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

Poppies bring a splash of colour to summer, to some people they are weeds, to others they are a scarlet blanket of beautiful wild flowers. And to others they remain the symbol of the tragedy of war, whatever they symbolise to you - enjoy their simplicity.

I have been passing these poppies on the way to work for the past week or so, they are happily inhabiting a area of waste land, brightening up the space. They were the inspiration that I needed for this project. Ribbon poppies are so simple to make and can be added to almost anything - garment, bags, corsages, cushions, cards or in this case a freebie photo frame from a perfumery company!  I hate wasting anything, but really did not want their logo displayed around my photos, so I did a bit of disguising.

Heres how you make a Ribbon Poppy.

1.  Gather the bits that you need - wire edge ribbon in red, I have used this 25mm sheer ribbon (can be found HERE), black ribbon, toy stuffing or cotton wool, needle and thread and scissors.

2.  You need four lengths of 25mm red ribbon 10cms long, remove the wire from one side of the ribbon. 

3.  Put a knot in the bottom of the thread and secure it to the ribbon edge with the wire in.  Sew down the selvedge edge, along the bottom edge of the ribbon, without the wire, and then back up the other selvedge edge.  This will appear like a boat shape.

4.  Gather up your stitching so you create a petal, secure with a few stitches.

5.  Repeat steps 2, 3 and 4 for petal number 2.  While the thread is still attached to the petal, sew it to petal number 1. You want the petals to slightly over lap each other.

6.  Repeat steps 2, 3 and 4 for petal number 3.  Once again while the thread is still attached to the petal, sew it to petal number 2. Remember you want the petals to slightly over lap each other.

7.  Repeat steps 2, 3 and 4 for petal number 4.  Sew the last petal in place.  You may have a large messy centre, but do not worry this will be covered.

8.  Sew a circle in a piece of 39mm black ribbon, cut away the excess ribbon to leave a small selvedge edge.

9.  Gather up the thread and put a small amount of toy stuffing or cotton wool into the centre of the ribbon circle.  Gather this up and secure. This is the centre of your poppy.

10.  Cut away the wired edge from a piece of black ribbon.  Gently ease out the long fibres and put to one side. These are the little black stamens you find in poppies.

11.  Put a small amount of contact glue (I use a hot glue gun) into the centre of the poppy. Place the long fibres over the centre (don't worry if they are too long), and place the black poppy centre on top. With sharp scssors cut away any long black fibres to give the poppy a good look.

To finish off the frame I used Saddlle Stitch Ribbon, in this really rich red (can be found HERE) and just loosely gathered it.

Enjoy the poppies.

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

I changed my plans for this weeks Hello Wednesday project after receiving several e-mails and lots of comments about my ribbon men - we call them Clown Poms! Some of you may have got a sneak peak of this on Monday, I was setting up the page ready to add to it over the last few days and I published it instead of saving it for later. Silly me.

I know you do wont believe me BUT they are really easy to make.  A circle of fabric, a length of ribbon and thread, a few bits of stuffing and you are away.

Do you remember the old fashioned wooden cloths pegs? Well this is what I use as the Clown Pom's head.  You can paint a face direct onto the peg but it sometimes "bleeds" into the wood, so I always dip mine into varnish and let it dry before I paint.  Like many things I do, I do not paint well, so I practice on some paper first to get the face I like. Cut the peg down to size - Tony does this bit for me (not brilliantly)  but thank you Tony.

Gather all the bits you will need around you - fabric circle about 15cm diameter, a peg head, white pom, stuffing, needle and thread and finally the striking Deckchair Stripe Ribbon which can be found HERE.

Double up your thread and put a knot in the bottom, sew all the way round the outside edge with running stitches, they do not have to be tiny!

Pull the thread to slightly gather the fabric, insert a little toy stuffing to the bottom, you do not want the peg sitting directly onto the fabric.  I added a teaspoon of lavender (can be found HERE) this can be left out, but it makes him smell great!

Insert the peg so it sits on the lavender. (Did you know that lavender will keep it's scent for years).  Every now and again give it a squeeze and it will release it's natural oils.  If you are using lavender from your garden, pop the flower heads into the freezer for 24hours BEFORE you use it.  This will kill any bugs and will stop them from chewing through your crafty creations.)

Insert more toy stuffing around the peg, try and keep the peg in the centre of the fabric, otherwise the clown pom willl be lopsided!

Pull the thread tight around the peg and secure with a few stitches.

This is our Deckchair Stripe Ribbon (HERE) you will need 25cm for the ruffle, fold over the raw edge and secure the thread at one end.

