These 3-D greeting cards are so elegant -- perfect for that special someone during the holidays.  The bows look so elegant and expensive, but they're actually made from paper strips!  While you could use any kind of paper you like to cut your strips, we used embossed striped paper from wallpaper samples.  Go to most any paint or home improvement store and you'll find that they're usually thrilled to give away old sample books of wallpaper.  That's right, give them away, as in for free, gratis, nada.  This represents an incredible find for creative crafters -- free supplies!   The sample books provide wonderful papers for all kinds of craft projects, and once you start flipping through the pages, you'll come up with all kinds of uses for the various designs.

For these bows, we went to samples of elegant papers in a striped design.  Wallpaper sample books are usually filled with this popular style, and often the striped papers are conveniently in gold, silver, or other metallics, or even in satin finishes that really look like ribbon when cut.

The results are stunning, and once the paper strips are cut, this project is easy enough for kids to do.

blank card and envelope
paper scrap that nicely contrast your bow paper
adhesive of choice
papertrimmer
wallpaper sample scraps or other paper scraps
double sided tape

Use your adhesive of choice to cover the front of a blank card with gift wrap or a paper scrap that nicely contrasts with the paper strips you'll be using to make the bow.  Solid colors work well, but don't overlook the possibility of some of the elegant brocade-like wallpapers as well, like the green card in the photo.

Make the Bow
Start by cutting a bunch of paper strips (see note above for suggestions).  The bow on the right in the photo at right uses varying widths of strips, while the bow on the left uses strips of all the same width.

Now turn each strip into a figure 8 loop.  To do this, fold the strip in half to find the center point, then bring each of the ends to this center point and use a small piece of double sided tape to stick it into place, like in the photo below.

Arrange a number of these figure 8 loos together, crossing them at their center points and taping each one to the one below it as in the photo below.  Keep adding loops until you have a bow that is full to your liking.  You can make smaller bows to be stacked on top of wider bows, like in the photos above and at right. Finish off the center of your "bow" with a small paper strip taped into a cylinder before being taped to the center of the bow.

If desired, take two strips of paper and glue them to the front of the card, as shown in the photo above, before adhering the bow to the front of the card.

Another idea that's shown in the photo above is to take two flat strips of paper, dovetail cut the ends, then glue them underneath the bow for faux ribbons.

Variation on Theme
You can also use these bows on packages, just like you would ribbon bows.  Click here for complete instructions.