Spring Hair Bow and Bowdabra Sponsored Giveaway

March is National Craft Month, in honor of National Craft Month, Bowdabra is celebrating the many uses of ribbon.  Each day the Bowdabra Blog adds a new ribbon craft tutorial along with multiple ways to enter their month long giveaway.  Bowdabra is sweet enough to share one of their hair bow making tutorials on my blog.  - Along with give my readers a chance to enter in their huge ribbon and Bowdabra Bow Making Tools giveaway!

To make a spring bow and attach it to a headband you will need the following:

25" of 1.5" White Grosgrain Ribbon
12" of 7/8" Polka Dot Purple Ribbon
Mini Bowdabra
Hair Bow Tool & Ruler
Bowdabra Bow Wire
Headband
Small Flower or Button

Instructions:

1. Begin by placing the Hair Bow Tool & Ruler onto the Mini Bowdabra.  Cut 18" of Bowdabra Bow Wire and fold it in half and place it into the Mini Bowdabra.


2. Next, cut 25" of 1.5" white grosgrain.  Fold the grosgrain in half and at the crease mark place it into the Mini Bowdabra.

3. Fold and press each ribbon strand to create 2" loops on either side.

4. Fold the tails down and create two more 2" loops on either side.

5. Cut 12" of purple polka dot ribbon.  Fold the ribbon in half and at the crease mark place the ribbon face down into the Mini Bowdabra.

6. Fold and press a 1.5" loop and place the tail pointing down.

7. Fold and press a 1.5" loop on the other side with the tail point down.

8. Scrunch down with the Mini Bowdabra Wand.

9. While the bow is still in the Mini Bowdabra, thread the two loose ends of the Mini Bowdabra Bow Wire through the loop at the other end.  Pull the Bowdabra Bow Wire tightly while the bow is still in the Mini Bowdabra.

10. Gently pull the bow out of the Mini Bowdabra. Separate the two loose ends of the Bowdabra Bow Wire and bring them around to the back of the bow and knot.  Fluff the bow and trim the bow tails so that they are all at an angle.

11.  Using the Bowdabra Bow Wire attach the bow to a headband, trim away excess wire.  To hid the Bowdabra Bow Wire in the center of the bow hot glue a small flower or other embellishment (like a button) onto the center of the bow. Your headband is ready to be worn!

Thank you Bowdabra for the tutorial and offering my readers a chance to win prizes on your Bowdabra sponsored giveaway.   You can visit the Bowdabra Blog for multiple ways to enter their contest along with entering right here on my blog post!

Prizes:
Grand Prize – Ribbon totaling in value of $150.00

2nd Prize – Bowdabra, Mini Bowdabra, and Hair Bow Tool & Ruler Suggested Retail: $41.54

3rd Prize – Mini Bowdabra and Hair Bow Tool & Ruler Suggested Retail: $24.11

Contest begins March 1, 2012 and ends March 31, 2012 at midnight eastern time. Winners to be announced April 2, 2012 at http://bowdabrablog.com

(5 entries per person for this post)

1.  Pin this post on your Pinterest board. Please mark the pin with @Bowdabra so that we can easily find it in a search. Please leave a comment below that you pinned it along with your Pinterest name. We would love to follow your boards! (1 entry)

2. Leave a comment below about the tutorial. (1 entry)

3. Like Mommy Rantings on Facebook. Leave a comment below that you did. (1 entry)

4. Tweet about Bowdabra's National Craft Month Giveaway. Leave a comment below with your Twitter name. (1 entry)

5. Visit the Bowdabra Blog and get Daily Bowdabra Blog Updates. Enter your email address in the field on their right side bar and get an email every time they add a new tutorial. Leave a comment below that you signed up for their daily updates. (1 entry)

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED. VALID IN THE 50 UNITED STATES AND THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA ONLY. ENTRY IN THIS CONTEST CONSTITUTES YOUR ACCEPTANCE OF THESE OFFICIAL RULES.

Good Luck!

Bowdabra National Craft Month Party

Bowdabra is celebrating National Craft Month in grand style with a HUGE giveaways, blog features, daily ribbon and bow-making tutorials, and link sharing.   What does all that mean for you? P-A-R-T-Y!

The Crafty & Hobby Association (CHA) created national Craft Month in 1994 to celebrate crafting.   In the 8 years since its conception, National Craft Month has grown to be recognized internationally with millions of crafters and craft businesses celebrating creativity and crafting in the month of March.