Sew along the edge of the ribbon, with running stitches.

Gather up the ribbon and place over the top of the clown poms head.  Tuck the raw end of the ribbon under the folded end and pull the thread tight.  Space out the ruffles and the secure the thread with a few stitches, the ruffle should be tight around the peg.

It should look like this!

Cut 5cm piece of ribbon for his hat, it needs to fit around your clown pom head.  My finger is the same size as the peg (handy) so I make the hat on my finger!!!  Fold the ribbon over and sew to secure in place.

Sew the two ends together.  Secure with a few stitches.  Next sew small stitches around the top edge of the ribbon.

Gather up the thread and the ribbon will scrunch together to form a little hat.  Secure with a few stitches and sew on a white pom, this will hide your stitching!

Glue the hat onto the top of the peg and you have a cheeky Clown Pom staring back at you.

Hope you enjoy making these little ribbon guys and enjoy your Clown Pom Day.

Before I go for today, Bev was so inspired by Gails Strawberry & Cream card that she designed a NEW Bev's Bag around the theme.

Strawberries & Cream

You can find Bev's Ribbon Bag  - Strawberries & Cream by clicking HERE  As you know Bev's Bags are normally £5.00 already a super bargain, BUT you can order it for just £4.25 TODAY How? By joining in with Crafty Ribbons sunshine offer - place an order today Wednesday 23rd and by typing    longest day     into the special voucher box during the check out process we will give you a 15% discount off your order.  And there is more, if you know the answer to the FREE POSTAGE question you can go back into the special voucher box and enter it and you will get FREE POSTAGE as well.

Ummm! Butterflies and Strawberries that makes you think of summer, or at least warm days. 

Noreen was one of our Friday FREEBIE butterfly ribbon winners and she has kindly sent in some cards to show us what she has made with the ribbons.  She must have loved the ribbons, they only arrived with her on Saturday and these cards were e-mailed through to me on Sunday, quick work Noreen! I think the cards are wonderful - do you want to see them?

This lime ribbon is just so "in" at the moment and teams up beautifully with this crushed pink.

I think it is wicked the way you card makers use the same layout and change the colours. Looks stunning Noreen, so pleased you liked the Friday FREEBIE ribbons. If you want some of these butterfly ribbons you can find them all HERE. We are already sold out of two designs!

You have seen the Butterflies, what about the Strawberries, well it is Wimbledon this week, so bring out the Strawberries and Cream Gail.

Wooo hoo that looks fantastic Gail.  This Strawberry ribbon has been out of stock for a while, but it is back in and can be found HERE.  Gail has sent this photo to the Cross Stitch Magazine where the chart came from, they have said her card will be going into next months copy.  Keep us informed Gail and we will buy a copy.

If you have any cards or projects that you have used our ribbon on and would like to share with us, please email a photo to craftyribbons@gmail.com We all love to see other peoples work and we must continue to spread the word about how WONDERFUL RIBBON IS!!

Sometimes you only need small lengths of ribbon, just for a little knot tie or a bow.  Our scrap bags are perfect for this (HERE), these bags are mixed with all types of ribbons, from Sheer to Christmas, 5mm to 60mm! BUT what if you only want 3mm satins? 

Well ....it has taken us a long time to build up the stock of scrap ribbons for these NEW 3mm Satin Scrap bags!! You can find them HERE and they are only £1.00  Please REMEMBER they are SCRAP, the lengths can vary from 1cm through to 40-50cms.  We weighed a bag just to give us an idea of meterage, if you were to put all the ribbons together end to end you would have approx 120 mtrs for £1.00 That's another Crafty Ribbons BARGAIN!!!

Don't forget our little bit of sunshine offer - place an order today Tuesday 22nd or Wednesday 23rd and by typing    longest day     into the special voucher box during the check out process and we will give you a 15% discount off your order.  And there is more, if you know the answer to the FREE POSTAGE question you can go back into the special voucher box and enter it and you will get FREE POSTAGE as well.

Have a super day

Woooohoooo!!  We received one of our ribbon deliveries yesterday - yippeee!

What do you think of our NEW Deckchair Stripe Ribbons?  We think they are fantastic ribbons and such awesome summer colours.

25mm grosgrain with WOVEN stripes that run along the length of the ribbon.  You can find them all HERE 

Bring the beach into your home and projects with these Deckchair Stripe Ribbons.

