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

Do you remember our EXCLUSIVE New England Happy Christmas Saddle Stich ribbon with the little heart?  It is here to jog your memory.

It was so popular that we sold out and had to do a re-print in October,  and then it sold out again by the end of November!! Well it got us thinking................ maybe you would like it to say Happy Birthday, maybe you would like it printed on some zesty colours...................

...........................what do you think?

9mm grosgrain ribbon, five different colours all printed with the saddle stitch edging and the little stitched heart, and the best bit - they are EXCLUSIVE to us! Yeah!!!

I am not very good at using patterned paper, but these ribbons seem to go with everything.

You can find the new ribbon HERE. Hope you like it.

Wish me luck, just about to leave for another session of treatment on my thumb, I wonder which bit of my they are going to hurt today!!

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!!!

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

Bev's NEW ribbon bag is filled with mystery.................

..........ONLY Black and RED were allowed in her new selection of ribbons.

Add a bit of mystery to your ribbon collection.
You can find Bev's NEW Ribbon Bag here

We finally managed to upload the Congratulation ribbons...
(ummm human error caused the delay.....I had saved them in the wrong format!) 

Only a small collection of colours here, but they come straight to the point - Congratulations

Happy Birthday Bev.................you are catching me up!!

Where did Christmas go?  How can it be our first challenge of 2012 on our Challenge blog. Gina is hosting our first Challenge of the New Year, she has themed it New Beginings, but it DOESN'T have to be a New Year card it can be a New Baby - New Home or Job or even School etc, just play around with it and most importantly have fun.

After all the Advent Christmas makes - yes 24 NEW and different ideas on the trot, I feel a bit idea empty.  I sat and hoped an inspirational card moment would pop into to my head, but as you know cards are not really my forte, I just stared out of the window!  But I do have a friend starting a new job, she is really excited as it has a expresso machine in the staff room! I found her a wicked little expresso cup and saucer in France, so thought I would make it into a little gift set for her.

I filled the expresso cup with coffee beans so when she opened the cellophane she would get a wonderful aroma.  Three coffee flavoured macaroons arranged on the saucer completed the prezzie, well apart from the wrapping - cellophane, a tag and our NEW Congratulations ribbon, you will be able to find the ribbon here.

I already know she liked her prezzie, and the ribbon was carefully folded and put into her bag I noted!!

How about you, do you have a New Beginnings idea - then why not enter our challenge, and show us what you have made.  Or just pop by and see what all the DT girls have come up with, they have certainly used their imaginations and worked around Gina's theme.  You can find the challenge blog here .  Thank you to everyone that joined in with the last challenge, please do not forget to check to see if you won!  We only had 24 entries, but it was Christmas, so you could be the winner of Bev's Ribbon Bag  - Plum Pudding.

Regular readers will know that our super duper January Ribbon Pack SALE is on - ribbon packs reduced from £5 to just £1 each.  We want to tell as many people as possible about this super offer, so we thought of a Blog Hop (ooooh I have always wanted to have one of those).  When I told the girls in the warehouse, they looked at me as if I was mad - "A WHAT?".  You can get the full list of blogs over at Crafty Ribbons Challenge Blog. At each stop there'll be a word to collect and a candy draw. I've got this gorgeous collection of ribbons to give away, so leave a comment for a chance to win my candy.  (Please refresh your page once you have left a comment, our spam filter likes to eat them.  If your comment has disappeared then please email it to me at craftyribbons@gmail.com and I will add it for you.)

This is your first blog, the start of the blog hop. My word is the. At the end of the blog hop you should have 12 words, work out the phrase and leave it in the comments back at Crafty Ribbons Challenge blog. The blog hop will run until 6pm on 18th January 2012 and the winner and the winners of each of the Design Teams Candy will be announced with the start of the New Challenge on the 19th January

Your next stop is to Mandy and her blog is here. If you lose your way you can go back to Crafty Ribbons Challenge to get the full list. Good luck everyone.

Oooh I do hope I have got that all correct, I have never been very good at giving directions or following maps.  When I took my skipper exams I had to have the charts the same way up as we were sailing, much to the annoyance of the male sailors............but I passed!.

Good luck everyone and hope you have some fun.

It is the start of another Challenge over on our Ribbon Challenge blog - wow those two weeks have flown by.

Thank you to everyone that entered the last challenge, we had some super Traditional projects and cards.  This NEW Challenge is a sketch designed by Tessa and Anke.  Oooooooh something to take me out of my comfort zone, a SKETCH.....................yikes!  So I had a think and and came up with a plan. Do you remember I went back to school last week..........well I wanted to make a Thank you card for the teacher.  Everyone together................ ahhhh!

So here is Tessa and Anke's sketch

I do not think I did too badly for my first ever sketch!!  For the centre section I wove three colours of the twill ribbon here on top of a small piece of iron-on vilene and then ironed it in place.  The rose is made from seam binding ribbon and can be found here, and the instructions for the rose are here.  Some of you may have spotted the Thank you ribbon and yes it is NEW!

Gorgeous NEW Thank you ribbons are here!

If you get a spare moment (I know everyone is soooooo busy) check out the DT girls creations, boy do we have a fab Design Team - thanks girls.

This is our last collection of creations from our Top 5 Christmas ribbon challenge and they are from Karen.

Ooops sorry Karen a little to much light in the photo, a super card from black and silver with a matching card.  I love the way you have matched them up Karen.

