I only have one little job today - ribbon wise that is!

To hang my little Ribbon Fairy on my tree.

We wish you all a wonderful Christmas.

I am excitedly waiting for the over night ferry to arrive with Rachie, Mollie and Marten.  They are spending Christmas with us here in France.  Mollie's bedroom is all ready, she has a glowing Snowman as her night light.  It will be only the second Christmas morning I have woken up with a little one in the house.  I am not sure who is more excited Mollie or Ali..............I think it is me!!!

I have always wanted to see Santa's snowy footprints in my house........................do you think he will come...................will he find us here in France?  Oh I do hope so.

Have a magicial time, little kiddies and big kiddies alike!

I decided that the time had come, to hang up my ribbon projects, put away my buttons and do a bit of baking,  YES I did!  No Mr Tesco's did not make these.

Santa's cookies were made by Sydney and Mollie, in a wild moment last weekend I invited them both round to my house to bake.  It took them less then a trilly second to accept!! Baking with Ali was obviously a bigger treat than crafting with Ali!

Oh what a mess fun we had, Mollie thought we were rolling out play dough and when she dropped some on the floor she tried to pick it up and re-use it! Tony decided that the car suddenly needed washing and disappeared - were we really making that much noise?

It took all of Saturday afternoon, to make this little tower for Santa...........well we did have to taste the first batch.................just in case something was wrong.  They sure do taste good, yum, yum, yum.

We hope Santa will like them.

This is our last Friday FRREBIE of the year, so who wants to win a voucher?

We have 4, yes FOUR vouchers to be won.

You all know what to do, just leave us a comment telling us what a fantastic time you are having.  If you are having trouble with our spam filters, then please email your comment to craftyribbons@gmail.com (please note this may take a little longer to be added as we are away, but add it we will!). We will pick the four winners on 3rd January 2012 when we re-open the warehouse, so plenty of time to leave those comments.

We all hope you have a super Christmas weekend.

Sorry our warehouse is now closed until the 3rd January 2012 - no orders will be despatched during our closure.
Orders will be despatched on the 3rd January in strict order number rotation.
City Link option will be active again from the 1st January but will not be despatched until the 3rd.

If you need a last minute idea for a little prezzie for a crafting friend - then this could be for you.

Glass jars filled with buttons and ribbons! I would be delighted to receive these, just up my street!

The jars I found in Dorchester, the local Woolworths was taken over by it's store manager and renamed it Wellchester.  It is a super store and you can always find a treasure or two in there.  These two jars were £1.50 which i thought was magic.  I did very little work on them apart from making a picushion for the top of the ribbon jar and I stuck 3 buttons on the other jar lid. simple and quick.

Todays challenge delights are from Laura.

A little box covered in the Gingerbread tag ribbon.  Laura designed the size of the box around the tags, making a template and then cutting it from double sided colour card. But that is not all........

..it explodes when opened. WOW Laura totally fab idea - love it.

We must not forget the tree this time of year, Laura has come up with another super idea to hold those Christmas chocs.  That is just wicked Laura, will choc make it to Christmas day?

Thanks Laura for your super creations, they certainly hit the spot with me.

Oooh our little Crafty Ribbon team are all very excited......................why?  We are in the Mail on Sunday YOU Magazine today - hoooray!  Our ribbons are on pages 56 - 60 lots of red and white ribbons.

The piece de resistance is page 60, ribbon tied around a vintage jar holding roses - not any old ribbon BUT our EXCLUSIVE Swiss Dots that we designed for the New England Collection.  Thank you YOU Magazine you have made our day.

Gill has kindly sent us the link www.dailymail.co.uk/.../Interiors-Ho-Ho-home.html just incase you are unable to get the magazine. Thanks Gill x

Keep with the red and white theme - just Classic - how simple is that.

Find our gingham ribbon here

Have a wicked day.

I am always fiddling with something and this was last nights "concoction" as Tony would call it!

Simple little fabric hearts that I have machined and filled with toy stuffing, I would have liked to have added a bit of lavender, but then Tony would have sneezed through Christmas!  I used some of our NEW natural colour way Merry Christmas twill here.  To be honest I think this is the only colour we have left in stock, but as I wanted the natural, it was meant to be!  I held it in place on the hearts with french knots.  I love French knots, not everyones cup of tea, but to me they are fab.  So I just covered the hearts with French Knots.

Something a little bit different for your tree, something to treasure year after year.  Just like the fun we used to have as children, carefully unwrapping the glass baubles each year, pure magic.

