Sorry for the delay in our Friday Freebie posting, I have only just got into the office and I am a little bit crocked.  My right hand is strapped with tape to restrict movement of my thumb and strict instructions not to use it.  Typing has never been an art I have been very good at, and left handed typing is harder than you think!

My plans have rather gone to pot with regard the prize I had for today, so how about a pick of our January packs.  Yes we still have a few left!  Which ones would you like, you can pick 5.

Leave us a comment and tell us which ones you could give a home to and we will pick two winners on Monday from our "bingo" bag.

Thanks for all you comments yesterday for the French Macarons, I am so pleased to hear you like them.  Even though I say so myself they are super!

Have a great weekend, I am about to make friends with a bag of frozen peas! 

Ali x

Anyone fancy a French Macaron?

The famous French confectionery has arrived! Smooth, domed top, ruffled circumference macarons with their mildly moist and melt in the mouth sensation can now be found on ribbon!

Macarons are to the French, what cupcakes are to us.  I have been asked for macaron ribbons ever since we started attending French exhibitions.  I have tried for many years to come up with a suitable design, my last attempt over a year ago looked like cow pats!!  Oh they did, so I gave up.

During our time in France over the Christmas holiday I had a brain wave - Why not photograph macarons.  Super.  Rachie and Mollie picked the macaron colours for me, a box of ten cost Rachie €14.  She almost had a heart attack that's £1 per macaron she spluttered!

I was so eager to photograph the macarons that I went into the warehouse on New Years Eve - it was freezing cold as the heating had been turned off.  But boy did I have fun, after a lot of work converting files and seperating layers to produce the artwork........look what arrived this week............

........the macarons in the photo are the ones on the ribbons, how wicked is that! We have two widths 25mm and a smaller 13mm, both are grosgrain ribbon and they are EXCLUSIVE to us. You can find them here .

If you would like to be one of the first to craft with this French delicacy then leave us a comment and have some fun. We will pick several winners on Monday..........Oo la la!

Don't you just LOVE wednesday's? Say hello to wednesday  "hello wednesday" It's all downhill from now on to the weekend - yippee!!!

Sometimes they come thick and fast, others are a slow drawn out process - ideas that is!

This card idea came to me like a flash, while Rachie was trying to teach Sydney another version of this rhyme.  Something to do with potatoes and trousers!!

I simply typed the words and printed it out on to white card.  Sewed a few buttons (here) in place with white thread and that was it.  Simple idea, simple to make and simply says it all.

If you would like to use this idea then you can find the artwork here.  Please copy and enjoy.

Oh no Tony likes some ribbon!!

We received some sample lengths of ribbons in today, straight off the printing press - they were so NEW you could smell the factory!!   I showed the girls first, they made all the right noises, ooohs and ahhs.  Bev claiming she thought they were the best ribbon she had seen.  Sorry can not tell you anything about the ribbon - it is TOP SECRET you know!

I then went and showed Tony, expecting to get the normal, "No not sure about that" - "will it sell?" sort of statement and comment.  But you could have knocked me down with a feather -  He liked it. I went back into the warehouse and told the girls we had a disaster on our hands, Tony liked the ribbon.

It has been a long standing joke, that if Tony dislikes a range of ribbons, they will become best sellers.  BUT for Tony to like a range.............doom.  Rachie even went to have a word, to see if she could change his mind.  I must admit that I am not sure that anyone could dislike these designs, thay are so cute.

I struggled to get anyone to pick my Friday FREEBIE winners today, Both Mollie and Sydney were engrossed in Where's Wally.  I only have myself to blame, I got them both hooked over Christmas.  Finally Rachie told them both unless they picked a winner for me, then there would be NO crafting with Auntie Ali,   Ooooh that was a bit stronge Rachie, I like crafting with the girls!!!

Sydney picked number................................

Number 32 = Lisa Hemmmings
Wouldn't mind getting my hands on that lovely ribbon
Lisa xx

Oooops, just realised that we should have picked two winners, so as Lisa is the last number, we will also pick the first number.

Number 1 = Audrey
I love the brooch - fantastic & well done - and great to have a stamp that matches the ribbon
I'm sure I could make something moo-ving with those ribbons!
Audrey

Lisa and Audrey you both have some mooooooo cow print ribbons, all we need is an email please to craftyribbons@gmail.com with your addresses to claim your prize.  Thanks to everyones mooo comments, rather amoooosing!

Thanks for joining in with the Friday FREEBIE this week.

It is that time of year again when we produce our little leaflets to hand out at exhibitions and to thank you for your orders.  We do this twice a year, to keep things fresh.  I wanted to try something a little bit different this year, and spoke to the printers yesterday to make sure they could print it - yes no problem when can we have the artwork.   Ummm, aaaaaa, the black and white text on the reverse, tomorrow (ie today!) BUT the photos of the ribbons for the front.........................we have not even received them yet.

