Bow Coloring Pages

Bows are having a moment. They have gone from the top of a present to hair clips, sneakers, phone cases and whole bedroom walls, and children and teenagers alike have started drawing them in the margins of everything. These bow coloring pages put the ribbon bow at the center of every page, sometimes as the whole picture, sometimes as the finishing touch.

Some pages are all bow. A giant bow stitched with quilted diamonds fills a page, another is drawn like a stained glass window, one trails long ribbons dotted with little hearts, and another sits in a frame of swirling ribbon. A bow folded from paper rests beside an origami crane, bows hang from a line like laundry held by pegs, a round wreath is made entirely of small bows, and a mandala arranges them around a rosette. A smiling chibi bow even stands on top of a cupcake.

On other pages the bow finishes something else: a round gift box and a whole stack of presents, a bouquet of roses, a bundle of lavender, cinnamon sticks with a slice of dried orange, a jar of honey, a stack of pancakes, a picnic basket full of apples, the basket of a bicycle, a Christmas wreath of pine, a garden gate covered in ivy, a curtain tied back, a straw hat with a lace bow, a ball gown with a bow at the waist and a heart ornament hung with beads. The hair pages show a bow at the top of a braid and another on a ballerina bun. And the animals wear them too: a fluffy kitten, a pug among the tulips, a bunny asleep in a nest of hay, a swan among the lily pads, a teddy bear with a checked bow and a plush elephant on a toy shelf. A kite with bows on its tail and a patterned butterfly over the clover complete the set.

A bow is a shoelace knot

Every child who has learned to tie their shoes already knows how to make the bow on these pages. A ribbon bow and a shoelace bow are the same knot: two loops pulled through each other, so that tugging one tail undoes the whole thing in one go. That is what makes a bow different from an ordinary knot, and why it is used for things that are meant to be opened, a present, a parcel, a hair ribbon.

It is also worth checking that a tied bow sits straight. If the loops end up pointing up and down instead of sideways, the first half of the knot was crossed the wrong way. Retie it starting with the other tail on top and the bow lies flat, just like the ones drawn here.

Making a ribbon look like satin, velvet or gingham

The fun of coloring a bow is making the ribbon look like a real fabric.

• Satin shines. Color the ribbon in one color, press harder in the folds and where the loops tuck into the knot, and leave a thin curved line of white paper along the top of each loop.
• Velvet has no shine at all. Use a deep color, burgundy, bottle green or navy, and color it evenly all over, a little darker at the edges.
• Gingham and checks are made of stripes. Color every second stripe in one direction, then every second stripe in the other; where two colored stripes cross, the square comes out darkest.
• Polka dots look best when the dots stay white and the ribbon around them is colored.

For the soft look that made bows so popular again, stay with pale pink, cream, lilac and baby blue, and keep one darker shade of the same color for the folds. A white bow on a pale pink background, or the reverse, is the whole style in two pencils. For Christmas, go the other way: deep red satin on dark green pine.

The pages that already carry a pattern, the quilted bow, the checked bow on the teddy bear, the polka dot bow on the bunny and the heart ribbons, are a good place to practice.

Simple bows and busy scenes

The quickest pages are the ones where the bow or the object is large and the background stays empty, like the ball gown, the curtain and the giant quilted bow. Quick to color, above the grid, begins with:

• Ball gown with a bow
• Christmas wreath with a bow
• Curtain tied back with a bow

The detailed pages are full of petals, leaves and fine patterns: the rose bouquet, the border of daisies, the ivy gate. Lots of detail begins with:

• Rose bouquet with a bow
• Bow and daisy border
• Bow on a garden gate

Gift tags and bunting from colored bows

A colored bow is the perfect gift tag. Cut out a finished bow, glue it onto a rectangle of card, punch a hole in one corner and write the name on the back; tie it onto the present with real ribbon in the same color. The page with bows hanging from a line turns into bunting: color each bow differently, cut them out and tape them along a length of string over a bed or a party table.

The gift box, the stack of presents and the heart ornament make homemade cards for birthdays, Christmas and Valentine's Day. Fold the colored page in half and write inside the blank back.

Printing a basket of bows

All the pages are free PDFs drawn on A4 at 300 dpi. Print them full size on A4, or choose "fit to page" on US Letter, which trims the drawing by about six percent and keeps the ribbon tails on the sheet. The printing guide shows where the option is. Add to pack puts several bows into one file. Hearts are in the heart coloring pages and the Valentine's coloring pages, presents in the happy birthday coloring pages, and more cute animals in the kawaii coloring pages.