all through.
For a cute dog bow, Sandy takes a few scraps of red and gold scrunchy ribbon topped with gold mesh ribbon, and tied up with the bow wire. The bow is stuck on to an alligator clip which is wrapped with a piece of red scrunchy ribbon.
The Chinese New Year is a time when hundreds of factories in China close for the holidays as a lot of Chinese people live and work in the factories and they go back home to celebrate. The Festival of Lanterns happens on March 2.
For the extended festivities of the Chinese New Year, Sandy makes another quick and easy craft. She puts a ball on top of a chopstick and covers it with red scrunchy ribbon. Next she scrunches down two pieces of red and one piece of gold scrunchy ribbons into the Mini Bowdabra. In each of these three scrunchy ribbons, one side of the ribbon has small, equal size cuts made towards the inside to make it flutter a bit. She adds some beads and picks to the arrangement.
For the last project this evening, Sandy takes a variety of Christmas ribbons scraps, topped up with a piece of silver ribbon and some fun scrunchy ribbons, all dovetailed. Along with some Chinese beads, she scrunches everything down into the Mini Bowdabra. Tied up with the Bow wire, the arrangement makes a really simple but amazingly beautiful decoration mason jar to hold Fortune Sticks.
Helpful tip: Keep these ready when you watch this video to start making awesome fun projects and bows in minutes:
* Large Bowdabra
* Mini Bowdabra
* Bowdabra Wand
* Bowdabra Bow Wire
* Gold Mesh Ribbon
* Silver Mesh Ribbon
* Scrunchy Ribbons
* A selection of ribbons and scraps of ribbons
* Chinese Beads
* Christmas Beads
* Mason Jar
* Card Paper
* Glue Dots, Double-sided tape