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How Do I Pay With Venmo?

Venmo is a popular way to pay for a lot of things using your phone. We connect to Venmo through our PayPal merchant account. The Venmo button should appear either along with the payment option buttons on our checkout page or after you select the yellow PayPal button. On my iPhone the Venmo payment button appears along with all the payment option buttons. On your phone it might be different. The Venmo button will only appear on your mobile device. It does not work for desktop computers at this time.

I copied the instructions below in case Venmo is not working for you. They worked for me when I set up my iPhone on Venmo. My phone (iPhone 6) got stuck in the after the last step so shut off my phone and turned it back on to reboot the system. It worked fine after that.

Venmo Instructions

I’m getting an error when I connect my browser

First, make sure you have a decent Internet connection. If you’re in a tunnel or everyone in your coffee shop is streaming videos in 4K, try again in a bit. If that doesn’t work you may need to adjust some settings on your device.

For iOS devices:

  • Allow Safari to accept cookies from websites you visit. To allow cookies, go to your device’s Settings > Safari > Block Cookies.
  • We all value our privacy, but to make purchases with Venmo, you need to turn off Private Browsing in Safari.

For Android devices:

  • Allow Chrome to accept cookies from websites you visit. To allow cookies, go to Chrome’s Settings > Site settings > Cookies.
  • We all value our privacy, but to make purchases with Venmo, you can’t use Incognito Mode in Chrome.

How can I see the option to pay with Venmo?

It depends on a few things. First, purchasing with Venmo currently only works with some PayPal merchants and only with a browser on your mobile device (Safari for iOS or Google Chrome for Android). Additionally, you must have the latest version of the Venmo app on your device and need to opt in to use Venmo for purchases.

How can I opt in?

To opt in and purchase with Venmo, tap on the ☰ icon at the top of the app, then tap on Settings. In Settings, there’s the Buying section. To use Venmo to pay during checkout, tap Enable Mobile Web Purchase or Connect Browsers.

I am not seeing the Venmo option after opting-in!

Make sure that your browser is connected by heading to Venmo Settings and then to Connect Browsers. If you’re still not seeing the Venmo option, make sure you turn off PayPal OneTouch. For more information about how to change PayPal OneTouch settings, go to www.paypal.com/us/webapps/mpp/one-touch-checkout/faq.

Keep in mind that we’re still rolling out this payment option and maybe your favorite merchant isn’t on our list… yet!

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So, What Is A Double Layer Bow Anyway?

A double layer bow is pretty much what is says, a bow with two layers of ribbon. We also call these Overlay Bows because one ribbon is overlain on another. Double layer bows are available in Toddler, Medium, Large, and MEGA Extra Large sizes. They can be made with two layers of ribbon of the same width or different widths. The bows with different width layers are harder to make because it’s tricky to exactly center the narrower ribbon on the wider one and to keep it that way when the bow is made.

Double Layer Bow with Equal Width Ribbons
Double Layer Bow Unequal Ribbon Widths

Double layer bows allow us to offer a huge variety of styles and designs. Most to the 5000+ designs we have are double layer bows. If you can’t find what you like, then we will work with you to come up with your own custom design.

We even make some Three Layer Bows. These are especially hard to make because it’s difficult to keep all the layers aligned and even and to sew through 3 layers of ribbon. But they do make for a beautiful bow!

Triple Layer Bow

So, browse our website and find the double layer bows that strike your fancy. You can put them in a Wish List so you can come back later to pick your favorites. And, if you can find what you want, give us a call (225-751-0914) and we’ll help you make a custom design just for you!

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Cheerleading Bows and Hair Accessories

The photo shows an order we just completed for a high school cheerleading squad. 50 large white bows plus 150 ribbon strips. Our bows are perfect for cheerleaders because they are so durable and washable.

We can help you with custom designs and monogramming. we offer discounts for large orders. Go to the Cheerleading page on our website for details.

We would love to help your squad! Give us a call (225-751-0914) or send an email to get us working for you!

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Thin Hair? How you get bows to stay in.

A lot of Moms have this problem. They love the way the bows look, but the bows keep slipping out because their kid’s hair is so thin. We have a solution for this that works!

Gripzies

We have found that Gripzies are perfect for this problem. Gripzies have one sticky side and attach to the center spring of the barrette as shown in the photos below. They are easy to apply and work great to keep bows in thin hair. They are soft and spongy so as not to damage hair. We recommend these to all of our customers with kids with thin hair and have problems with keeping bows in their hair. Each pack is only $3.95 and has enough Gripzies for 26 barrettes.

You put the Gripzie on the center spring of the barrette like the photos show. They have one sticky side to hold onto the barrette. The other side is soft and spongy to how onto the hair without breaking it.

Gripzie on Barrette – Top View

Gripzie on Barrette – Side View

Gripzie on Alligator Clip Barrette

Although you usually don’t need them with Alligator Clip barrettes, you can use them there, too. Just attach the Gripzie to the part of the Alligator Clip that is not attached to the bow.

With Gripzies you can be sure that the bow will stay in your kid’s hair!

