What do you do with..... 

....a ribbon pack of peach ribbons?

How about making a fresh peachey card for someone who is under the weather.

As with all my cards the main focus is the ribbon - well what else!!  This is my first gate fold card, regular visitors to the blog will know that I am NOT a card maker, but dabble in it from time to time.

The little flowers are just made by gathering up, to form little rosettes and putting a knot of ribbon in the centre before securing the gathers.  The ribbon is "Ballet Ribbon" - you know for tieing up ballet shoes.  It has a really soft texture, to get the darker shading on the edges of the flowers, I just dabbed them with an ink pad. I added a small sheer bow at the bottom and tied the card together with a jacquard rose ribbon. 

All the ribbons for this card can be found in our Peach Pack which is in the January Pack Sale for only a £1.00 Look HERE  These ribbon packs are amazing value and are selling out fast.

I made this card for Sydney who is having an operation today to remove the 3 pins in her elbow.  I went to hospital with her yesterday and she was very brave, telling me which way to go to the X-ray dept, as if I was being silly for not knowing!!!!  I have promised her a mega painting session when her arm is better, we went off to the shops to buy new brushes and a big pad of paper so that we are ready.

Our thoughts are with you Syd.

What do you do with......

.....a pack of Orange Crush Ribbons?

These are the ribbons that Sydney and I used to make these roses for her Mummy back in March for Mothers Day.

I was reminded about them the other day when I went and did a bit of babysitting.  Bev still has the Roses in a vase in her hallway - can't do that with fresh roses!!!!  I showed you how to make Ribbon Roses HERE.  Just insert a wire into the stem of the rose and wrap with florist tape to make them into stem roses.  Put several together to create a bunch - simple.

What can you do with a red pack of ribbons!

Oooh! lots!  With Valentines Day just round the corner, (Sorry had planned on using the Valentine pack from the January Pack Sale for this project, but we are sold out.) This Red Pack of ribbons (can be found HERE), not only is a bargain at £1.00 but has multi uses, Valentine - Christmas - Birthday, Parties - I could go on and on!!

Can you guess what these little bags are made from? 

Thats right envelopes.  We all have the odd envelope lying around, well I do -loads.  I am not sure where they all come from, I can not remember the last time I bought a coloured envelope!! With a few folds, a hole punch, scissors and some gorgeous ribbon you can have a gift come party bag in seconds.

Seal the envelope down and wait a few seconds while it sticks.  Fold along three edges of the envelope, the distance will depend on the size of the envelope you are using.

Cut along the edge without the fold with a pair of fancy scissors.  I have a huge bag of these scissors and this is the first time I have used them - naughty, naughty Ali!

Punch two holes on the top edge of the bag so that you can thread the ribbon handles through.  Decorate the envelope any way you like.  I added faux stitching with a red pen, and then a ribbon flower.  Simple!

Open the bag up and put your hand inside, work the folds with your fingers, while opening the envelope out into the bag shape, I hope you get the picture. I tried taking a photo of this stage, but holding the heavy Canon with one hand, while the other was stuck up an envelope, didn't work!!!

Sydney came into the warehouse yesterday after school, and as usual straight into my workroom.  She saw the bag on my desk, "Oh, that's pretty is it for me? And the sweeties?"

What do you do with.... a pack of ribbons?

As you know our annual January Pack SALE is on at the moment - all packs £1.00, a massive saving on our normal price of £5.00. I know you all enjoyed the countdown to Christmas we had last month, so I thought I would give you a few ideas to use some of the packs.  I will not promise a posting a day, just depends what inspiration I get!!!

The project today can be made from the Victorian Ribbon Pack.  This pack has soft muted sheer ribbons, wire edge golds and a shot taffeta green which is perfect for leaves.

I decorated one of our selection boxes with ribbon flowers and leaves, but you can use the same idea for cards, summer straw hats.  So here goes, lets hope you can follow my instructions -

Cut a 40mm wide ribbon to about 40cms, this is a sheer but you can use any ribbon.  (If it is wire edged then remove the wire from the edge to be pinned.) Fold the ribbon in half and mark with a pin, fold in half again and mark with pins. This will give you 4 equal sections, each section is a petal. If you want a five petal flower then fold into 5 equal sections etc. 

Start at the top edge of the ribbon with out the pins.  Secure your thread, give it a tug to make sure it will not come undone.  Sew small running stitches down the cut edge of the ribbon (not too close), along the bottom edge to the first pin, up from the pin to the top edge of the ribbon and back down the pin again.  You should have created  a U shape of sewing. Repeat to the end of the ribbon so you have 4 u's -  uuuu 

Gently pull the thread to gather the ribbon, pull it as tight as you can.

Tie a knot in a small length of ribbon, and enclose the flower around the knot.

Secure the two ends of the flower together.  You only want to join two small pieces of ribbon, the piece where you secured the thread and the piece where the last stitch was sewn.  This is called "kissing the ribbon" i.e a small peck!!!  Secure with a few stitches, making sure you keep the gathers in tightly around the knot of ribbon. (I hope you understood all of that!)  If you feel the centre knot is loose then just put a few extra stitches in to secure it.

If you did your flower will look like this.  Play with it slightly to give it some shape.  try different widths and lengths of ribbon and see what you come up with.  I used these flowers on Mollies scrapbook Page, you can see it by CLICKING HERE

For the leaves, I used a 15mm wide ribbon 12cms long.

Fold the ribbon in half.

Fold both edges up at right angles and secure with pins.  It should look like a little boat.

Sew all the way around the outside of the ribbon.

Pull the thread so the ribbon gathers, not to much.  Secure with a stitch or two.

Open up the ribbon and you will find the leaf!! Magic!!

