Crafty's advent day 24 & Friday FREEBIE
24/12/2010
Its here, only one more sleep! I have thought and thought about todays idea, and try as I might I can not think of anything else to use ribbon on today than this.....
We must not forget them, must we!!!!
We hope you all have a fantastic Christmas and that the weather is kind to you. No television here in France, but I have had a few weather reports from our very own Michael Fish (our Rachie!). The sun is out and Tony and I are planning a little walk by the sea, just to blow away the cobwebs before the big day!
Just because it is Christmas Eve you didn't think we would forget our Friday FREEBIE......Oh no. We have a Friday FREEBIE like no other......you can not get this in the shops........you can not get this from our website......what is it....what is it....
......still not going to tell you....tee hee.....BUT I will say that this box contains 1mtr of all our NEW ribbons that we plan on launching in the new year.
Would you like our box of TOP SECRET ribbons.....ummmm......then all you have to do for a chance to win is to leave a comment. Why would you like this box of TOP SECRET ribbons, what could you do with them! remember you have to be in it to win it!!!
We will not be picking the winner from our Festive "Bingo" bag until FRIDAY 31st, so plenty of time to spread the word or not!
If you are unable to leave a comment due to our spam filters please email it to me at craftyribbons@gmail.com and I will add it for you - good luck.
Tony and I and the Crafty Ribbons Gang would like to wish you all a very Happy Christmas and thanks so much for stopping by and reading our ribbon ramblings!
Crafty's advent day 23
23/12/2010
I can not claim this festive idea as my own, I have borrowed it from Tams who sent me a wonderful email about "Pots of Gold"
If you are stuck for a little gift or if you want to have a few spare in the cupbaord for those unexpected vistors then these "Pots of Gold" are perfect.
Fill a jar full of gold sweets and Tams puts a lottery scratch card in as well.
I tied a gold Bow using my Bowdabra (here) and not forgetting the magic cord (here) to sit ontop of my Pot of Gold. Tams I have to say that is one of the quickest prezzies I have made this season. You could almost have a little production line going!!!!
I must share this with you. Sydney and I have been making a Snowman....everyone has been making snowmen I hear you say........but not like ours. When Bev saw it she said it looked like a monkey nut. It is two balloons covered with papier-mache, then painted white and finally decorated by our Syd. Not sure the balloons were blown up enough hence the shape!
Sydney and I would like you to meet.........Peanut the Snowman.
Syd was so enchanted by her snowman that Bev told me she took it to bed with her last night.....sorry Bev!
Crafty's advent day 22
22/12/2010
I had a really nice surprise yesterday, one of our suppliers sent me some flowers.
It was such a festive thought that I decorated my vase to match.
Same technique as for Sam's T-shirt (here), just layers of ribbon. This time I put a strip of double sided tape on the back of the vase and wrapped the ribbons around one at a time - very festive.
I hope you will forgive me but i have been unable to find those missing Challenge goodies, I tore the exhibition stand to bits yesterday looking for them. I tried to call Florence but she didn't pick up. I have no idea what has happened to them, it will drive me crazy all Christmas. So a huge apology to those of you wonderful challengers whose goodies have gone missing. We will start the challenges again in the new year, so please do not hold this against me.
Due to the snow we have had no post deliveries since thursday, but yesterday our postie arrived with an armful of wonderful cards and a super prezzie parcel from Gail and family. I had reindeer poo (very nice!), snowman soup, choccie tree decs and a delightful bracelet with beads spelling Ali. Thanks guys it was a true surprise. I have packed all the goodies in my case, Tony and I are trying to leave frozen England today to a slightly warmer climate. Not very far only to Brittany, but our friends tell us the sun is shining and it is about 5-7degrees during the day - perfect.
Wish us luck getting to Plymouth, as long as we have no new snow today we should be ok. We are leaving early and have packed blankets, a shovel, food and a big thermos of tea!!!!!
Crafty's advent day 21
21/12/2010
I had a wonderful time on Sunday, I took all my presents to the office and piled them onto the big work table and enjoyed wrapping every single one!
Sorry boys but all my parcels are wrapped in pink paper (same as my Christmas cards here) with silver lace ribbon (here) and Go Grosgrain pink with white Snowflakes (here).
They may be very pink but that did not seem to worry Sam when I delivered them Sunday evening.....
It is amazing how coloured paper and a few bits of ribbon can make such a happy face. Sam was perfect on Sunday, but he is very poorly today, running a very high temperature and all the signs of flu. Get better soon Sam, I want to see you playing with whats inside the pretty parcel.
