Tartan Inspired Giftwrap - How to Create a Luxury Bow

A lovely bow on a wreath, hamper, gift basket or parcel makes such a difference. I have always been rubbish at tying bows until the gift wrap goddess Jane Means arrived and taught us all how to very simply tie a very lovely bow. And never mind Christmas gifts just think of all the lovely other things you can use your bow tying skills for. Jane has made a career out of it!

For this project we used a Green foliage wreath, 3m of MacDonald Clan Modern polyester tartan ribbon and some gold glitter spray. We cheated and our local flower shop Scentiments in Duns made our wreath but you should of course make your own and use seasonal foliage and at Christmas time some traditional holly.

1. Cut approximately 1m of ribbon and tie around the wreath. We have used polyester ribbon of which we hold about 20 tartans in stock but if you want a more unusual tartan we can make this up for you as wool ribbon and it works just as well. Of course your ribbon doesn't have to be tartan but it does make it extra special.

2. Cut approximately 1m of ribbon and tie around the wreath

With the remaining 2m weave the ribbon to make lots of loops. We do also stock wired tartan ribbon if you want a really stiff bow.

Keep looping! Jane is at the Country Living Christmas Fair in November demonstrating her clever ideas and watch out for some tartan as we have just sent her a great big bag of scraps to play with.

Once it resembles a flower tie it into the wreath using the 2 ends of the shorter ribbon.

Cut the ribbon tails at an angle and spray lightly with glitter spray. The devil is in the detail and it is amazing what a difference it makes just adding that little bit of sparkle.

And there you have your gorgeous bow ready to apply to a wreath, christmas gift, wedding gift or just a little thank you. Tie it to a hamper, front of your wedding car, or decorate your banisters in your very own tartan or one that co-ordinates beautifully with your wallpaper.

Order your tartan ribbon here and don't forget end us some pics of what you create!