Bow Holders and Door Hangers

• This year, around Christmas time, the money around here seemed to be a little tighter than normal. Our family has stopped exchanging presents between all of the adults but we still like to get all the kids something. That means, besides my own 3, I have 6 nieces, 2 nephew, 1 little sister and 1 little brother that I still needed to get presents for. Our neighbor had made the cutest hair bow holder for my girls a year or so ago so I thought I would give them a try.

We stopped in at Hobby Lobby and found these plain wood pieces for less than $3 a piece. They also had some already painted wooden decorations for .50-$1.00. I picked up a couple of rolls of ribbon for a few dollars and a few different colors of paint for about $1 a piece. I used a pencil to draw each kids name and then started painting. I used 2 or 3 colors on each board and by mixing and matching the colors made 5 different bow holders with combinations of just 4 colors.

After the painting was done and dry, I used a black sharpie to outline each name. I didn't think I would be able to outline as well with a paint brush and the marker worked just great!

I used hot glue to attach each decoration and the ribbons. For the boys I cut a belt loop off of an old pair of pants and glued each end to the back to make a hanger. A little bit of glitter glue and a few sprays with a can of clear coat later and each boy had a name plate to hang on their door.

I used some ribbon I already had to make several bows and found some silk flowers on the clearance isle to make some flower clips to for each girl. I used the same pink ribbon with green butterflies and the word princess on it for all of the bow holders and the hangers at the top.

Here is a closer view of each one individually...

Princess Peyton, my brother's only daughter and Hunter's sister. She is a girly girl with a pink room so I knew this would suit her just fine.

Sheyenne, my other brother's youngest daughter. She loves Tinkerbell so I thought the green and yellow would be a good fit for her.

Alyssa, my sister's oldest daughter. Alyssa is somewhat of a Tom boy who loves to play soccer. I thought the green was not too girly but the purple and glitter made it just feminin enough.

Aliyah, my sister's middle daughter. Aliyah is much more girly than Alyssa. I didn't want it to be just like Peyton's so I added yellow and reversed the pink and green.

And then there is Ashlynne, my sister's youngest daughter and Ashton's twin sister. Three year old Ashlynne can always be found wearing a pair of her plastic princess dress up shoes so I knew this little castle would be fitting.

My brother's oldest daughter and Sheyenne's older sister Brooksie is 13 years old and a little past the bow wearing stage so I made her a jewelry box. This plain wood box was also about $3. Instead of making a flower hair clip I just glued one of the flowers to the front of the box. I actually made one of these for Jacinta as well but obviously did not get a picture of it.

I was so happy with how well they all turned out and all the kids seemed pretty happy about them on Christmas day. I love giving homemade gifts. I also love the fact that I was able to give 9 people very special gifts for about $50 total!