Hello wednesday - Button Beauties
23/02/2011
Don't you just LOVE wednesday's? Say hello to wednesday "hello wednesday" It's all downhill from now on to the weekend - yippee!!!
As you all know Sydney my niece loves crafting, when ever she sees me it's always "Ali can we make something, please". I have been promising her a play with buttons for weeks, at half term when we have loads of time! Yuk half term is here, Rachie is off sick and we are stretched again. But a promise is a promise......
These have all been made by Syd (aged 5½)..... ok yes there are bits of glue showing, and the ribbon is not straight, the card is cut skewie....but I think they are amazing. It took her all morning to pick the buttons, and I can prove that......
....she mixed all the colours in my button tray!!!! Thankfully I only let Syd have 1 of my 18 button trays, I will have to get that sorted today for it's trip to Glasgow Hobbycrafts next week.
After lunch we sat together and glued the buttons together, I was allowed to pass them to her while she glued them in place, I was glad to be of help! When I left for Paris I asked if she would like a prezzie on my return - "googlie eyes please." Nice. For Christmas I had given her a French book all about animals made from buttons or that should read boutons, they had googlie eyes. She loves this book and Bev tells me she takes it to bed with her most nights. Neither of us can read the French instructions but both of us are fluent in following photos!!!
Syd wearing her newly made butterfly clip..
....and her bee clip. I had great fun Syd, thanks for letting me join in.
We have added a selection of "share" buttons to the blog. They look like this 
and you can find them at the bottom of each post towards the right hand side. Please use and share!
Hope you are all enjoying crafting this half term.
Ribbon Embroidery Kits
21/02/2011
We launched 9 of our NEW Ribbon Kits this morning, there is one more to go online, but for some strange reason the photo was not where it should have been. I have never been very good at filing - paper or electronic!
Meet Daisy the Cow.....
...a little bit of fun with ribbon embroidery. You can find all the NEW Ribbon Embroidery kits HERE
Poor Rachie and Mollie have been ill today, some sort of tummy bug, so the office was very quiet! Half term, so I saw no little ones this afternoon either.....no one to pick the numbers from my "Bingo" bag.... Oh dear.....Bev!
So all on her own Bev managed to pick 4 numbers, the winners of this weeks Friday FREEBIE prizes of Bev's bags are.....
Number 3 = Kara
The forecast is for snow at the end of the week, so to recieve a little bit of spring would be lovely. Glad Paris went ok and you got home safe.
xxx
Number 34 = Craftygranny
fab ribbons . spring ribbons would be fab. weather man reckons snow for us. lol not very spring like.
Number 39 = Ros Westcot
your project section is great for ideas and does not involve buying lots of templates etc usually needed for card making! I just love the little ruffled ribbon idea and will definitely be using that one.
Regards Ros
P.S. I have just made a super bow to go on a celebration bottle of champagne. I used your red, wired ribbon, got three layers and finished off with a red stick- on flower jewel in the middle. Used the ribbon to make a loop to hand round the neck of the bottle. It looks fabulous.
Number 47 = Misti
they look so cheery amd colorful Love fridays......
To claim your Bev's bag, just email us at craftyribbons.com with your address. Thank you to everyone that took part, 62 comments was the most we have had in a long time - maybe it was down to Facebook or Twitter?!
Lots planned for this week, Syd and I are playing with buttons tomorrow so looking forward to that.
Get well soon Rachie and Mollie, we missed you today.
Ribbon Challenge # 22 - FULL
20/02/2011
Sorry our NEW Ribbon Challenge is full.
You can find all the Seam Binding Ribbons HERE
Or have a look at all the Sweet Treat goodies in one go HERE on Facebook.
P.S. I wrote this post and then Tony and I went out for afternoon tea at Portland.....but I had forgotten to publish it!!!! A rather large challenge
Ribbon Challenge # 22 - What can we do with it!
20/02/2011
SORRY THIS CHALLENGE IS NOW FULL
Are you up for a ribbon challenge? But this is a true challenge - it might test you......
Not a bow or a just a straight trim is wanted....we want you to explore what the ribbon will do! Still up for the challenge? Yep....then read on.....