I seem to have lost a collection of challenge goodies, which I am extremely sorry about. They are not in the prop boxes where all the other goodies were put on the break down of the Paris show. We do have help in Paris and maybe Florence has put them somewhere else on the exhibition stand. I am going to have a hunt for them today, and will of course share them with you once found.
Tony and I are all alone in the warehouse today. We were really badly affected by snow yesterday - Dorset even made the BBC evening news!!! Our City Link collection was cancelled, and we had no deliveries. Crafty Ribbons were the only company open on our industrial estate yesterday, we pushed on to get all the orders out in time for Christmas. Tony was unable to get the car up Blandford hill to deliver our sacks of post.....so he walked.......only to arrive to to be told that "elf and safety" (is that one of Santa's elfs!) would not allow the trucks to leave the depot. It was quite funny though, all the post guys were standing around and they were taking bets on who would be turning up with parcels....there was a cheer when Tony walked through the door. Crafty Ribbons were on their list!
Bev and Syd measuring the snow....we did have fun.
Crafty's advent day 20
20/12/2010
We have a complete white out here in Blandford - Bev and I have been outside with a ruler and we have had 8" of snow in the past hour!!! Ok not as much as most of you but an awful lot for Dorset. Bev and Syd were the only ones who made it to the office today, two brave little girls! Think we may all be walking home though.
I was really pleased with myself on Saturday I had made a visit to our local garden centre and they had all their mini ponsetias reduced to 50p each. What a bargain I could not pass on that. I collected up a good armful and headed home, feeling very chuffed with myself. That was until tony said "what are you going to put them all in?" Arrrgh I had not thought of that.......
......after a little bit of thought I raided the recycling tub......
These will do nicely, but do be careful with the tops of the cans.
I told you last week I made Sydney a Swedish costumn for her to wear to school, last night she put it back on so I could take a photo for you. Note ribbon flowers and ribbon waist tie!!
Sydney has been happily crafting this morning, I interrupted her work to pick this weeks Friday FREEBIE winners. Who is going to win the three £20 vouchers - is it you?
Sydney picked these winners 44 - 21 - 25 and who do they belong too?
Number 21 = Karen
Fabulous, a voucher to spend online, well I can't get out because of the snow so what better than sitting by the fire, eating choccy and buying ribbons.....so please pick me!!
Loving the napkin rings, so pretty!!
Keep warm and have a good weekend
Karen J.xxx
Number 25 = Debbie (padster)
Wow those napkin rings are awesome - maybe I could make some if I won a voucher lol!
Hugs,
Debbie x
Number 44 = Melanie
Wow I love your poisinettas, I have a great love of ribbon having been started on crafts with it by my grandmother, god bless her heart, and still play with it today! Can't wait to have a go at those napkin rings, they look so much more personal than the cheap and tacky ones from the supermarkets!
Well done girls, just email us at craftyribbons@gmail.com and we will send you details on how to use your voucher. You have all left such wonderful comments, thank you so much you are all so kind.
Back to work, there are still some late Christmas orders that arrived over the weekend that we are trying to despatch today, but whether they will arrive before Christmas.......ummmm unknown!
Crafty's advent day 19
19/12/2010
Wow it is cold outside, I nearly froze trying to take this photo. Anymore of the arctic photography and I will have to invest in one of those "Extreme" SD cards!
I made this for my favourite nephew (ok, my only nephew) Sam. They are spending Christmas with their Grand parents and I thought he could wear this on Christmas Day.
Every morning Bev is being woken up by Sam singing either Twinkle Twinkle little star which sounds like "inkle, inkle ittle STAR" or Jingle bells, jingle bells, which sounds like "ingle BELLS, ingle BELLS". They have been practicing for their school play, he has the tune but not the words! It sounds wonderful, best when he has no idea you are listerning.
I thought the T shirt would be perfect, it has a STAR and lots of ingle BELLS. Not sure Bev will like it. But ho hum it's Christmas.
If you want to copy the idea, it is very easy to make. Draw a triangle tree shape and add an oblong bottom for the trunk, cut the shape out and use it to draw onto the paper side of double sided bondaweb. Turn the bondaweb over so you have the sticky side facing you, start layering the ribbons onto the tree. I ironed mine in place every couple of rows, making sure the iron came nowhere near the bondaweb. I used a selection of green ribbons from Go Grosgrain this Christmas (here) Swiss Dots (here) Gingham (here) and I used the wide deck chair stripe (here) for the trunk.
Once I had the design covered with ribbon, I placed a cotton cloth over the ribbons and gave it a really good press, so all the ribbons were firmly fused to the bondaweb.
Next cut the shape out, remove the bondaweb paper backing sheet and postion the tree onto your T-shirt. Put the cotton cloth back over the tree and iron in place, making sure all the outer edges are stuck.