Santa has sent us a Christmas cake...............honest it reads Happy Christmas love Santa x

Oooooh the hours I put into making this Christmas cake, the sieving and the weighing and then all that mixing.  No sorry that was all untrue - WHEN do I get time to bake , I am ALWAYS playing with RIBBON!

Jolly old Mr Tesco's made it for me, BUT it is my ribbon, which I am sure you will all agree makes the cake.  This is another of our EXCLUSIVE ribbons and you can find it here.

If this ribbon is a MUST HAVE for your Christmas cake (oh no forgotten the ribbon for the cake), no worries we are still despatching orders, if you get in quick - last posting date for First Class is Tuesday 20th December.  We are closing the office from 3pm on the 21st December and will be shut until the 3rd January 2012.  Sorry no orders will be despatched during our warehouse closure.  The team have worked incredibly hard, we have had a fantastic season and they all deserve a rest. I am sure you will agree they have done a super job.

It's Friday, and I have that Friday feeling..................Friday FREEBIE feeling............would anyone like one of these..............

Yes we have another two £20 vouchers to be won.
(Sarah you have not claimed yours from last week, if not claimed by Monday we will pick three winners, from the "Bingo" bag)

For a chance to win just leave us a comment, any problems with our spam filters then just email it to us at craftyribbons@gmail.com and we will add it for you.  Good luck everyone - this week could be your lucky week!  Ooooh what would you put in your shopping basket? Gone on, do tell.

I have lots planned this weekend, I hope I find enough time to get everything completed.

Everyone have a super weekend.

If you are unable to leave a comment due to our spam filters, 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.

In one of my magazines I saw that Tesco were stocking a value stocking for 50p...........................oooh I wonder what I could do with it.  That was way back in November and I totally forgot about it, until we ran out of milk last week.  I wanted a few minutes away from the warehouse so popped to Tesco and look what jumped into my basket and reduced to 33p......Billy Bargain.

Ok - it did not look like this.  To be honest it was misshaped and rather sad looking.  It was actually stuffed in with the santa hats (before I have comments from the team, NO the milk is not in the Christmas aisle). I forgot to take a before photo but I left the Tesco label on to prove it was a value stocking.

To turn my 33p stocking (sorry but you can not make a felt stocking for 33p) into a bit of a WOW effort.

I turned the stocking inside out and cut away the excess felt from the seam, and snipped into the curves and turned it the right way round.  This suddenly gave the stocking a bit more stocking shape!

Next I embroidered aound the outside with 6 strands of white embroidery thread with blanket stitch.  Making sure I pulled the seam as tight as poss to create a better shape.  For the tree decoration I used scraps of ribbon and pinned them in place (slide a rolled up newspaper inside the stocking so you do not pin through to the back).  Once I had a row of ribbons I drew a pencil line through the centre which I then back stitched on top of. 

The gold star is also ribbon, stuck on top of some card and cut into a star shape.  I am very pleased with my value stocking and it gave me an evening of play.

Leigh has been playing with our ribbons too.

I am sure I have told you before but Leigh helped me make my first ever card, a few eons ago!!  Up until then I was a classic embroiderer, spending hours ribbon embroidering pictures.  Within a few hours we had made a box of cards and what a giggle we had.  We do not meet up as much as we would like, as Leigh lives over the other side of the country but we hope to see each other between Christmas and New year for a good old catch up.  Leigh your bow card is a classic, and yes I did fluff the holly bow for you!

When Leigh and I met in the summer, I told her about all our new ribbons, but only had drawings to show her - they were so TOP SECRET!  She was the first I sent the pre samples to, to get a reaction. She LOVED them especially this ribbon (sorry sold out).  How simple and elegant is this card.

Ummm I think I have photographed this card the wrong way up, no wonder it would not stand!!!! It was blowing a hoooly that day. Sorry Leigh -great card.

I am going back to school today - wish me luck!!

It is amazing what ribbon can do. This wreath had no focal point and looked rather sad. So out came my bowdabra here and a roll of red ribbon here - bowmaker and ribbon to the rescue!

Four ribbon loops either side of my bowdabra some magic cord here in the centre and the bow was complete.  I simply attached it to the wreath with some wire.  What a difference it made,

I was in a bit of a rush, running late on Sunday.  I had promised to decorate two wreaths by adding some ribbon.  But I was due for a family meal 150miles away in Oxfordshire with the wreaths and I was still in Dorset. So my assistant came to the rescue and took the photos while I completed the second wreath. Thanks Tony.

Tracey and Paul like their red ribbons, here are the two cards they made for the Top 5 Christmas ribbon Challenge.

I do love all the embellishments you guys use.  they make the cards so tactile and fun. This washing line ribbon has been a top design over the years. Super dupa santa Tracey and Paul.