There was a little mess up at the factory, we got all excited when we had a delivery this week, expecting to find our NEW exciting ribbons only to open the box and find FEATHERS! Tony came in at just the wrong moment "Who ordered feathers, why do we want feathers?".  We all looked blankly at him " not me!"

Anyway, our printers have confirmed that we can get our new leaflets in time for our Paris exhibition if we get the photos to them for Thursday.............come on DHL deliver our parcel, and please, please Mr Customs man, do not hold up our delivery.  Nice thoughts everyone.

At Hobbycrafts last November we met up with Andrea, Sharon and Mel, they came to see us so many times we lost count.  On one occasion I gave them some of our cow print ribbon to have a play with.  I received this wonderful email this week..........boy have they played.

Andrea loves the Tatty Teddy collection (so does Rachie!).  Look Tatty is playing with the ribbons as well.

Ooooh this card is so cute. 

Wow look at the design on the candle.  Tatty tells us to be candle safe and remove the ribbon before lighting it.

I think this brooch is my favorite, and think it would look stunning on a denim jacket.

Thank you girls for sharing your creations, I am really pleased to hear you enjoyed playing with the ribbons.  You can find the cow print range here

Would anyone else like some cowprint ribbons to play with?  Just leave a comment and we will pick two winners on Monday.  There are still unclaimed prizes from last weeks Friday FREEBIE, so please check it out.  Any problems with Henry (Sorry I have given him a name) our over active and very hungry spam filter, he likes nothing better then eating comments.  Just email  your comment to craftyribbons@gmail.com and we will add it for you.

What ever you are doing this weekend, we hope you have fantastic time.

If you are unable to leave a comment due to our spam filters (comment disappears when screen is refreshed), please email it to craftyribbons@gmail.com
and we will add it for you. All the comments go into our "Bingo" bag and we draw a random number(s) on Monday.
Please check back to see if you have won, it is up to you to claim your prize - we do not contact you.

Well did you enjoy the blog hop?  I think several of us including me were blog hop newbies, yes I did follow the hop myself.  And for once I did not get lost! Thank you to everyone that took part, you will find the winner of the £20.00  voucher and all the candy winners on the challenge blog here.

The winner of our blog hop candy was Victoria - if you can email me at craftyribbons@gmail.com you will have some wonderful ribbons to play with Victoria.

Carol is hosting this new Challenge and the title to her theme is..........Love is Black and Red.  Oooooh Carol Black and Red, not colours I believe I have worked with before, so another new challenge for me.  Well that is what it is all about. 

Black and red, red and black I wandered the ribbon aisle. Ummm velvet for a bit of luxury, grosgrain for added texture and all my love ribbon - perfect.  So I rushed back upstairs with my little hoard and started to play. I like playing!

Well I do not think you can get more black and red then that.  Velvet ribbon can be found here, some 60 colours! The grosgrain is 16mm and you will find lots here, the all my love ribbons we launched yeaterday and are here.  So that is my entry for this new challenge, but you can find the rest of the DT creations by visiting the challenge blog here.

As always there is a prize..............and what a surprise...................Bev's bag is all Black and Red!

Enjoy.

Don't you just LOVE wednesday's? Say hello to wednesday  "hello wednesday" It's all downhill from now on to the weekend - yippee!!!

We had a visit from Janet our local blog follower on Monday.  She brought us a cake decorated with dolly mixtures.  Yum yum all gone Janet, we loved it thank you.  Janet just popped round to make sure we were all ok after last weeks little drama.  While chatting she asked if I was planning on giving any Valentine ideas.  Oooooh, err, ummmm...........not really an answer.  But I got to thinking Monday night, and came up with a few card sketches (does anyone else sketch their ideas?).

This card looks nothing like any of my sketched ideas!!! But I do really like the cleanness of the design, it works for me.

The buttons came from our Hearts Hearts Hearts button box here.  I used six stranded embroidery thread to sew the buttons to the card and then simply tied a knot and fanned out the threads. I used three different sized buttons all in the same colour.  There are lots of different shaped hearts in the button box, in a selection of colours, so you can have a good old play.

The paper is from a collection I bought in France, in a wonderful scrapbooking shop. Tony hates visiting the little village as they have opted to keep the French driving law that cars entering a roundabout or joining a road at a junction have RIGHT OF WAY.

The "all my love" ribbon is a NEW Design and can be found here. I wrapped some more embroidery thread around the card, and used the ribbon to scrunch the threads together with a simple knot.  I adjusted the ribbon a few times until I managed to get the ribbon words in the right place.

The all my love ribbon comes in a small selection of colours, I do like these ones as well..................

Come and join me tomorrow to see what I made with the red ribbon.

.............we all have our fingers crossed for a quiet week.

I have managed to get some work completed today - hooray!!