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How I make my bows

It starts by selecting the ribbons to make the bow from. I’ve been in business for (way) more than 30 years and have accumulated a huge variety of ribbons to choose from. Then I shape the bow from the ribbons and add stitches to hold it together. I pay really close attention to make sure the loops are even and symmetrical. An even, symmetrical bow is a beautiful bow. An uneven unsymmetrical bow is just plain ugly.

This is one of our bows. The loops are even and the bow is symmetric and pleasing to look at.

 

 

 

This is definitely NOT one of our bows! The loops are uneven, of different lengths, and the bow completely asymmetric.  Don’t put a bow like this on your child!

 

 

Then I glue the bows to the barrette or clip I want to use. I use very strong top quality industrial-grade glue. The bows are nearly impossible to pull off the barrettes once I glue them on. I then make a knot with the ribbon I want in the center of the bow. I wrap the ends of the knot around the bow and put in a stitch to hold them together. Then I put in a stitch to anchor the the knot to the bow ribbon. This holds the knot in place and keeps it from rotating around the barrette. Once I do this I put in two more stitches through the knot ribbon, double-knotting each stitch. For the final step I trim the ends of the bow with a hot knife. This seals the ends of the ribbons and ensures they will not fray.

All this attention to detail and hand stitching are critical! It makes my bows very durable and built to last. I have customers putting my bows on their kids that were bought for them by their mothers when they were kids. And they still look great! I’ve put bows on 3 generations of families (shows my age, oops!) and they are still coming back for more.

A word about barrettes. I use only top quality barrettes from certain special manufacturers. They cost more and are harder to get, but they’re worth it. There are a lot of junky barrettes out there that fail quickly. They won’t close properly or break easily, making the bow useless. There’s no point in making a beautiful and durable bow unless the barrette is just as good. If you buy one of my bows you can be sure it will be beautiful, stylish, and durable. So, what are you waiting for?

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Searching Our Site

We have a couple of ways to search our website to make it easier to find the bows you want. We have over 5000 items on the site, so a little help in searching can go a long way.

Text-Based Search

The first option is a text-based search. It searches the site looking for the word or words you typed into the search field. You do the searches by first selecting the size of bow you want and then typing the descriptive word or words in the search field. Click the search button and it will look at the whole site to try to find what you want. After the search is complete you can order the bow or bows right from the results screen. The Search Bar is shown on the top over the Home Page. You can get to the search screen from any page by clicking on the SEARCH link in the navigation panel on the left of the screen.

A few tips. You don’t need to use the word “bow” or “bows” in your search. It assumes that’s what you are looking for. Likewise, you don’t need to use the word “and” when using two or more search terms. Just put a blank between the words. If you use more than one search term the Search program looks for all the words at the same time. If you are looking for a red and blue bow,   type “red blue” in the search field. But if you want a red bow or a blue bow you need to do two searches, one with the “red” search term and the other with the “blue” search term.

All of the newer styles on the site are well-annotated with search words, but older bow styles still are only lightly annotated. We are working on fixing this, but there are a lot of bows and not many of us. It will take a while to get all the bows on the site to the point where they are easily searched. So, in the meantime you can compliment your searches by browsing the website. You could discover the perfect bow for your outfit this way!

COLOR MATCHER Searches

This is exclusive to Rainbows By Paulette. The goal of our COLOR MATCHER search is to find the bows with the color closest to what you want to match.

You get to the COLOR MATCHER either by clicking on the link in the Search Bar or the COLOR MATCHER link in the navigation panel. For phones the link is included in the dropdown Navigation Menu at the top of the Home Page.

The search works by you clicking on the color in the Color Chart closest to what you what to match, selecting the bow size, and clicking the “Click Me” (How Original!) button at the bottom of the page. The COLOR MATCHER then searches the website to try to find what it thinks are the closest matches to the color you want. The bows with the colors closest to your selection are at the top of the results page. You can order bows right from the results page.

This photo shows the Results Screen from searching for yellow MEGA bows. The “yellowest” bows are in the top row and bows with other colors in addition to yellow are in the next row. Some colors only have a few matches while others have a lot. Its best to play around with the search, selecting different shades before you make your decision on which bow you want.

Sometimes its hard to see why the COLOR MATCHER includes some bows in the results. These bows may have only a little bit of the color you want. The COLOR MATCHER tries to pick out the dominant color of the bow and if the bow has a lot of colors it can get a little confused. Fortunately, this usually happens only in a minority of the selections. We are constantly working to improve the MATCHER’s performance and things will continue to get better. So, just like with the standard text-based search, in the meantime you can compliment your searches by browsing the website. You could discover the perfect bow for your outfit!

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Let’s Talk About Barrettes

The main barrettes we use on our bows are Spring Clip and Alligator (or Curl) Clips barrettes. Alligator clip are used on our Infant, Small, and Toddler size bows and Spring Clips are for Medium, Large, and MEGA bows. Alligator Clips are good for young kids with thin hair and work best with the smaller size bows. Some customers want Alligator Clips on Medium and sometimes even Large bows.

