Turn Your Old Calendars Into Pretty Gift Wrapping Bows!

How's your first week of 2022 been, bots and babes? Mine's been pretty restful, since the new year is when things finally slow down over here. Of course I spent exactly two days napping and saying how wonderful it was to relax, then by day three I was prowling the house looking for projects. Ha! (Sorry, John.)

To that end my eye fell on our old 2021 calendar, and I decided to revisit a paper craft I used to love years and years ago.

Oh good, it's not just me.

And look what I made!

I originally learned this method using magazine pages from one of my favorite - and sadly now long gone - blogs, How About Orange. However the original source seems to be here, where nothing is in English but the pictures are lovely, so it's worth a click just for those:

I especially like the little embellishments in the middle, still need to try that.

Since I don't get magazines anymore I hadn't done this paper craft in ages - but I figure a calendar is basically a big magazine, right?

So after I turned my entire Flowers calendar into bows I thought I might film a tutorial for y'all, since there are a few tricky steps that are much easier to explain on film. A friend gave me her old Space calendar, too, so for the tutorial I got to make galaxy bows, awww yeeeeah:

OooOOoooh.

I did the tutorial in real time, going slow and taking pains to show the two tricky steps a couple times over, so it's a full 16 minutes. Once you learn the steps you'll be able to make a bow in under five, though, and this is a great craft to keep your hands busy while watching Critical Role. (Or other TV programs, if you must. ;))

Ready? I recommend grabbing any piece of paper to follow along. Remember, you can do this with any paper, I just like it for calendars especially.

I didn't show in the video, but these bows can look great even with patterned wrapping paper. I have a distressed rainbow stripe I love using with these:

And for the pinks and purples I have a lacy-patterned butcher paper:

My point is you don't have to limit yourself to solid color wrapping paper; don't be afraid to mix and match patterns!

I hope you file this away in your craft arsenal, and that this gives some of you a use for those hoarded calendars out there.

As always if you make some of your own please tag me or share on the Epbot FB page; I'd love to see!


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Want more crafts? Then check out my seriously over-crowded Tutorials page!

In fact, if you want to get a jump start on Valentine's cards, I have a fun Star Wars spinner card over there:

These are a cinch to make with my free printables, and are PERFECT for the Star Wars lover in your life. (See what I did there?) *Plus* I have 3 different poem options to choose from, including one that's just objectively wrong, bahahaa. Go see.