Do you remember way back in August we launched our Basics 2 Go range here of Sheer and Grosgrain ribbons.  I kept promising you that I would add the Satin colours...........well the arrival of our Exclusive Christmas ribbons...................then we started our Autumn season of exhibitions..............then the Christmas rush..............what I am trying to say is that I never got round to photographing them or getting them onto the site.

This morning they we all inputted onto the system, nearly 60 different colours in assorted widths from 7mm through to 39mm.  You can find them all here.  Phew that is one large tick completed from my to do list!!

All the Satin colours come on 20mtr rolls and start at an amazing price of only £2.50 for the 7mm and 9mm widths, that's 12½p per mtr.

So sorry for the delay, I do know that several of you have been waiting for their appearance on the site.  Please rest assured I have had a weekly nag from the girls.........all I needed was extra time!

Miss Mollie had trouble holding all the four numbers from this weeks Friday FREEBIE.  She refused all forms of help.  Mollie do it! So who are the lucky four girls?

Number 5 = Laura
Will be thinking positive thoughts for you!  Nothing else will happen!

Number 27 = Leanne
Thank heavens you are safe.

Number 34 = Ardilla
Thankfully you are safe!!!
Thanks for the chance with your cute ribbons, please, pick me!

Number 45 = Carol
oh dear, what a fright you had and I'm so glad you are both alright. New car time? Why did you have all those firemen? Have they a need for ribbons?
My microwave went strangely wrong on Thursday.... New one is coming next week. First the turntable wouldn't go round and when I opened it to see what was wrong the microwaves didn't turn off so I could be radio active now (I tried turning it off at the wall and repeating so did this a few times)!

Would love to win this sexy bag of ribbons.

Carol x

Well done girls, we have your Bev's bags all ready and waiting for you, all we need are addresses please to craftyribbons@gmail.com.  Thank you to everyone that left super messages, yes we are all fine and looking forward to a quiet week!  Tony and I have a meeting tomorrow morning in Weymouth and we laughed with the girls this afternoon, that we were going to be delayed and may not make it back to work.  It took a while for them to work out that we were talking about having fish and chips for lunch looking out to sea!!!

Have a great evening

So.................I am not the only one that likes firemen!!!  Six firemen all in our front office, I must admit it did make me go weak at the knees.

Tony and I are a little worried, this is our second near miss in just over a week. Either someone has it in for us or we are being looked after from above.  We were driving from Salisbury, in Tonys car, approaching a roundabout when he announced he had no brakes.  Ummmmm ok.  In the movies the pedal goes all floppy and when pushed nothing happens.  Well ours was the opposite, Tony could not push the pedal down.  I could see the strain in his face as he tried to apply the brakes, but nothing. Female question here -" What are we going to do?.  he said- use the handbrake!  Silly me I should have thought of that - not.

Not quite achieved as simply as expressed, but we did come to a halt.  Thankfully it was retatively early in the morning and not many other cars on the road to avoid.  We limped back to Blandford, travelling at a very sedate pace for a noisy, scary Subaru rally car!!!

They say it comes in three's.........................................................................................

Onto ribbon matters, it is Friday so it must be Friday FREEBIE time.  I did have NEW items to add to the website yesterday, but as you can imagine I did not get much work done.   Soooooo........who would like a Bev's Ribbon Bag - Mystery? 

I feel so lucky to still have all my ribbons that we have four Bev's bags to give away. (I had a very disturbed night - What if?)

Leave us a comment and we will put you into our "Bingo" bag on Monday, any problems with our spam filters eating your comments, just email it to craftyribbons@gmail.com and we will add it for you.

Have a great weekend, I think Tony and I will be staying in all weekend, out of harms way!!

When the girls arrived for work this morning there was a strange smell, they isolated the smell to the front office.

A burning horrid smell, that would not go away. We unplugged the computer, removed the photocopier, well basically removed every piece of electrical item that was not screwed down.

No good, after several hours it was apparent there was definitely something on fire or at least smoldering away.  We contacted the 101 emergency number to see if they had any advice......................they didn't answer the phone!!! Great help.

So Tony had a brain wave and thought about going to the fire station and asking..............................he came back to the warehouse followed by.................

...............oooooh we had two fire engines and what seemed like hundreds of firemen decend on our ribbon unit.

At one stage we had three firemen on their hands and knees (bottom's in the air........very nice) looking under Tony's desk with a heat seeking thingamajig.

They too were baffled, one fireman said he hated jobs like this, there was a smell but could not find it.  They checked everything we had, and all turned up fine.

They asked about the heater on the wall which we had turned off, with in seconds of it being turned back on again the smell increased and you could hear it arcing (tech talk!). We had found the problem - yippee. It was removed very quickly and taken outside.

We have been very very lucky, according to the fire crew it would have started a fire. 

A big thank you to the fire crews of Blandford - you have saved the best Ribbon warehouse in the country.