As a child I remember making paper chains with my mum and sisters, I used to hate the job of licking the sticky ends of the paper.  But being big sis I used to find ways of making Rachie do the licking.  It is amazing what you can achieve with an offer of a few chocolate coins!!  What is amazing is that it is still working to this day with Sam and Mollie - brilliant.

No bribery needed with these ribbon chains - as licking is not required!

Perfect chains every time.  Not much fun making chains on your own so I press ganged Sydney and Sam into helping me.

We had perfect team work going - I cut the ribbons into lengths............

..........................Sam threaded the ribbon through each other to make the chains.....................

................and Sydney did the stapling.  We stapled ours, we borrowed uncle T's special style stapler, but you could use sticky dots or double sided tape.  These are very quick to make and we had great fun, which is what Christmas is all about!   Ooooh and no mess. I think the three of us could have gone on for ever, but we ran out of staples, and uncle T said he had no more...........bar humbug uncle T.

We used the cheap ribbon from our Bargain rolls here, but any ribbon can be used, even scraps to make a truly jumbled effect.

Claire has gone for a classic look with her cards for the challenge goodies.

Oooh I do think this is super Claire, so simple and elegant.  I got excited yesterday - I received my first Christmas card...........hand made of course.  Thank you Debbie.

Divine Claire, the little green button in the snowflakes sets it off beautifully.

Oooh what a little sweetie, he is adorable Claire. My angel hair has hidden the ribbon, which is just as well because we are sold out of this design!

Thank you Claire for your wonderful creations.  We hope Claire's designs or our ribbon chains have inspired you to get crafting this Christmas.

Yesterdays upgrade seems to have all gone to plan, apart for the notification emails, they were a bit strange yesterday - sorry.  The formatting had changed and we had not realised, I am hoping todays will look like it used to. I love the new changes that happen with upgrades, but I could do without the headache of the learning curve!

Have a great day, I have to be a grown up today off to see the accountant!

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree................ this one is tiny!

Do you remember my ribbon carnation video I made back in the summer, you can find the link in the side bar - I can not believe it, I have had over 107000 hits! wooopeee! 

Sorry I will get back on track, the reason for the carnation mention is that the tree is made the same way, just gathering the ribbon using the wire.  But instead of making it form a circle and sewing in place, I have wrapped it around a cone and used small pins to hold it.

WARNING - it does use a lot of ribbon, this tree stands about 18cm high and took 15mtrs of 15mm ribbon - but I think it is super.  I had it sat by the telly last night and decided it needed some decorations.  I used a single gold star here, gold seed beads here and a few red buttons from our Christmas Berry Button Box here all simply held in place with pins.  The first one I made I left the cone white, but found I did not like the look, so used a gold promarker to colour the cone for this tree - much better.

Still need a little bit more inspiration then have a look at our Challenge goodies.

Twinkle has made this truly rustic effect card. In all the years (I missed our 3rd bloganniversary on 1st november) of running the blog I have never created something with ribbon weaving, it is so easy and looks wicked. I love the use of the garden twine, super idea.

A Snow Wand - I think this has been used further up the country last night, but no Snow here in Dorset.  Twinkle this is a really fun idea, I can just picture the children running around waving their snow wands.  Just imagine if it snowed that night - awesome.

You certainly left us comments this week, 82 I believe - thank you, thank you. Your comments are truly special to us and we have all enjoyed reading them.  Great to hear from those that we thought no longer visited, and even more pleased to know that you have been popping on for a quick read.

We have three Special Christmas Advent vouchers to be won.  Our "Bingo" bag is a bursting this week, and I have double checked that all 82 numbers are there.  Mollie gave the bag a mega shake up for me.  Mollie needed help so asked her friend George and the numbers they pulled out were.........................

Number 24 = Karen Jones
These are lovely, Well done Ali you're a star!......and chance to win a voucher that's just brilliant, Thank You.xx
Happy Weekend Everyone.

Number 31 = Karen vdP
These flower lights really are a fantastic idea - so pretty and original. I loved the advent calendar also, but too late for me to try. I am using silk ribbon from you at the moment to embroider white ponsettia on a jumper (actually, they look quite like snow flakes)! - I am excited about the results. Just hope original is not verging on weird!

Thanks for the generous voucher freebies this Christmas.
Karen vdP

Number 52 = Ali Sherman
Your poinsettia lights are beautiful. Your Christmas table is going to look amazing.
I'm so glad you've found the time and energy to keep the blog going. There are so many wonderful blogs but I have to admit this is the only one that I always visit, and read every single post. I'm not always able to comment though.
For anyone who keeps trying to comment but find it vanishes please email Ali, the same thing happened to me.  I thought it was a problem my end and left it for ages before emailing Ali, and she didn't bite!! Now my comments never disappear.
Have a good weekend all
Ali xx 

Woooohooo girls you each have £20 to spend in our store.  All we need are emails to craftyribbons@gmail.com and we will tell you how to spend your vouchers.  Please do keep following us this week, we have super projects and ideas to share, more challenge goodies as well as the Friday FREEBIE.

Just a little bit of info, we have today upgraded the software we use for the blog, you may have noticed it was off line for about an hour.  We hope the update might help with the little problem we have with our spam filters - so fingers crossed.  Any problems just email me and I will try and help.

Hope you are well and warm, has snow reached you yet?

Our little Mollie is 3 today.
Happy Birthday Mollie.