Visit the Bowdabra Blog each day in March for new ways to enter in their month long giveaway.

In celebration of National Craft Month and the many uses of ribbon Bowdabra is giving away three prize packages.

-First Prize $150 of assorted Morex Ribbon (Includes the gorgeous European Art Fleur Ribbon)

-Second Prize the Bowdabra, the Mini Bowdabra, and the Hair Bow Tool Ruler

-Third Prize the Mini Bowdabra and the Hair Bow Tool & Ruler

Click here to learn how you can enter (DAILY) to win these great prizes!

Bowdabra’s Friends and Featured Bloggers will be sharing a Bowdabra sponsored ribbon or bow-making tutorials on their blog in the month of March.   By commenting on the Bowdabra sponsored tutorials you will have more chances and entries into the huge Bowdabra giveaway prize packages.

How do you know which blogs are Bowdabra’s Friends and Featured Bloggers?  Look for badges like this one!

Yes! Mommy Rantings is a proud friend of Bowdabra’s and I will be hosting a Bowdabra Bow-Making Tutorial on March 21^st.  Visit the Bowdabra Blog every day in March to enter their giveaways.  And, of course, make sure to visit me on March 21^st for the Bowdabra tutorial and additional giveaway entry opportunities.

Valentine's Day Hairbows with Bowdabra! (And a Little Make-Money-at-Home or Fundraising Idea)

I'm so excited to share our Valentine's Day 2012 family craft!

I've worked with Bowdabra before, was let down when my daughter stood me up for our Bowdabra date another time, and absolutely love the fabulous, spunky, and dog-loving founder of Bowdabra, so when she asked me during a discussion on the phone if I wanted to try out the hair bow tool, I was ecstatic!

(We discussed in a quick email how even younger boys - like mine - love to make bows with the Bowdabra. If you go to our 2011 Christmas Card and scroll down to the pictures at the bottom, you will see our Bowdabra'd-out Christmas Tree that the boys helped with!)

Big Oops!

When the ribbons, bow wire and barrettes arrived, I showed them to my lovely daughter and told her that we could make a few hair bows for her friends. Well, let's just say she went a little bit overboard with what I said and went to school announcing that we were making hair bows for the whole class...and I found out that she did this, because she came home from school the other day and showed me a little piece of folded up paper with a 14 written on the inside.

That 14 was the number of girls in her class. Oh, goodness!

Okay, so I guess I'm getting way beyond the Valentine's Hair Bows that we made...but, just so you know, I ended up taking on more than I expected with this project!

To Get Started

First of all, I want to let you know that the hair bow tool includes a intricately done ebook with step-by-step instructions accompanied by images for even the un-craftiest person, and it's on a convenient CD, so we popped the CD into my daughter's laptop and kept it on to reference as we made bows.

Now, you'll have to humor me, because I not only let my children make the bows, I also let my daughter take the photos, so you're not going to see perfectly made hair bows...and they are not perfectly photographed, but that's not the point, right? It was fun for all, and that's what counts!

EXTRA INCOME OPPORTUNITY!

I've tried to help many, many other mothers who have chosen to take the stay-at-home mom option (for one reason or another) to find ways that they can feel like they're contributing to the financial needs of their household by brainstorming ideas with them. Although freelancing is an option for some of the women I chatted with, not everyone wants to work in the writing/freelancing, Internet consulting and management or social media management niches (the remote job opportunities that I love!), but many would be inclined to turn their crafting ideas into profit.

They could create wreaths decorated with bows and tailor the ribbon to the many holidays throughout the year...

For the upcoming Valentine's Day, red, white and pinks bows, whether polka-dot, striped or another pattern of choice, could be attached to a wreath for display on a front door.

Or you can make cute little hairbows like we made! 

And make money. You could start your own little Etzy store. Or, sell them at local craft fair. When I was in my early to mid teen years, I used to make hair scrunchies and sell them at the local beauty parlor. It was so excited at the end of the week when I went to pick up the cash from the sales.

Depending on the fabrics I used and the time of year (I loved holiday season!), there were some really great weeks for a girl my age - I'll never forget the Friday I went to the salon right before Christmas and the owner handed me $150 - I had worked hard to make about seventy five scrunchies and told the salon owner to discount them 50% three days before Christmas, because they all had Christmas patterns on them and I would rather them sell than sit for another year (the investment financially was miniscule, it was the time investment that made the little pocket money) .