Talking of stripes, it's that time of year again - Dorchester Carnival.  We are not as much involved this year as there is no Carnival Queen, so no float to cover in ribbon bows.  Although we have been doing a few bits and pieces for the Carnival team.  Rachie and Marten (Rachies husband) are both on the committee so where they go little Miss Mollie must follow.

All Mollie was missing was her Yellow Jacket - last years was way too small for her.  She is hard at work here trying to make the crayons stay in the pot while she pushes the trolley.

I dusted off my sewing machine for this little jacket, expecting to just whiz around the ribbon.  No such luck, sewing machine had the hump (may be I need to use it more often).  Tony took it to our local repair shop on Monday only to be told they couldn't look at it this week because of the World Cup.  Come On!  What has the World Cup got to do with mending sewing machines!!

Rachie had brought in a large yellow jacket, which I cut down to fit Mollie, then I hand sewed the luminous pink reflective ribbon around all the edges.  As you can see we have been unable to remove it from Mollie all day!

Have fun at the Carnival guys.

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

Dino Day for a little boy - our Sam.  He just loves this T-shirt.  I hung it up in the front office and waited to see who noticed it. Sam was the first, all he kept doing was roaring and saying me!  I think I had a winner.

So off to the park we went to take some photos. Oh I did have some fun!

The t-shirt was just plain white, another bargain at 2 for £1.50.  I had the green fabric in my stash, so I ironed on a sheet of double sided bondaweb to it and drew the dino shape.  I cut the shape out and removed most of the bondaweb backing paper, just leaving a 1cm strip along the Dinosaurs back, this is where the ribbon slides in. 

I positioned this onto the t - shirt and ironed the dinosaur in place, once it had cooled I removed the remaining paper from the back spine and started making the ribbon spikes.

I found grosgrain ribbon was the best for this, it produced a nice shape you can find some HERE.  I tried with satin but it keep sliding, so I thought it would be a nightmare to sew.

Folding the ribbon is easy.

You can use different widths, this one is 25mm.  Hold the ribbon between your fingers, with the wrong side of the ribbon facing you.

Fold the ribbon in  your right hand downwards to create a right angle.  The ribbon should have a long straight fold at the top.

Next fold the ribbon in your right hand, so that it now sits on the ribbon in your left hand.  It will have created a triangle point.  You are looking at the BACK of the ribbon point.

Turn the ribbon the correct way round to see the full effect, a nice smooth triangle.  You can iron this if you wish, but I wanted mine to be more free and to stand proud on the t-shirt.

I made the triangles one at a time, then slid them under the green fabric of the Dino and pinned in place.  I repeated this simple process until his back was covered in spikes.

Place a cloth on top of the Dinosaur and gently iron it, try not to move the iron around too much, you may move the spikes.  You just want the remainding bondaweb to adhere to the ribbon.

To make sure it would all remain in place I hand stitched around the Dino shape with 3 strands of embroidery thread.  A small doll button for his eye and he is finished.

This all may sound long winded but in all it took less then an hour. Sam is so chuffed with his t-shirt, he adores his Dino.

Enjoy your Dino Day.

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

This Hello wednesday is for all those Dads out there, the project can be made by kids, just perfect for Fathers Day.  We all know how difficult it is to make male cards and gifts, this one is so simple it is almost unbelieveable!

I had no problem wrapping the ribbon around the prezzie it was just like tieing a tie on your self!!  Although it has been a long time since I last wore a tie - urrmmm a school tie!!!!  I used 40mm wire edge ribbon, this spotty one was just perfect to go with the brown paper of the present. The ribbon is from our Woodland Collection and can be found HERE.

The note book and card were both made in the same way.  I stuck a patterned paper onto the front of a plain white card, then I cut a slit in the card from the top edge and folded the corners back to create the shirt collar effect. 

This jotter note book I found in Tesco's for 35p - bargain. It is one of their value range and the front cover was very flimsy, so I just stuck white card onto the cover, before I stuck on my shirt paper.

The tie was a little harder to tie, as you have nothing to tie around! So here are a few easy steps to follow.

Fold the ribbon as shown.

Tuck the right hand ribbon, through the loop.

Pull it all the way though the loop, so it begins to look like a tie.  You will note that the left hand ribbon has scrunched up, this is ok.

Tuck the left hand ribbon also through the loop, making sure the front face of the ribbon is facing upwards.

When you have this amount of ribbon left, stop pulling the ribbon through but push the remaining ribbon into the knot.

Keep tucking it in until you can no longer see it.

Trim the ribbon ends to finish the tie.