Oooh I like candles, Karen was very thoughtful and put a candle safe tag with this card - remove ribbon before lighting and never leave unattended. A beautiful prezzie Karen.

Nadolig Llawen is Welsh for Forever Friends - how super Karen, great card.

I think is a super idea Karen - a Jar of cinnamon sugar to sprinkle over mince pies.  Oh dear how did this jar find it's way into the car, I seem to have it in France!!! Yummmy Karen especially since I have just baked a fresh batch of mince pies.

What am I like - this also has found it's way to France.........................Karen I think this is one of the coolest ideas this Christmas.  A Ho-ho-ho place mat for santa's cookies and milk.  This will be in use this  Saturday, thanks Karen

That is all of our challenge goodies for this year, thank you to everyone that have taken part, not just in the challenge but all the others this year.  Super creations and a wonderful use of ribbon - inspiration to us all.

We are off out to see if there are any Christmas trees left in France, we brought the little one with us that I used for the Advent photos, but to be honest it is very small and looks a little bit lost. Tony made sure that the tree was totally covered in the back of the car, he didin't want other ferry passengers to comment "What no Christmas Trees in France?"  Which is something Tony would say!!!

Have a wicked day.

 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.

I am still inputting the NEW Grosgrain ribbons, two different designs.  The Snow Trees I used on my Hello wednesday card and then there is a rather sweet little Sketch Tree design, both on grosgrain.  When I have them on the site I will add the link HERE.

But here is a little sneak peak.........

There are eight different colours, and as I mentioned on Wednesday they match perfectly with our Let it snow ribbons (here) and also our Happy Christmas embossed velvet ribbons (here), so why not have a play with these NEW Ribbons.

My week has just slipped by, I have been having trouble working out what day it is - Tony reckons I have been Sarkified!!!!  It is Friday - so it must be Friday FREEBIE.  We all know you love Bev's Bags.......BUT which one would you pick?

Are you a Traditional girl or do you have a Contemporary twist to you?  What ever you decide we have TWO Bev's bags up for grabs this week.  If you would like one then just leave us a comment and we will pick TWO winners from our "Bingo" bag on Monday.

Some of you are still having trouble with our spam filters.  We are very sorry about this, but without them the blog would be awash with unwanted spam comments.  The more popular the blog becomes the more traffic it attracts and the more the spammers want to leave their mark.  If you are unable to leave a comment (the comment will disappear once you have refreshed your screen) then email it to craftyribbons@gmail.com and we will add it for you.  Once your email has been added to our "white list" you will be able to leave comments without any further trouble.

Julie really had me guessing how she made this card for the New England Challenge.

It has not really shown up very well in the photo, but the Mince Pie picture has this wonderful sheen to them.  When I run my finger over the picture they are rough to the touch....any ideas anyone?  If I had read Julies note earlier I would have known - durr.  Julie has sprayed it with gold glitter spray.  I like this look very much Julie, great idea.  The folded/pleated ribbon at the bottom is a perfect finishing touch.

Another clever idea from Julie is to cut an aperture into your card and put ribbon behind it - it really makes this bauble look different.

Julie sent me three cards because when this card was finished she felt it was similar to the one I made.  But I did not glitter my hearts Julie.  This ribbon is just perfect for layering like this Julie, so no worries.  There was another ribbon design to this collection that had the Happy Christmas running across the top of the designs, but sadly the......it was just not quite right and was dropped at the final meeting.

No photo editing need Julie, this bag is stunning on it's own. I can see it sat on the Christmas table filled with a few extra spoils for the children - super idea.

Many thanks for your creations Julie, I loved reading your note and your ending comment made me feel very special. Thank you.

Sydney has promised to come and do some crafting with me after school, we have a Halloween theme in mind.  I said we could go up to my craft room together (this is very rare), but Tony wanted to know if he should hire a JCB to clear it first.  Cheeky devil, it's not that messy...............well maybe!!!

Have a fab weekend, do not forget to keep an eye on the blog on Sunday..............but shhhhh, Rachie still does not know!

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

Our NEW Spooky Halloween ribbons and buttons are now in store.

You can find them all HERE

Oh how I have ooohed and aahhd this weekend, trying to decide which of the last two EXCLUSIVE ribbons to show you today.

I just could not decide, I love these designs so much, they are both full of fun which I hope will add a touch of humour to your Christmas crafting...............
so here they are together....................

We have Santa wishing you a happy christmas love santa x surrounded by snow that sparkles when moved.....

.....that's right on this design we had glitter added to the printing process, so the snowflakes actually glisten when moved.  The design detail is truly special, even down to the little shadow underneath Santa's hands. 

Next is Rudolf - well you cannot have Santa without his trusted reindeer, can you.

Why not take a walk with Rudolf - Walking in a winter wonderland.  Magic pure magic. We all know that Rudolf has a big red nose, but we have made it extra special by adding red glitter, yes it sparkles.

Both designs are printed onto 38mm grosgrain ribbon, in different shades of blue.  Once again we have designed these ribbons ourselves so they are EXCLUSIVE to us, you can find both of these designs HERE.

Do you have a favourite, would you have been able to pick which design to launch first?!

That is it - all my designs have now been launched - I feel rather empty - all my ideas and thoughts have been turned into actual ribbon. 

I never ever thought I would design our own collection of ribbon, a big first for me.  Thank you to everyone who has purchased my designs, I may be very silly but it gives me great pleasure seeing the designs leave the warehouse.  I do hope they give you as much pleasure when you receive them

Thanks everyone.