The owner had a really loyal client base and several stylists and happened to be the only hairdressing salon in the town - people would drive to see her from a town or to over, and they came back on a regular basis, and she said that the women and girls who came in were always excited to see the new scrunchies that were there. They sold pretty good, as I look back.  

No...you're not going to get rich, and it's definitely not going to be a quick, huge payout, but it's certainly an idea to get a little padding in your pocket. And, if you like - or even LOVE - to craft and have a creative and innovative way of thinking when it comes to coming up with unique projects, the Bowdabra opens the door to even more possibilities.

Hand-made Unique Gifts & FUNDRAISERS


People have learned to treasure hand-made gifts and the time that people put into them. We're not the stay-home-and-cook-and-do-chores-all-day type of moms (or grandmas) anymore, so the fact that we took the time out of our busy schedules means something to other people in this day and age.

So, whipping up hairbows for birthdays or other special occasions, or even using them as fundraising items is another possibility.

Can you think of any other ways Bowdabra can help you make money from home?


Thanks for the hair bow tool, ribbons and barrettes, Bowdabra! We had fun!

It's A Bowdabra Christmas! Review and GIVEAWAY! CLOSED!

Oh, how I wish that my digital camera hadn't bit the dust! This year, we started a new Christmas tradition! I have mentioned the Bowdabra here and here. My intentions were good about getting to using it, but gosh darn it! Halloween and Thanksgiving passed...I just never got to it...then, I had a talk with Sandy Sandler, founder of the Bowdabra and Crafters 4 Kids, who was so very sweet! She actually told me to take a peek at the Bowbabra store and see what I liked.

I was AMAZED! The Christmas ribbon is absolutely gorgeous! Of course, because there were so many to pick from, I couldn't even decide what I liked. But, I finally narrowed it down to - LOL - five different ones. Would you believe that Sandy decided that she wasn't just going to SEND ME ALL 5 THAT I CHOSE - she sent me 5 more of the same ones to give away! (How's that for some incentive to start using the Bowdabra?)

Now, before I get to that part...because I'm getting a little ahead of myself...I have to talk about the box that came. You know by now that the children lose their minds every time a box comes in the mail. Well, this time was no different. It was a fairly large box! When I opened it, though, I was SHOCKED. Okay, when you look at the ribbon online, there is no way to really comprehend the size of it...

Let me give you an idea. The diameter of the reels were about a foot! Here I'm expecting some - you know - regular reels of ribbon. I couldn't believe it! Then, the ribbon is over 2 inches wide and has the wire in it to shape it and form it...

So, out came the Bowdabra...I had about 12 hands trying to help me get the Bowdabra out, choose the first ribbon we were going to use, grab the scissors (STOP!!! BE CAREFUL!!!)...oh, my goodness, we were soooo ready to Bowdabra!

Look, for anyone who has little kids, those glass ornaments can be a pain in the butt, can't they? You have to make sure that you hang them above the reach of their incessant little hands. With big, fluffy bows, though...there's absolutely nothing to worry about! They can yank them off the tree and squish and mush them and the worst thing that can happen is a squished, mushed bow. :)

Aren't the colors/patterns that I picked just awesome? We decorated the whole tree with BIG, Fluffy bows, and although my husband thinks it's a bit gaudy, the kids and I think it's spectacular - and you should see the lights reflect through the ribbon! Talk about amazing! I think that it looks like a department store Christmas Tree!

I also did a couple for the front railings outside and a couple for the lamp posts at the front door. The tree is topped with the candy-cane looking ribbon. The bows themselves are literally 8-12 inches in diameter!

GIVEAWAY!

 I am going to randomly select different winners to receive one reel of ribbon each that I received!

Mandatory (2 part): Go to the Bowbabra store website and check out their products and tell me which one you would like to get. Don't cheat and tell me one of the ribbon examples that you see on this page!

The winner MUST be a Mommy Rantings follower to win the giveaway.

Extra entries:

1) "Like" Mommy Rantings on Facebook. (2 entries) (right hand column of blog)

2) Follow QueenBMomma on Twitter. (2 entries) (left hand column of blog)

3) Blog about this giveaway - tell me your blog's URL (3 entries).

4) Tweet this giveaway (you can do this once per day!) (1 entry per tweet -leave twitter name)

5) Follow Bowdabra on Twitter and leave your Twitter name.

6) "Like" Bowdabra on Facebook. (Leave a comment on their wall for another entry...tell 'em I sent you!)

7) Update your Facebook status with this giveaway. (2 entries)

8) Follow Crafters 4 Kids on Twitter.

