How can I make ribbon glued on wood coasters look less sloppy?

[addicted2crafts.livejournal.com]

The edges look a little bumpy when you smooth the ribbon into the glue, and there's glue strings everywhere, and I guess I can pick some off, And this wasn't such a bad turn out for a first attempt, however I want it to be neater.

Also when tying bows with ribbon, like you do with your shoes type bows, how do you get them to come out even and uniform in size and then how do you get the bow tails to lay down and not stick out all over the place?