This grosgrain ribbon was just what I was looking for to go with my shirt paper and I found it in our Bargain Basket (HERE), it's only 30p per mtr.  That's another great Bargain from Crafty Ribbons!

Hope you have fun this wednesday, enjoy the day.

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

No, I have not gone mad, well maybe a little, it's just that wednesday is just another day of the week. kicking it's heels. Wednesday's need celebrating, it's a special day - the middle of the week. 

Crafty Ribbons is going to say "hello wednesday" every week, it may be a project, a simple card idea a photo or even a thought of the day. Come and check out our wednesday's and see how special they can be.

A simple make over - the white dress was a bargain at £6.00 and was perfect for my little project.  I do not believe you could make this cotton dress for £6, I used to supplement my income at college by making christening outfits, little frillie dresses with matching frillie knickers and then old fashion mop caps, they used to take me ages.

The frill was made using our wire edged taffeta ribbon (can be found HERE), I just pulled the wire out of the edges, so that it would be washable. You could use a satin ribbon but as this is a much thicker ribbon it would not have produced such a frillie frill!  I took a very long piece of 6 stranded thread, (long enough to go all the way round the dress and more) and stitched a running stitch all the way along one edge of the ribbon, gathering it up as I went.  Once the ribbon was fully gathered, I just sewed into onto the dress by hand.

This leaf garland is just wicked, I have been itching to use it (can be found HERE).  With matching thread I hand stitched it down the centre with a simple running stitch.  The flowers were made using the same wire edge taffeta ribbon (wire removed).  The flower is in the same style as the sheer ones we made earlier in the year - refresh your memory by clicking HERE! I added embroidery thread tufts just by knotting pink and lilac thread together to the centre panel of the dress.

Last few details, I hand stitched around the pockets just so they would stand out a bit. Lastly I tied a couple of little bows to trim the top of the pockets.  Simple bow instructions can be found HERE.

Just goes to show what you can do with a few bits of ribbon!!  I hope you enjoy the dress as much as Mollie does, she refused to take it off yesterday!!!!

That's better BT is playing ball today, although I would say we are not at full speed - but hey ho anything is better then nothing!

It has taken me a while but we have added all the 25mm sheer ribbons to the website, remember the ones I used on these...

....you can find them all HERE. We have a few colours that we only have limited stock of, so we have put them in the Bargain Basket.  At only 25p per mtr they are a TRUE bargain! Grab them while stocks last.

So here goes to our Part 2 of Ribbon Challenge # 15 - Full Blooms.  We have stunning corkers for you, everyone has pulled out all the stops and come up with some really different goodies. All the ribbons used on these challenge goodies are from our Full Blooms range and can be found HERE.

Look at this wicked note book sent in by Leslie (woo hooo, I love notebooks!) Ribbon flower at the bottom and a ribbon keyring tag at the top - great fun.

This one is perfect for my bag, you just can not leave home without a notebook!  I love the way Leslie has cut the motif from the ribbon to create the focal point on the front cover.

Ooooh this is very trendy, isn't it sweet.  I am sure I know a little girl who would love to get her little mitts on this. I think you have a winner here Jan.

This card is BIG and bursting with colour, flowers, buttons and lace and a perfect colouring to the image.  I wish I could colour like that Jan - I know, practice and practice.

What a beautiful corsage Jan, a safety pin sewn on the back, this will brighten any jacket adding style. I never thought of making one of those for the Flower Week - A Bloom A Day.  Never mind there is always another time.

I was doing a bit of blog hopping the other night and I came across this delightful ribbon coloured box, "ooh I really like that, it looks like my ribbon, it IS my ribbon" - this was before I realised I was on Carol's blog. Silly me.  All I can say is that it is soooo much better when you have this beauty in your hands, photo's do not do it justice. You do not want it back Carol - do you?

This large flower ribbon (you can find it HERE) is just perfect for cutting up! What a delightful colour combo Carol just perfect for little Tilda.

What a unique colour collection, it is stunning Carol.  Never seen this little character before, is he new Carol?

I hope I have got your taste buds a popping and you are all rushing off to start designing with ribbon.  There is more to come, I will share again tomorrow, I can not believe that it will be Friday again. We do still have 2 unclaimed prizes from last weeks Friday FREEBIE, so please get in touch with us craftyribbon@gmail.com otherwise we may have to give them away!!

See you tomorrow.

Wow it's Friday again, what a busy week we have had with all those blooms. We have no flowers or blooms for this weeks Friday FREEBIE, but a bag of spots - no they are not contagious!!

The spots are in..... 