Winners will be chosen through Random.org and the winning entries will be validated (I will make sure that you did the mandatory entry and the entry # that is chosen. PLEASE LEAVE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS IN ONE OF YOUR ENTRIES. RUNNING AROUND THE INTERNET TRACKING DOWN WINNERS IS NO FUN!

Thank you to Sandy Sandler, founder of the Bowdabra and Crafter 4 Kids for sponsoring this review/giveaway (your products rock)! This giveaway will end on December 20th, 2010 at 11:59 pm EST. I have extended this giveaway in order to give more people a chance to win ! It will now end on Dec 31st at midnight. I will contact the winners by email and they will have 24 hours to respond before the runner ups are chosen. Good luck!

I received a product for purposes of review. I did not receive monetary compensation. All opinions are expressly mine -and my children's and husband's. ;)

Bowdabra Update

My daughter stood me up.

www.pinksuitcases.co.uk

Last Friday afternoon, right after school, Veronica came home and asked if she could go play at one of her friend's houses. I took my immediate cop-out, "Ask your Dad when he gets home." (I do that all the time when I really don't want to deal with something.)

Would you believe that, not more than 15 minutes later, the phone rings. Here's some weird irony for you: it was the mom of the girl whom Veronica wanted to go over and play with. She wanted to know if Veronica could come over for the night.

Ummm...was I missing something? I must have been out of the loop. (Which is never out of the norm, considering I can't seem to keep up with who's going where.) I asked her if they had planned something that I didn't know about, because Veronica had asked AS SOON AS she returned home from school if she could go over there.

They hadn't. Completely unplanned. Weird weird.

Well, how could I say NO? So, I told Veronica to pack up an overnight bag and get ready to go. The mom would be over in about a half hour to pick her up...

Rewind for a moment...

Remember, we had planned to make some hair bows last weekend? I was really looking forward to it. Really.

Fast forward...

Do you know that my daughter did not come back home until 8pm Sunday night? Of course, the mother and I were in contact all weekend long, however the two girls became inseparable and the sleep over snowballed into a weekend get away for Veronica.

exclusives.lc.com

But, that meant no Bowdabra fun for us girls (and possibly even the boys). I reminded her about our plans when she got home. "I thought we were going to make hair bows this weekend?"

"Why didn't you remind me?" she asked me. Like I had time to remind her before she left for the entire weekend? Like I was going to call her up and say, "Hey, remember our hair bow date?" LOL

So, needless to say, our "Bowdabra date" is pushed off until this coming weekend...unless she decides to escape the craziness again. Honestly, I don't blame her. In a house full of boys, I'm sure it's nice once in a while to pack up the bags and flee from the Bustling Boydom in the house. Maybe next time, I'll figure out a way to sneak myself into her bag and take off on a weekend getaway, too! :)

Abra Bowdabra: A Big Surprise!

I got this box in the mail the other day. Life's been crazy as usual, so I'm a little late on this post...but the moment was awesome!

I was expecting a surprise in the mail...Veronica, too...and although we knew what was going to be inside; there were new crafty items to play with and we were tickled to get the box! Inside the plain brown package that was delivered to the door was a Bowdabra, a Mini Bowdabra, a CD e-book, a few bundles of craft wire and a hair bow tool. You should have heard her squeal...yes, squeal.

www.bowdabra.com

You may be wondering, "What in the world is a Bowdabra?"...if you're one of the people thinking this, you gotta go here. It's the new and exciting word in our household. Bowdabra, Bowdabra, Bowdabra...it rolls off our tongues. What can I say? We love to say it.

I made a promise to Veronica that she and I would go get some Halloween ribbon to make Bowdabra hair bows for all of her friends. She's almost peeing her pants she's so excited. (And the boys are a bit jealous, but we'll probably let them participate in the Bowdabra fun, too! Can you imagine?)

Halloween Hair Bows

So, we're going to whip up some holiday festive orange, black and white hair bows...and look forward to checking out the cool new holiday spools of ribbon not only this weekend, but for every holiday, birthday, etc.

Birthday Hair Bows

Look, if your daughter is invited to a girl's birthday party, save yourself the stress of buying the birthday girl a gift and give her a unique home-made (but store-bought looking) hair bow that nobody else will have. Better yet, get her her very own Bowdabra set!

I'm so excited to make some hair bows with Veronica, but I'm more ecstatic that just three spools of ribbon and some fun time crafting with the kids will result in a bunch of hip and distinctive hair bows that Veronica's friends at school are going to go nuts for! I'll keep you posted.

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