Very stylish card, I love the little red bow that compliments the little bows on the silver tree - clever idea Tracey or Paul.  I do think that red has been the top selling colour of Christmas 2011.

It was great to catch up with Tracey and Paul at the Hobbycraft show back in November - wow that feels a long time ago. We hope you both have a fantastic Christmas and that you will join in with our challenges next year. DO NOT panic I am not going to launch another challenge yet.  I have one in mind but not until Christmas has past.

That will get a few of you guessing!!!!

I can not bear waste, and keep almost everything..............just in case it is needed at some point in the future!

I have had these spare orange slices knocking about my kitchen since making the fragrant door hanger a couple of Sundays ago.  I have already rescued them from the bin once, Tony decided they were rubbish.  So I knew that unless I used them soon they would disappear again.

Mollie and I were doing facetime the other evening and I spied several rolls of raffia ribbon by Rachies fire place.  Rachie borrowing stock again - tut tut.

Anyway it gave me an idea to use up my overs of oranges and cinnamon.

That is one present complete, I have decided not to wrap my presents the same way this year, but be a little different with each one.  This one sure does smell good! 

We stock raffia in only three colours - emerald, shiny gold and dull gold.  I used the dull gold as it was perfect for my natural look, you can find them all here.  They are £10 for 100yd rolls - so perfect for all that wrapping that still needs to be done!

I have another collection of cards from our Top 5 Christmas Ribbon Challenge this time from Kelly.

I adore the strong purple theme you have used on this card Kelly.  It is a perfect match for the let it snow ribbon. I have to thank everyone that purchased this Let it snow range, it was so popular we had a second production run.  Although we had some super colours printed, we are almost sad to say the RED out sold all the others.  There are far more traditional crafters then we thought!

Oh what a sweetie Kelly although I would not want to be outside in the snow with shorts on, and look at that list for Santa!  This a fun card Kelly and truly special.  We hope you enjoyed the challenge and have been following the advent inspiration.

I still have more challenge goodies to share, so please do not worry if yours have not appeared yet.

Hope you were not blown away yesterday and stay safe today.

Boy was I having a bad morning.  I have a very busy week ahead, so I decided to try and sort out the balance of the advent ideas that have been whizzing around in my head.  The next minute the computer started publishing my thoughts, the curser was acting on its own, and I was locked out of the blog. It must have been bad because the office called to ask if I was ok!

Anyway - my Christmas cards.  I confess I do not make very many, but they have to be easy and quick to make, oh and they must use ribbon.  Being part of our Challenge blog here, I am having to force myself out of my comfort zone.  So stamping! Ummh stamping! Scares the life out of me! I do not own any stamps, inks or anything like that so................ I borrowed a set of ink pads and some stamps from Rachie to create these. Please do not all laugh at once, I do have feelings.

Simple - elegant - yes? - maybe? i used our NEW sketch Trees and Stars Ribbon here. After the row going on between Kirstie and I can not remember her name, I will have to be very careful who I send them too!   Nahhh I like love crafting, so will send them to all with a little kiss.  If they do not like handmade creations, they can always put them in the bin.  Rock on Kirstie, as she has brought crafts to TV without being on a shopping channel, she gets our thumbs up.

Without crafting we would have no challenges.  These creations are from Sandie, and boy has she come up with some super ideas.

Decorated milk carton with little choccy snowmen, hope they are milk chocolate Sandie!

Little tiny snowmen all having fun.

A perfect little album for those special Christmas photos.

Great combination of colours Sandie, it all works so well together. I love the little December insert.

It took me a while to realise the little white hats on the side of the tag is our ribbon.  Cor I really am having a durrrrh day.

Beautiful Sandie, I do hope you enjoyed crafting with the ribbon, you really have created some super ideas - thank you.

One last thing before I sign off for the day...................our Friday FREEBIE winners.

Winners are...................13 and 29

Number 13 = Sarah Eatwell
oh my lord that is just amazing, love it love it love it.

Number 29= Rachel
Love Judi's filmstrip card with icicles over black - stunning. Well done Judi!
And love your new cupcake too, especially with the eyelash ribbon. Guess what? Change to subtle pink and lilac and I've got yet more inspiration for my daughter's bedroom!!!
And... thanks for a chance to win another voucher. You're too good to us!
Big hugs,
Rachel xx

Congratulations girls you have 20 smackers to spend in our shop.  All we need is an email from you to craftyribbons@gmail.com so we can send you details. Thank you to everyone that left us a super comment, they have been much read and enjoyed.

Hope you are all safe and warm, take care.