Making & Tying Embellishment Bows

Bows are beautiful embellishments and with a little practice you can create gorgeous little or big bows in a range of stylish decorative styles, these will give your DIY Wedding Invitation a beautiful look. Here are some instructions on making that perfect bow.

Simple Single Bow:

To tie a small single bow. Leaving a length of about 4-6cm loose to your left side make a loop in your left hand
I find it easier to leave the ribbon length on the roll, then cut afterwards. This gives you a lot more control on feeding the loops into a knot.
Now make a loop of approx the same size next to it with your right hand.
You should now have a loop in each hand.
Tie these two loops together in a knot.
Pull the loops to create the size of bow you want.
Then gently pull the ends of the ribbon, to adjust the size where necessary.
Tighten the knot to secure the bow.
Trim the ends on diagonally at your preferred length to stop the ends fraying.

Buckle Bow:

The buckle bow is elegant and looks beautiful when applied to stationery. It looks difficult but is surprisingly very easy to make! It is made from 3 separate lengths of ribbon. To make a medium bow with 10mm ribbon:
Take aprox 10cm length of ribbon (satin ribbon is best for buckle bows)
Place a mini glue dot halfway along it.
Fold in the ends in to stick to the glue dot.
Take a 3cm length of ribbon and wrap this around the middle of your first part to create the bow, again fixing with a mini glue dot.
Place a long strip of ribbon where required on your card and attach the flat ribbon with double sided tape, this works perfect with satin ribbon.
Now attatch buckle bow in the centre. Easy!!!

The Knot Bow:

The knot bow is not actually a bow, it is just a double knot, that looks so impressive it gives wedding stationery the look of a bow.
Wrap a length of ribbon around your chosen card.
Tie a single knot by taking the ribbon left over right and under.
Now tie a second knot on top again taking the ribbon left over right and under.
Cut a V into the ends of the ribbon or trim on the diagonal to stop fraying.

Using Mulberry, Silk or Handmade Paper

Printing On Mulberry Paper:
Neither Mulberry, Silk or Handmade paper is designed to be used on home pc printers, but with many crafters trying, this has been acheivable.
Silk mulberry paper is normally very thin and lightweight, it has fine fibres and strands which run through the paper, almost looking like threads. Mullberry paper is also sometimes known as handmade paper, it is normally quite thick and clumpy. Many designs are available, normally mulberry paper has patterns & designs with print and a coarse texture.
All handmade papers are made of unsealed fibres, so when printed on it could let the ink bleed slightly causing inconsistant printing and the varying textures may cause erratic printing finishes.
However it is possible to print onto them with some home printers & inkjets. It just takes a bit of trial and error. The only way to really find out if your printer is suitable is try it, being careful, maybe hand feeding 1 sheets at a time, wait and see. It is probably also best to use a bold font for the best results, and make sure you order a few extra sheets. (just in case!)

Tearing Mulberry, Silk or Handmade Paper:
Mulberry paper does indeed make a great accent to any Card Making and DIY Wedding Stationery project; however if you have never used it before here are some things you need to know before you go tearing away!!

1) Mulberry, handmade or silk paper is not meant to be cut. It is best when it is torn. This tearing technique can be used for tearing straight lines, curves & shapes.

2) You simply use a cotton swab or a paint brush that has been dipped in water, then "draw" the shape onto the paper, wetting and loosening the fibers.

3) Either follow a template for simple shapes, or use a ruler for straight lines.

4) As you pull the paper apart along the wet tear line, you will need a small pair of sharp scissors to cut any thick fibers that do not want to break apart on their own.

5) Mulberry, handmade or silk paper can overwhelm a layout if not used in moderation. So be careful not to overload your design, this is definitely a product in which a little goes a long way. Use this paper to accent simple designs, but do not let this dominate your project.

Punching Out Shapes from Mulberry, Silk or Handmade Paper:
Because mulberry silk paper is a very thin paper with lots of fibre strands. Paper Punches tend to chew the paper rather than cut it neatly and cleanly. The best way to cut mulberry silk paper is to sandwich it between two sheets of normal printer copy paper, place the three layers between the punch and cut. You may find this will only work with large punches, as there is not much room for the paper to be sandwiched in a small paper punch. When punched in this way the mulberry paper will be cut cleanly and crisply and you will have the shapes needed to make your invitations punched out in no time. The thicker handmade paper might not go through a paper punch, again this is trial and error. Practise makes perfect.

Using Vellum on Wedding Invitations

Ways To Use Vellum For Wedding Stationery:

This versatile paper comes in a variety of weights. The most commonly used is 130gsm. This is because it is easier to use for parchment embossing work. Clear, transcluscent vellum for embossing is better to be fairly thicker, as it will sustain heavy embossing tools.
There is so much you can do with vellum. You can now create stunning effects and designs. Using vellum for wedding stationery is a fabulous way to embellish and add unique definition to your invitation making projects.

Vellum is available in a variety of designs & prints including flowers, swirls and even pictures. You can use vellum to mat and layer, use as a wrap around an invitation. There are the most beautiful designs, that will suit wedding stationery.

How to adhere Vellum:
Because it is slightly see though you will need to be very careful when attaching it to your wedding stationery projects, as many adhesives will show through. There are varied vellum adhesives available but we have found the Tape runner pen works perfect for sticking vellum to your project without showing the adhesive. Just run the tape adhesive near the spine of the card when using as an insert. You may fancy to cover the whole front of a card then by adding some ribbon, turns a simple invitation into a fine beautiful piece of art and will look so professional. When making DIY Wedding Stationery this can be such a creative may of completing an amazing look, it is also ideal for using around scroll wedding invitations. You could even try your hand at making wedding Inviation Wraps. There are many ways to do this. Either completely wrap the Invitation with vellum paper, or cut the vellum into strips and use as a belly wrap around the centre of the invite. Again, using the Tape runner pen this will be perfect.

No need to use adhesive?
You can also attach vellum to your projects by means other than adhesives, we would also recommend using brads or eyelets where possible so that the vellum is secured and no glue is needed.

Printing on Vellum:
Printing on vellum is a really effective way of having a message on your hand made wedding invitation. You can really personalise your wedding invites so easily. View our tips and techniques for printing on vellum.

Heat embossing on Vellum:
You may also want to try your hand at heat embossing on vellum. We actually printed some wording from our printer then quickly sprinkled with embossing powder then used the heat gun. This looks fantastic! Get that real proffessional look with a nice gold or silver heat embossing powder. Remember when using a heat gun, use the lowest setting and be very careful as this can burn the vellum.

Other ways to use vellum:
If using vellum quotes you can simply cut the wording out, but I really like the torn finished look by tearing around the vellum words.

Punching out Vellum Shapes:
Vellum can also be used to punch out shapes, I find punching out flower & butterfly shapes and building them up on the front of a card gives it a truly stunning look, something very unique and different for wedding stationery!
Whether you are using quotes, printed patterned or plain vellum you will find that there is so much you can do with this very versatile crafting paper.