She had her party on Sunday and I got to play pass the parcel!
We hope you have fun today with Daddy and Mummy.

Mollie first came into the warehouse when she was a few days old, her birth was our 5th ever blog post!!!
WOW it only seems like yesterday.

Glad to read that you all loved yesterdays challenge goodies from Andrea, Mel and Sharon, and YES PLEASE Andrea we would love some cupcakes at Olympia. Tony would happily become your official taster!!

Todays goodies came as rather a surprise.................the box was rather battered and crushed and looked as if it had travelled up and down the country - I think it had.  When I opened it, I found these little treasures from Claire from the New England Challenge!!!  She contacted me after I had said "That's it on the New England goodies"..........she could not find hers.  I double checked and no we had no parcel from Claire, sadly we declared the parcel lost, but it finally arrived!!!

Claire had made this delightful card holder and a little tea light holder.  The card holder is a wicked idea and using the wide grosgrain ribbon will hold the cards on display perfectly. Where did you get the little matching red pegs from Claire? They are a perfect colour match for the New England ribbons.

Houston we have a problem....................who sent their Challenge goodies back in a yellow feet street shoe box?  because these wonderful creations are yours.

As soon as I spied this in the box, I wanted it.  This is drop dead gorgeous and totally me...............I LOVE it. I wish I had come up with this idea.

I am getting a little worried that maybe I entered into the challenge and sent my own creations back, they are so ME! This little pillow has a slight aroma to it, I can see it hanging on a bedroom door of a little person during the lead up to Christmas.

Oooooh look at this.  Could you bring yourself to use it?  Adorable who ever made these creations.  This New England Collection is so part of me, the colours, the texture, the memories - I am delighted that other crafters have captured the true essence of this range. Thank you. Please let us know who you are!

A short and sweet posting today - I am still working on my project for tomorrows Hello wednesday and unless I get a move on it is going to be a "Work in progress" project!!

Hope you all have fun.

I had great fun in opening all the parcels and envelopes yesterday for this challenge.  My desk was piled high with packets!  It was such a lovely although cold day yeaterday, I decided to take the photos outside, the light is so much better.  But what a laugh........I decided to prop my display with christmas baubles and angel hair.  I did not realise that it was so windy.  The angel hair kept blowing away...........it was like those tumble weeds you see in wild west films.  At one stage I was chasing it around our car park, thankfully there was no one else on the estate to see me!!!!   There is much less angel hair in the last shots.....it just disappeared on me.

The first collection of goodies were delivered to me at the Hobbycrafts show at the NEC by a wonderful group of crafters.  We had met before at the Olympia show, but I had not put two and two together until we met again.

Just to refresh your memories - for this Challenge # 26 the lucky challengers had to pick their TOP 5 Christmas ribbons of 2011. 

All these creations you are about to see have come from only one selection of TOP 5 Ribbons and they have been made by Mel, Sharon and Andrea they all picked and shared the ribbons.  What team work girls.

Mel made this easel style card with a cross stitch gingerbread man or as Mollie would say "Biccy man".

Fantastic Mel.

This card is pure magic and was made by Andrea and Sharon.  Why magic you ask? 

There are tiny little lights on the card, you can just see them in this close up...........and they................twinkle.  This is certainly a WOW card girls.

I have had to hide this from Rachie, she has fallen head over heels in love with it. Super card Andrea.

This created rather a storm in Paris Sharon, all the ladies want the kit!  Sorry no kit but we have the ribbon...........you guessed it we sold out.  Thanks Sharon, this is perfect and we can display it all year round.

Sorry Andrea not a very good photo of your delightful gingerbread men, but they made it to Paris and back.  Some very well travelled " pain d'epice"

This is a super fun bag from Mel, just perfect for those awkward shaped presents.  I love the way Mel has teamed the let it snow ribbon up with such fun paper, just what I wanted with this ribbon design.

Andrea also crafted a bag, this time with Rudolf.  What a fun creation to give someone.  I nearly gave up on this ribbon design in the summer - the fine line around Rudolf was causing the printers such a problem, they wanted to remove it.  I stuck to my guns and said "No line, no ribbon order".  The next sample arrived with a perfect outline and it certainly has been a winner this Christmas.

I do adore your colours Mel, this card is perfect.

This decoration was created by Sharon and I proudly hung it from our fascia on Sunday at the NEC and Paris.  Have you picked up on the detail on the bauble?

Crafty xmas - how did you do that Sharon?  It is awesome.

You tested my photographic skills with this card Sharon, especially with all the wind. I could not lean it, wedge it or even stick it, to get it to stand up.  I have a perfect shot of it falling over!!! I do like acetate cards, but your acetate seems rather special, did you print it? perfect colour match to our Happy Christmas ribbon.

Mel also made this little money wallet.  I double checked Mel and it was empty!!!  What a fun way to give money or vouchers at Christmas, wicked idea Mel.

Sharon this card is a delight, such perfect crafting. I will confess that I had to remove this card from our display in Paris - sorry.  But so many people were asking for the wooden shape and my French is not good enough to explain.

Can you believe that ALL THESE CREATIONS came from ONE single entry into our Challenge. Thank you so much, Mel, Andrea and Sharon it was great meeting you (again) and I will look forward to seeing you again at Olympia next year.  We hope you all have a fantastic Christmas.

I will be back later with the winners of this weeks Friday FREEBIE, you still have time to leave a comment to get your number in the Bingo bag.