Thank you for such a postive response to our first ribbon challenge of the year, first time I have closed it the same day as launching it, although I must do something about my counting - somehow I can not seem to stop at 10, Tee Hee.  It was almost a 50/50 for traditional and contemporary.  I love ribbon challenges when the goodies start to arrive back.  It's like Christmas again, and all the parcels are MINE!!!!

In my eyes there is only one thing you can do with ribbon on Christmas Eve.  Actually it is the ONLY day of the whole year that you can use ribbon in this way........

.....to tie Rudolph’s carrots together!!!

We all wish you a very Merry Christmas and hope you receive everything you wish for.

Nearly nearly there!  Are you all ready?

I cannot believe that I have made a post everyday this month, shown you a different idea or project all using ribbons, BUT I have run out of days!!! I still have lots of ideas that I could share with you.  It was great to read Kim’s comment last night that she had been decorating her candles with ribbons, before reading the countdown post. It just goes to show that ribbon is just so versatile.

I have spent the day wrapping Individual Christmas Cakes, I confess I did not make the cakes, but I have decorated them. The cakes are for our French neighbour’s, they are only small but make great gifts, a little bit of England.  We found out by accident a few years ago the French are rather partial to rich English fruit cake!!

Gathered up wire edge ribbon around the cake.

Add a few ribbon roses and buds on top and you have an individual gift.

Tony is heartbroken, no really.  We forgot to bring his Christmas Pudding with us!!!! He reckons that it will just not be the same without pudding. And if course it was MY fault – I hate the stuff.

I gather the weather is pretty bad back home, please do all take care.  I do have one last posting tomorrow, I hope you will all have time to pop by for a quick read.

Candles seem to add a little extra magic and sparkle at Christmas time. Have you thought about decorating them with ribbon. Not so the ribbon is anywhere near the naked flame – candle safe remember.

Church style candles are perfect to decorate.

Wrap assorted ribbons around the bottom sections of the candles and secure in place with a few pins.

Why not coordinate your Christmas table this year.

Tie matching ribbon onto napkins to make them look extra special.

No Church candles, then how about tea lights. A ribbon stuck around the metal case just adds that little bit of magic.

Sydney had a padded sling fitted today, she was finding it very difficult with the weight of the plaster cast. It goes from her knuckles all the way to under her arm, and is not a light weight version. The plaster was so heavy that poor Bev was having to walk around with Syd supporting its weight!!!

The sling has brought Syd back to almost normal, Bev had to hang up quickly as Syd had pinned poor Sam in the bunny cage!!!!!

Sorry got side lined – Crackers.

You can have so much fun decorating crackers with ribbon. Wrap it, Knot it or Stick it, ribbon can be used on every section of a cracker. Skinny ribbons, Wide ribbons and even Wire Edge ribbons can be used.

Just play with a pile of ribbons and see what you come up with.

It’s much warmer here in Brittany then back home, Rachie said the warehouse was freezing this morning.  Thanks to the winners of the Friday FREEBIES, emailing us your address details. I confirm your parcels were sent out by First Class post, so should reach you time to go under the Christmas Tree.

Not sure whether to bake some mince pies for Tony or curl up and watch a movie........ummmm!

Today has not turned out as planned.  Little Sydney had an accident yesterday afternoon and was taken to hospital with a damaged elbow.  She has had a operation this morning and is recovering.  The poor little thing has had to have 3 pins put into her elbow to rejoin it all together.  No further news at mo, I am going to the hospital later.  It is all rather distressing. 

We have cancelled our Christmas party which was today, and will have it in the new year. Everyone has promised they will still get dressed up and we can have crackers and christmas fun!

These are the prezzies I have been making for the girls. 

Talk about a tight wad Boss, giving them recycled cans!!! Ahh but you do not know what is inside!

During the week I offered to make lunch for everyone - they just managed to stop themselves from falling over! 

What I really wanted were the cans, making lunch was the only way I could think of, of getting the cans opened without using the ring pull - clever.

I then washed them out and dried them well.  I covered the inside with some matching paper, filled the can with goodies (can't tell as the girls have not seen these.)  I had planned on putting them on the table instead of name cards at the party.  I then stuck the bottom of the can back on with hot glue.

The fun part was decorating them with ribbons!!!  Trees and Santa are all ribbon, stuck onto card and cut out.

Dilemma - Do I leave these on their desks for Monday morning or keep them for the new party.  Hoo! Hum!

Ooooh! It's getting closer!  Sydney came round after school yesterday to help me hang our Christmas cards in the warehouse, we have had quite a few - thank you all for sending them, they are great.  And lots of them have ribbon on! Yeah!

Sydney and I wandered around the warehouse, trying to decide where to put the cards so everyone could see them.  Not sure she understood what we were doing but she played along with me quite happily. Ahh! We had found the just the right place for them.

This is a big white wall at the side of the stairs leading up to my "Play room".  We are open plan, so it can been seen from all around the warehouse.  There is a huge hand painted mural above the cards that we commissioned for an exhibtion stand yonks ago, it catches everyones attention so the cards will not be missed.

I held the ribbon while syd cut it into lengths, she can be quite bossy and likes to pick the best jobs!  We pinned the ribbons onto the wall, Syd holding the bottom edge while I did the top - remember we are working on the stairs.  I then tied the bows while Syd munched her way through some Chocolate coins she had found in my room.  We attached the bows to the lengths of ribbons with a few pins and started to hang the cards onto the ribbon with small gold pegs.

They go from the top to the bottom and we think they look amazing.

Thought I would get todays ribbon posting in early, I have the day to myself and I have lots of jobs that need to be finished.  The main one being the prezzies I am making for the girls, the only thing I have made so far are the tags!!

Have a good day.