Crafty: Picture Frame Hair Bow Holder

Over the holidays, my sister gave Greenleigh a ton of hair bows.  After all, Greenleigh loves to accessorize.  But other than throwing them in one of her drawers, I had no place to keep them.  I then went on the search to purchase a hair bow holder, only to find out that they can be ridiculously expensive.  Seriously, who pays $37.50 for a hair bow holder?  Oh, and said hair bow holder (as cute as it may be) only holds 10 hair bows max.  Not for me.  No thanks.  But taking such a firm stand and drawing my line in the sand, only left me without a place to leave Greenleigh’s hair bows.

I then started to stalk Pinterest.  The best one that I could find, used a picture frame and several spare sheets of sheet metal.  Um, I don’t have any spare sheet metal in my house, but I started to think that they were on to something with the picture frame idea.  I continued to research, finding ones that I liked and ones that I didn’t, trying to figure out how to make mine.  With no instructions, I pretty much winged it on this one and ended up with this:

Yep, that’s 12 hair bows on there, and room for several more.  I rarely love how my projects come out, but this is an exception.  Such an easy project and it cost virtually nothing.  I used left over ribbon from my Valentine’s Ribbon Wreath, purchased a frame with a 50% off coupon, selected fabric that was on clearance, and found some quilt batting for $1.97!  Whole project might have cost $9?  Maybe not even that.  And with the supplies I purchased, I could probably make 5 more of these (well, I’d have to purchase more frames, but you get the idea).

You will need:

8×10 picture frame

Fabric

Quilt batting

Ribbon

Hot glue & Glue gun

SharpieStep 1 – Take the picture frame apart.  My frame came with a piece of cardboard in it, but if yours doesn’t, use the sharpie and trace the glass on your own piece of cardboard and cut it out.  Place the glass to the side, you won’t be needing it anymore.  The attorney in me wants to remind you to be careful of the sharp edges when disposing of the glass.

Step 2 – Open your quilt batting and unroll it.  Place your rectangular piece of cardboard on top of the batting and trace the rectangle in two separate places.  Cut the first rectangle out of the quilt batting, using the sharpie lines as your guide, cutting exactly on the lines.  For the second rectangle, leave an inch or two extra between your cut and the sharpie outline.  In other words, you want this rectangle to be a little bigger than your first one.

Step 3 – Take the first rectangle that you cut (the one that should be the exact same size as your cardboard) and attach it to the cardboard using 4 dabs of hot glue in the four corners of the cardboard.

Step 4 – Roughly, cut a piece a fabric in the shape of a rectangle.  You want this piece of fabric to be slightly bigger than your largest piece of quilt batting.  This cut does not need to be pretty or perfect, only bigger than the cardboard and the batting.  I promise, no one is going to see it.

Then, place the fabric you just cut, face down on your surface.  Place your large piece of quilt batting on top of it.  And on top, place your cardboard with the smaller piece of quilt batting attached, with the cardboard side up (your two pieces of quilt batting should be touching each other).

Step 5 – Take your hot glue gun, and run a line of glue down one of the long edges of your cardboard.  Quickly fold over the fabric over, on top of the glue, so the fabric is attached to the cardboard.Then do the same with the other long end, but pull tight this time, because you don’t want to have excess fabric hanging on the front.Step 6 – The corners had me stumped, but I figured the best way was to wrap them similar to a present, so that was what I did.  Don’t be afraid of the hot glue here.  You need it to stay secure and as flat as possible so it will fit back in your frame.  Hot glue away…
Then do the same to the other end, again pulling firmly so as not to have any extra fabric hanging on the front.Step 7 – Get a visual of how it will look in the frame and decide how many bows you want your frame to hold.  More bows = more vertical ribbons. I decided to use 4 pieces of ribbon to hold the maximum amount of bows.  The long ends of your frame are the top – run your ribbons from top to bottom and space them out the way you want them.  You are going to clip your hair bows on to these ribbons, so leave room between them.  I didn’t measure mine to have them perfectly equidistant, but I kinda wish my mom had been around…she’s great at that stuff.  Mine were roughly measured, and it worked out fine.

Once you find the perfect spacing, flip your fabric covered cardboard over and glue the ribbon ends to the back:Don’t pull to tight on this one, you want it to have a little give so you can clip your hair bows on.

Step 8 – Press your fabric covered cardboard piece through the frame opening, and put the picture frame backing (the one that came with the frame you purchased) back on to the frame. Mine was a snug fit, but it closed.Voila!  Hair Bow Holder!Don’t think it looks like a hair bow holder?  How about now?This might be my new favorite gift for everyone who has a little girl!