Do you remember the advert - Daddy or Chips?

When I have a dilemma I repeat this over and over again hoping I might find the solution in those few words Daddy or Chips, Daddy or Chips.  Your Friday FREEBIE this week could cause you a bit of a dilemma - Bev's bag or Bling Eyelash?

I can hear you all now "Bev's Bag or Bling Eyelash, Bev's Bag or Bling Eyelash"

When you have made up your mind then all you have to do is leave us a comment with your FINAL decision!  We will pick TWO, yes TWO Friday FREEBIE winners on Monday from our "Bingo" bag, assuming it is still in one piece after Sam ran over it in his car!

If your comment is being blocked by our spam filters please email the comment to us here craftyribbons@gmail.com and we will add it for you.  Your email address will then be verified and you will be able to leave further comments without any hassle. 

We are holding a Spring is here Competition - something we have never done before.  Competition time! It is all about Spring, anyone can enter from children to grans, everyone is welcome. All you have to do is make a card or project using ribbon for Spring, it does not have to be our ribbon (although it would be extra nice if it was!).  Take a photo of the project  and email the picture to us at craftyribbons@gmail.com  , please mark your email SPRING Competition.  If you are not able to photograph the card then pop it into the post to us at Crafty Ribbons, 3 Beechwood, Clump Farm, Tin Pot Lane, Blandford, Dorset DT11 7TD and we will take the pic for you.

Closing date is 31st March and Rachie will pick the winner on the 1st April (it's her Birthday but no bribing her with chocs!!!!) Yes there is a prize for all your effort.  The winner will receive 1mtr of all the 196 colours in the 3mm satin range WOW! and they can pick a WANT IT ALL Collection of their choice.

To get you in the Spring mood here are Wilma's goodies from our Ribbon Challenge #13 "Easter Treats"

We all need an Easter basket, whether for Easter eggs or Spring Flowers,  Wilma has made some ribbon flowers for her basket - did the needle and thread come out Wilma?

If you do not want your Easter Eggs to get squashed you can always make a box for them.

oooh yummmie!

Wow! Who would not be impressed to receive this card.

The detail is amazing.

How perfect is this card for Easter - it says it all.

It appears that everyone liked this "Sydney" ribbon, slightly different to normal ribbon as it is not woven but made from compressed fibres.

Wonderful goodies Wilma - thank you.  I have lots more Challenge goodies to show you, I will bring a different selection to you everyday next week, just to ensure that your Easter Creative juices keep on flowing!

Have a fabulous weekend, and get those emails a flowing...

These only arrived into the warehouse yesterday and I just had to get them on the website, they are stunners!

ooooh I could stroke this Bling Eyelash forever, it is so tactile! Put it down Ali. 

When Bev and I opened the delivery yesterday I thought Bev was going to faint - she got sooooo excited about these two colours, purple and white. There are 8 awesome colours - Copper - Gold - White - Red - Aqua - Forest - Purple - Multi, you can see all the colours by clicking HERE.  

I have also been opening other kind of boxes today, yes Wilma you are right I like opening boxes!!  What am I going on about - the Easter Treat Ribbon Challenge goodies of course! We do have lots of treats for you to get your Easter creative juices flowing, watch this space, I will share the first batch with you tomorrow.

Amongst the Easter Goodies I found these "Cherry Pie" projects.

Margaret had not been well and was a little late getting her projects back to us - well worth the wait Margaret.

I adore these little boxes, they are wonderful, and filled with goodies for ME!

This card came in it's own little box - what a great idea Margaret. We do hope you are feeling better.

We are sponsors over at Quirky Crafts, not been over there before, then have a look http://quirkycrafts.blogspot.com/

You could win some extra ribbons for your stash!

I have been invited out, Sydney has asked me round to play this evening with her and her two bunnies Fifi and Flopsy.  They were kind enough to loan us some hay for the Easter Treat photo shoot - thank you.  Bev thought she had brought two little girl bunnies, but one is getting rather fat!?