Spring Clips are the best barrettes for Medium-MEGA bows. They grip the hair better and are good for holding in the larger bows. The wider base gives a very good mounting place for the bow.

It’s very important to use top quality Spring Clip barrettes. A top quality barrette will last and will hold the bow without breaking your kid’s hair. Unfortunately there are a lot or junky barrettes out there that won’t stay in and break easily. A bow with a slippery or broken barrette is useless!

How can you tell a top quality from a junky barrette? I’m glad you asked! Take a look at the photo on the left. The first thing you notice is that the Good Barrette is wider and the Grips are larger and stronger. This is important because its the Grips that you squeeze with you fingers to open the barrette. They are the part that gets the most use and unless they are strong they’re the part that can break first. What you can’t see in the photo is that the Good Barrette is made with thicker metal than the Junky Barrette. The larger Grips and thicker metal help make Good Barrettes really durable.

Next take a look at the photo on the right. Now only does the Good Barrette have better Grips, it also is wider and has larger, heavier duty Hinges. The greater width gives the barrette better holding power regardless of hair thickness. The heavy duty Hinges resist breaking and make the Good Barrette more durable.

The photo below shows a side-by-side comparison of the parts of the Junky and Good Barrettes.

 

The Good Barrette body is wider, made of thicker metal, and has heavy duty Grips and Hinges. The Junky Barrette has a wimpy, single bar spring. The Good Barrette spring is double-barred with the bars connected by a bunch of crossbars. The spring is dimpled which gives it a better grip on hair. The extra bars spread out the clamping force so the Good Barrette can hold strongly without breaking hair. The Good Barrette Clip is triple-barred with the outer two bars dimpled. The 3 bars and the dimpling work together to hold well and still not damage hair.

Why do bow companies still use Junky Barrettes? They won’t tell us, but we think they either don’t know the difference and haven’t bothered to find out or they do know better but still use Junky Barrettes because they’re cheap and easy to find.

Bottom Line – Don’t buy bows with junky barrettes. That’s wasting money. How can you be sure you are getting Good Barrettes? That’s easy. Get your bows at Rainbows By Paulette. We ONLY use Top Quality Barrettes on our bows. To do anything else would be simply embarrassing!

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Let’s Talk About Selecting The Right Bow Size

A question we get all the time is “What size bow do get for my kid (or grandkid)?”. To get started on the answer take a look at a screen shot of the bow comparison figure that is on our Solid Color Bows page.

The chart is to scale, the size of each bow is in the correct relation to the bows. The bow dimensions in inches and centimeters are given for each bow size. The chart also gives recommended age ranges for each bow. Of course, this depends on the kid, Mom, (and Grandmom). Some Moms will put a MEGA bow on a 2 year-old and others use Medium bows on 10 year-olds.

Medium

Large

MEGA Extra Large

These photos show Medium, Large, and MEGA bows on a 7 year-old model.  The Medium or Large bows are just about the right size for this girl, the MEGA is a little big. That’s why we say the MEGA bows are best for girls at 9 years old and up, but some Moms and kids really want to make a statement.

Small Looped Baby

Toddler

Medium

These photos show Small, Toddler, and Medium bows on a 2 1/2 year-old model.  The Small and Toddler bows are just about right for her, but the Medium bow is OK and is something she can grow into.

So, selecting the right bow size depends on your kid’s age, size (some kids grow faster than others), and the look you want. If you have any questions or want advice, we are happy to help. Just give us a call (225-751-0914) or drop us a note. We love talking to our customers!

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Cleaning Our Bows

Our bows last a long time, so kids get them dirty. Sometimes really dirty. Sometimes really, really dirty! So how can you clean them? If you have a grosgrain bow its pretty easy. Just put a couple of tablespoons of dishwasher soap like Cascade (wear gloves and eye protection) and warm water into a small tub or pot and soak the bow overnight. Swish it around occasionally to help knock off any dirt. Then rinse the bow and hang it up to dry. If you have a light color bow with some stains you may have to use an all-fabric bleach soak, too. DO NOT use a chlorine bleach! Polyester satin bows can be cleaned the same way.

Unfortunately, washing glitter bows can knock off some of the glitter.  Right now we don’t have a recommended way to clean glitter bows.

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Keeping It Fresh

We’ve got more then 5000 hair bow styles on our site, but our customers always are on the lookout for the freshest and newest styles. That’s where our New Bows page comes in. We put our latest creations here! We keep it fresh by taking out older posts when we add new ones. The newest additions are at the bottom of each section with the older ones on top. For instance, in the Disney Bow section the bows at the bottom of the section are the ones we just posted. The ones on top are pretty new too, but older than the latest ones at the bottom. As we add new bows we’ll delete whole rows from the top of their respective sections.

We’ll usually keep bows in the New Bows page for a couple of months or so. Not all of our customers visit our site every day (We can’t image why they wouldn’t, but that’s the way it is!) so we keep the new bows on the page for a little while so they can have a chance to see them when they do visit.

So, when you visit our Website you can go to the New Bows page first to see the latest styles. But don’t forget to go to the other pages on the site. Just like people, just because a style is older doesn’t mean its not beautiful!

Happy Browsing!