Our NEW Seam Binding Ribbon is just awesome, so versatile. I have shown you how to embroider with it, dye it, scrunch it and now here are some seam binding flowers....
What else will it do???????
Do you want to find out and have a good old play? Then send me a email to craftyribbons@gmail.com we have 20 (with my bad counting that will probably be 25 tee hee) FREE bundles of Seam Binding ribbon to give away. Have a think about colours...as there are 124 in the range we are unable to send you all of them, but we will hand pick a selection for the lucky challengers.
So remember, more then bows, more then straight trims are needed on this challenge....
....SCRUNCH....DYE....GLITTER.....SEW.....FOLD.....PLEAT.....FRAY.....GATHER.....PAINT......STAMP.....AND WHAT ELSE?.....
......lets expand the knowledge of what this ribbon will do.
parcels and more...
19/02/2011
Yesterday did not quite go as planned......no photos taken.
So my desk still looks like this....
.....covered in parcels and envelopes from the "Easter Bunny Hop" ribbon challenge.
Can you spot yours?
Friday FREEBIE - 7
18/02/2011
Some kind soul could have warned me about all the emails from Facebook!! I am still trying to catch up with my inbox from being away in Paris - if you have emailed and not got a response yet, you will, I promise. My phone was beeping so much yesterday with emails, that I went and hid it.....ok the techo's amongst us would have turned it onto silent. Thanks to everyone who became our friends yesterday, we do not feel so alone!
I can honestly say I am really pleased it is Friday today, I still so tired from the Paris show and I feel if I have done nothing more then catch up all week. So looking forward to the weekend, but before that we have the Friday FREEBIE.......
Bev must have been up really early this morning....I received a "tweet" from her. She has a NEW Bev's Ribbon Bag called "Spring" - what a perfect Friday FREEBIE prize, well lets make that 4. Yes. we have 4 of Bev's NEW Bags up for grabs this week.
Looking at the photo I can see six of my NEW ribbons that are not on the website yet - you little tealeaf Bev! This is what happens when I go away. To win one of Bev's Spring bags just leave us a comment and we will pick a winner on Monday. If you can not wait to see if you have won, you can find Bev's bag HERE
A busy day is planned for me in my studio, taking photos of all the wonderful creations from the "Easter Bunny Hop" Ribbon Challenge. If everything works out well I will start sharing these with you on Monday.
I have a NEW Challenge in mind, slightly different from normal, something to really test your creativity - want to learn more......you will have to wait till Sunday. Log on and I will tell you all about it, don't forget it is on a first come basis to join in the challenge.
Hope you have a fantastic Friday and an awesome weekend, I am off to tackle my inbox!
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 a 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.
Twitter and Facebook
17/02/2011
After a lot of nagging and several large prods (almost shoves) from several Crafty team members, we have joined the social networking groups twitter and facebook. I am very new to this, so please bear with me while I learn the ropes, although I have been promised (by more then one person) that tweets and updates will be made by others at Crafty Ribbons - we will see.
So please become our friend on Facebook HERE and a follower of us on Twitter HERE - at the moment we look a little bit like billy no mate!!!
Glad you all like the Hello wednesday pansies, I promise to do a tutorial when we launch the ribbon, as for the flower planter I picked this up at a garden centre in France. I am sure there must be something similar in our garden centres.
Before we left for Paris I sent out some of our NEW Seam Binding Ribbons to several DT members, here is what they have come up with.
This card was made by Maxine and she is a DT member for The Crafty Pad. She couldn't wait until she was supposed to use it..lol..but has plenty left for the challenge when it is due to be used. What wonderful colours Maxine.
I adore this colour combo that Mandy has used. I had not even noticed that the seam binding matched up with our delightful lime large spotty buttons. Another winning combo. Mandy has some wonderful ideas for using the seam binding in different ways, last time I spoke to her she was going for a play!!
Rachie and I are trying to re-stock the exhbition stand for our first UK show in Glasgow, (the first week of March) .....not a simple task!
Hello wednesday - ribbon pansies
16/02/2011
Don't you just LOVE wednesday's? Say hello to wednesday "hello wednesday" It's all downhill from now on to the weekend - yippee!!!