Have fun...

Look what I had waiting for me on my desk this morning.....

Bev's NEW Ribbon Bag and it is crammed full of wicked Spring and Easter Ribbons, she has even snuck some ribbons in that are not on the website yet - naughty naughty Bev!  You can get one of Bev's bags by clicking HERE and they are still the amazing price of £5.00 yep 5 x £1 coins for all those ribbons. Billy Bargain!!!!

We are very sorry but we do not take Bev's Ribbon Bags to any of the exhibtions, you can only buy them on line.

Tony and I had a good trip back from Glasgow, we stopped off at Tebay services Sunday night in Cumbria, as we had a meeting at the factory on Monday.  I love going to the factory, anyone who is a ribbonholic would love it too.  Rows and rows of nothing but ribbon, we get customers overwelmed when they visit our warehouse, but the factory ooooooh heaven!  After several hours of trying to get lost in the factory, we selected some stunning beauties, which will be coming your way soon.  The best part of visiting is that we can have exclusive ribbons, select the colour and design just for me - and you too. Nope it's top secret and my lips are sealed.

The girls enjoyed the Mars Bar Cakes, I had hoped to get a photo, but they were consumed within the blink of an eye.  I am sure they did'nt hit the sides!!  It's two years since Rachie came to help me in Glasgow, so two years without a Mars Bar Cake - poor Rachie.

The stand is all offloaded and starting to be restocked for the Stitch & Craft Show at Olympia London next week. A big huge THANK YOU to everyone who came to see us in Glasgow, we had an awesome show.  I love coming back to the warehouse when you can see the back of the ribbon cabinets - it makes us all feel really good and that all the hard work was worth while.  It can be scarey at times deciding on what ribbons to buy and whether anyone else will like them.  We sold out of "Cherry Pie" in several of the colours, all your Challenge goodies were much admired.  I had planned to take some photos but I just did not have time - sorry.

We have lots going on this week and be the first to read it here!

Ali and Tony are not back from their trip to Glasgow, and what a fantastic show they had.  We are dreading seeing the state of the ribbon cabinets, Ali said they will need a lot of restocking.  Maybe I could throw a sickie tomorrow to get out of it, but then maybe not, Ali has new supplies of Mrs Tillys Scottish Fudge and a big bag of Mars Bar cakes for us.  Ok I am raring to go tomorrow Ali!

With Ali away who could take the photo of this weeks Friday FREEBIE winner?

How about our young up and coming photographer Sydney!  I would like to point out that this photo took an awful lot of effort to achieve, Sam didn't want to be in the car, he has been driving us mad all week about going back in the lorry. What have you started Ali.

This weeks winner of the Friday FREEBIE is......

No. 8 - Kathleen Mioulet

Well done Kathleen, please email craftyribbons@gmail.com and tell us what colours you are missing from your 3mm satin stash and we will put a collection together for you.  No need for an address as I am the one that processes the orders through the system, your name pops up quite often!  Hows Brittany, never been to Morbihan but Ali tellls me it is beautiful and I would love the coast with it's bays and islands.

Many thanks to everyone who took the time to leave comments, we loved your ditty Karen J.

Safe journey home Ali, see you tomorrow with those Mars Bar cakes!!!

Rachie x

Where has this week gone?  How can it be Friday again!

What type of ribbon do you like working with?

Do you like the crispness that is created using grosgrain ribbon....

...or the softness of Sheer Ribbon...

....or maybe the old favourite of Satin Ribbon.

Tell us what you like/love working with and we will make a Friday FREEBIE exclusively for you.

We will pick the Friday FREEBIE winner from our "Bingo" bag on Monday.

If your comment is being blocked  by our spam filters please email the comment to us here craftyribbons@gmail.com and we will add it for you.  Your email address will then be verified and you will be able to leave further comments without any hassle. 

Off to the show.