.....Bev's NEW Ribbon Bag. It's my birthday on Monday and I will be hummmcough4th, as a birthday special we are giving away 4 Bev's Bags for this weeks Friday FREEBIE prizes. So 4 prizes up for grabs, all you have to do for a chance to win, is leave a comment - simple.

Normal blurb - 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.

I have the last of our ribbon blooms from Flower Week - A Bloom A Day.  I have been struggling to come up with a name for this flower.   I saw it being demonstrated at Version Scrap in Paris a few weeks back, not understanding what they were saying I just had to watch and take it all in!  They were making smaller versions for scrapbook pages, so would be suitable for cards, just use narrower ribbon.

I do take the strangest things out for a walk with me.  Tony thought we went to the beach yesterday, for a stroll and take in the fresh salty air -   narrrrrgh I wanted to take a photo!!!

As you guys know I am not a card maker, so I like to make different things, as Bev told me they are "Deffo different", she did add that they were wicked and fun - just perfect for the beach.

As I have no idea what the real name for this creation  is I have decided to call it Mille Feuille Bloom - (thousand layer Bloom) 

Mille Feuille Bloom

1.  Gather the bits you will need - scissors, clothes pegs or bull dog clips and 23mm sheer ribbon in different colours, I used 3 cream, pink and purple.  These ribbons are going onto the site later today.

2.  Cut the ribbon into 17cm lengths you need 30 of these.  Plus cut two extra pieces at about 30cm. All of these are for one shoe.

3.  Layer the ribbons ontop of each other, mix the colours as you go.  Hold in place with a peg.

4.  Repeat on the other end - you should only have the two longer lengths of ribbons left.

5.  Lay the stack of ribbon over the flip flop and tie in place with 1 of the longer lengths.  Tie a second knot to secure.

6. Repeat step 5 with the last piece of ribbon , you want the knots to form a cross.

7.  Pin back the two centre ties, so that you are left free to work on one of the ribbon stacks.

8.  Pin the stack you are working on to the side of the flip flop, leaving the bottom two ribbons free.

9.  With these two ribbons tie a knot, just a single knot but pull it quite tightly.

10.  Continue to tie two ribbons at a time from the bottom until you only have 3 ribbons remaining from the first ribbon stack.

11. Swap to the second ribbon stack and repeat the process until you have only 3 ribbons left.

11.  You should have 3 ribbons from each side that have not been knotted.  Take the bottom ribbon from each side and knot together.  Repeat with the other two pairs.

12.  Gather all the ribbons up in one hand, you will notice that they are different lengths.  While still holding them together, give them a hair cut! so they look all the same.

13. Finished Mille Feuiille Bloom.

What am I going to do with my self all next week, without any blooms to make - that's easy.  The parcels have started to arrive for the Full Bloom Challenge so I will have lots to show you all.

Have a FANTASTIC weekend, the weather is meant to be wonderful (will see).  The girls have invited me out to a birthday bash so can not wait.

Ribbon Rosettes, just perfect for joining in with the World Cup celebrations.  We have even put together a special collection of World Cup Ribbons - Click HERE.  Buy the WANT IT ALL Collection and you save a whopping £2.00 - go on go Football Crazy!

Ribbon Rosettes

1.  Gather all the bits you need.  Needle and thread, scissors, ruler and 10mm satin ribbon (you can find the red/white/blue ones HERE).

2.  Cut 6 pieces of ribbon 15cm long.  Fold each piece in half and press with thumb and finger to create a score line.  You just need to know where the centre is.

3.  Lay two pieces onto a table, a marked cutting mat helps to keep your ribbons square.

4.  Lay all 6 ribbon pieces out to create a circle, with the centre marks on top of each other.

5.  Thread the needle (I am using red thread so you can see my stitching!), pierce the centre of the rosette with the needle.

6.  Carefully pick up the rosette (apologies for the state of my thumb again, it is getting better), and push the needle through to the reverse.  Make a few stitches, going all the way through to secure the ribbons together.

7.  Fold one petal towards the centre, hold in place with your thumb, bring the needle through from the back and make a stitch.  Push the needle back through to the reverse of the rosette.

8.  Continue with step 7, stitching one petal to the centre at a time.

9.  Keep going.

10.  Fold over the last petal and sew in place.

11.  Secure on the back with a few extra stitches.

Finished ribbon Rosette.

I sewed a football button into the centre of each rosette, well it was a World Cup themed card!

Just finishing off tomorrows bloom (Bev saw it this morning, she said it was "Deffo different!!!), then hoping to go for a stroll by the sea, I have been sat by the computer for far too long.