how to tie a tiny bow

Ok, so I thought about posting this under my "Unsolicited Wedding Advice Wednesdays" but I thought, "Naw, bows are cool everyday."  So I spied this trick while in China with my lovely work buddy, Shelby, what up!  We were looking at notions and embellishments but I saw a lady making tiny bows out of really short pieces of ribbon.  She had a box of maybe a couple THOUSAND pieces of ribbon...uber cray cray.  But she was cranking them out in seconds and I just stared as Shelby was busy working haha.  Anyway, I wanted to share this trick because one thing I HATE is wasting ribbon.  God, I'm such a nerd.  

Please forgive my horrible looking nails.  I totally forgot to buy nail polish remover at Target today.  :/

Step 1:

Cut your ribbon.

If you're not sure how long to make your ribbon piece I suggest making a test ribbon first.  When you find a length that works measure it and keep it to the side so you can cut your ribbon pieces to the correct length.  You'll find that the width of the ribbon will impact how long to make the length.  My ribbon width is 1/4" and the length was 6.5" from tip to tip.  

Step 2:
Loop.
Take one of the ends and make a loop close to the end with the rest of the ribbon behind it.  Notice that the short end is on top of the loop.  This makes one of the tails and 'rabbit tails' of the ribbon so if you already have an idea of about how long these part should be then you'll know how short to make this first loop.

Step 3:
Wrap.
Use your right thumb to hold the loop made in step 2 and wrap the long piece of ribbon around your thumb.  This will be the middle part of the bow.

Step 4:
Pull the second loop through.
Ok, this might be tricky to explain but the next step is to make another 'rabbit ear' with the remaining long end and pull it through the middle loop around your right thumb from step 3.

Step 5:
Tighten.
Even out the tails of the bow and the size of the 'rabbit ears' of the bow and tighten.  You're done!  You've made a tiny bow without wasting extra ribbon and it only took a short amount of time!  Adhere these bows to scrapbook pages, cards, crafts, invites, hair clips, whatever you like!