I saw my first crocus in flower on Monday in Paris and this morning driving down Tin Pot Lane there were small clusters of Snow Drops - Spring is on it's way.
This NEW wire edge organza ribbon arrived in the warehouse while I was away, soooooo I just had to have a quick play with it this morning! Makes great ribbon flowers.
Not on the website, but I will promise to let you know when it is.
Back home
15/02/2011
Oooh it is good to be back home!
Thanks for your wonderful comments while we have been away, it's great to read them and it keeps my home sickness at bay! We also had some delightful ladies tell us how they enjoy the blog and what an awesome website we have. One Dutch lady was desperate to know who Bev was - she receives emails telling her all about Bev's new ribbon bags, but who was Bev?
We also had prezzies.....
....jams and sweeties from Michelle an avid blog reader. I so wanted to open the sweeties on Sunday, my sugar level had got really low (that's what I told tony) but I thought I should keep them intact so I could take a photo. So now photo taken yum yum!!!
We picked the winner of this weeks Friday FREEBIE prize from the back of the empty van, it did not take us long to unload the van this morning, we had very little left. Sorry Sam and Mollie are not looking at the camera, I found out afterwards that Tony was standing by the van doors sticking his tongue out at the pair! It certainly made them laugh.
This weeks winner is number 22 who is Mary
Hello All,
What a super sweet treat for Friday to see all those lovely creations.
Mary x
Congratulations Mary all you have to do to claim your prize is to email us with your address to craftyribbons@gmail.com and a bag of sweet treats will be all yours.
My desk is covered with packets, parcels and envelopes, which I believe are the Easter Bunny Hop Challenge goodies. I will not rip them open today otherwise I will get all the names mixed up.
Au revoir
Happy Valentines
14/02/2011
Heres hoping you will all have a fantastic Valentines Day, lots of love and romance, a little lunch together and a stroll hand in hand through the park.
O.K. we can all dream! The truth is not quite so dreamy for us, a cross channel ferry from Le Harve to Portsmouth. But aleast we will be together all day - arrrrgh!
Actually I think it will be quite pleasent to sit and chill on the ferry, we are both exhausted. I am not sure what it is about the French shows but they are so draining compared with the shows we attend in England. Maybe it is speaking French or just the long hours, but I have to tell you it was FANTASTIC. We had a wonderful time, sold loads and loads of ribbons, super evening meals, great company a truly enjoyable time. It is just a shame we get to see so little of Paris. The exhibtion centre is in an area of Paris called "Little Venis" and our hotal is on a canel, so the morning walk to the show - although bitterly cold, was delightful. But that's it we - have no time to do anything else. We thought about adding extra days to the start or end of the show, but the big problem is the VAN - where do you keep it? Not something you can leave on the side of the road, full of our exhibtion stand and stock. Only one thing for it Tony - we will have to go back to Paris without the VAN!!!! yeah.
I have the last few Sweet Treat goodies to share with you.
Tracey and Paul also set in a selection of sweetie tags - remember I showed your their Ice Cream Van card on Saturday for Sams birthday.
This is a cool idea - a laminated bookmark. Whos idea was that Tracey's or Pauls?
A German customer took a shine to this card Margaret, she wanted a kit to make it. Sorry it's not a kit, I couldn't even sell her the ribbon, we had sold out!!! Ooops not a happy customer, but it was Sunday afternoon.
Also sold out! Your cards and tags must have inspired many customers Margaret.
Mmmmmm.....cupcakes but no ribbon!! margaret your cards went down a storm - thank you.
I had a lovely letter from Lorraine, she loved the Sweet Treat ribbons so much that she did not want to cut them up.....no. no cut them up, use them and then we can give you some more!!!
Lorraine you cards are wicked and you certainly have no need to worry, they were greatly admired on the stand and I am sure the readers will love them today. Glad you enjoyed your first challenge with us, and hope you will join in with many more.
Unless some extra Sweet Treat goodies arrived while I have been away, this is the end of the challenge. But don't worry hopefully, fingers crossed there will be a big bundle of parcels greeting me tomorrow in the office from the "Bunny Easter Hop" Ribbon Challenge.
See you all then, have a truley special Valentines Day.
my basket