What a fantastic day, thanks to everyone who came to see us at the Hobbycrafts show in Glasgow.

I struggled first thing this morning - it is our first UK show this year and I had forgotten all the sterling prices for the buttons, on top of that I had to keep looking at the notes trying to work out if they were 10's or  20's. I am sure some customers thought I was a bit "bonkers", especially when I said Merci to them!!!!!

Safely arrived in Westmorland

Honest this is a service station.  Well actually it is the best service station in the country, maybe that's because it is the only privately owned one.  If you get the chance pop into Tebay and try their mars bar cakes, I have promised to take a batch back for the gang in the warehouse, I hope they remind me on Sunday night.

Who turned the thermostat down in Cumbria, we left Dorset at 11° this morning and a glorious sunny spring day, we arrive here and it's -1.

Sydney desperately wanted to take the photo of last weeks Friday FREEBIE winners, but I wouldn't let her use my big boy Canon! So I promised that she could do it this week, hoping that she would forget, 7 days in a 4yr olds life is a looooong time.  But no, she came running in from school clutching mummy's camera.

So the winners choosen by Bev, Sam, Mollie and myself are.....

....Friday FREEBIE winners

7 - Jennie

17 - Pam

31 - Trish

Photograph by Sydney Thay aged 4yrs

Well done girls you each have a slice of Cherry Pie coming your way, all we need are addresses please to craftyribbons@gmail.com

Thanks to everyone else who left mega wonderful comments, we had great fun reading them.

Tony and I set off on the road again tomorrow on our trip up to Scotland for the Hobbycrafts show at the SECC in Glasgow. So it has been all go today getting everything packed for the trip, we started off first thing starting up our lorry and I had a little helper.

Could I get him out of the cab, a big fat NO. He thought it was fantastic and wanted to press all the buttons, much to Tony's horror!!  But as soon as we dropped the tail lift, you could see the dilemma written all over his face, cab and streering wheel, or riding the tail lift.  Poor thing.  Any way the tail lift won!

With the stand all re-stocked and ready to be loaded, my little helper was there again. But could we get him out, another big fat NO.

All we got were big smiles.

Finally everything is packed, excluding Sam and we are ready to set off tomorrow.  What's the weather like on the way to Glasgow - will I have to take the Snow Chains!

Thanks to everyone who emailed, "Easter" Ribbon Challenge is FULL.

Tony told me no one would want to do a Easter Challenge!! He had me worried.

Sorry if you missed out on this challenge but we have another one coming up soon, so check back regularly. 

Easter ribbons will be on the website before we leave for Glasgow on Tuesday.

SORRY THIS CHALLENGE IS FULL.

That's right a NEW ribbon Challenge!

I know we have only just finished the Cherry Pie Challenge, but I HAVE to launch this challenge NOW or else I will run out of time.  Remember the delivery we had in on Friday, well it had been held up in customs for ages.  I do not think I made the matter any better when I told the customs man on the phone,  "I really really need the consignment urgently because it contains chicks and eggs......

.......no, no not real ones, they are printed on ribbon, YES all the boxes have nothing but ribbon in them". Outsiders just do not understand the NEED we have for ribbon!!

So, the NEW Ribbon Challenge # 13 is Easter.  We have never had an Easter challenge before, and the ribbons are fantastic.

We have 10 free bundles of "Easter" ribbons to give away.  All we ask in return for these ribbons are two cards or projects that use the ribbons around an Easter theme.

The ribbons can be used to enhance all forms of crafts - card making, projects, ATC's.  If you are up to the challenge, then send us an email to craftyribbons@gmail.com  marked RIBBON CHALLENGE # 13 

The first TEN to reply will be sent an email requesting address details so we can send your free ribbons!  Your finished cards and projects will be posted onto the blog and taken to Olympia and Hobbycrafts NEC Birmingham exhibtions.

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday and get clicking those computer keys or should that be clucking!!!