You could leave it like that, but as this was for Sam I added some extra details, blanket stitch around the tree in green thread, a gold star (here) on top of the tree and finally silver jingle bells (here) - perfect.
I hope he likes it.
Tomorrow will be our last day for despatching orders before Christmas. Pleased to hear your parcel arrived so quickly Leslie, it seem to be just pure luck.
Some parcels are taking over two weeks. But miracles do happen, we spoke to a lady from Peterhead Scotland last week, she wanted some personalised ribbons, we explained that we could send them that day, but had no idea when they would arrive with her. She phoned us again the next day and asked if we could repeat the order.......but we only sent them last night.....they had arrived the next morning!!!!!!! We mentioned it to our wonderful team at our local post depot, they could not believe it either.
Crafty's advent day 18
18/12/2010
That's it, we are on our last week of advent ideas, only 7 more to go!!
As children we always had a table present, very strange you may think. As we sat down for our family Christmas lunch there would be a plate of presents waiting for us, just something small but enough to keep us focused throughout the meal! It would take pride of place towering over our meal.
I can not claim this idea as my own - all down to my mum. I have just updated the idea with white tissue paper parcels and red and white ribbons.....
....a little country check, fresh stripe, chantel, snowflake, swiss dot and not forgetting gingham. Thanks Mum!
There are no rules or guide lines when you take part in one of our ribbon challenges - you can do what ever you fancy with our ribbon. The creation that Lucy sent us was stunning. A full size advent Gingerbread calendar, a different gingerbread man or biscuit for everyday. Sadly several of the biscuits were broken, a shame the post office didn't treat it with more care.
I tried to repair what I could.......
but I am much happier with a needle and thread then an icing bag! - Sorry Lucy.
I took these photos when I returned from Paris, we were very busy in the office and I had left the advent hanging on the wall while I quickly went to check that the photos had come out ok. I must have left it longer than I thought because on my return to the warehouse I captured this....
.......ummmmm that is gingerbread number 1!!!
Lucy, I can say your creation went down well with all the team.....yummmie.
Crafty's advent day 17 & Friday FREEBIE
17/12/2010
What can you make with these?
I have had these sat on my desk for months, we had new curtain poles fitted in the summer and these rings were far to good to throw away.....but I had no idea what to do with them.....so they sat on my desk gathering dust!
Bingo....I had an idea.....what do you think?
Same ribbon poinsettia as my crackers but on a smaller scale. Missed the crackers then you can see them here.
As promised I have a tutorial on how to make them.
Gather the bits you will need - needle and thread, scissors, curtain ring, calendar buttons are here and I used the same ribbon as the crackers this bauble ribbon here.
For the napkin poinsettias you need to cut the ribbon in half, for the larger cracker ones leave the ribbon uncut. Remove the wire from the outer edges of the ribbon.
With the wrong side of the ribbon facing you, fold the ribbon as shown.
Fold the other side of the ribbon over to form a triangle.
Sew along the bottom edge, if you turn the petal around you will see the cut edge of the ribbon, your stitching should be just above the cut edge - see below.
Cut away the extra ribbon just below your stitching.
Pull the thread to gather the petal and secure with a few stitches.
One single petal.
Repeat so you have 6 petals.
Sew two petals together so they slightly overlap.
Keep joining the petals together.
Join the first and last petal together to form the poinsetta.
While you still have the thread attached to the poinsettia sew the curtain ring in place.
Put a little glue on the back of the button and push into the centre of the poinsettia.
All finished!!
If you would like to make some of these napkin rings then maybe you could be a winner of this weeks Friday FREEBIE - we have 3 more £20 vouchers up for grabs.
Leave a comment between now and Monday and we could pick your number from our festive Bingo Bag - have fun this weekend.
Ooooh nearly forgot the winner of my bag of buttons.
wow that button picture is so classy - you'd pay a fortune in one of the posh shops for something similar, am loving it. Buttons??? do I "need" buttons ? - of course I need buttons. Desperately in fact as am playing with some jute bags rights now, the first two are on my blog but I now have to make smaller versions for my granddaughters, have some very pretty fabric for them but buttons as embellishments would look fantastic. (oh dear I sound very 'needy' don't I).
xx
Beryl it sounds as if you need buttons - send us an email craftyribbons@gmail.com with luck and a following wind you could have the buttons before Christmas!
Stay warm this weekend.
Crafty's advent day 15
15/12/2010
Now this is not a new idea, but it is the first time I have made one.
....but it was sooo easy and fun to make. I used all 15mm width ribbons and cut them to about 6cm, folded them in half and pinned to a polystrene cone - simple. The star was made of gold ribbon and mounted onto a pin.
Rachie has already claimed this for her Christmas table, as I was mean yesterday and would not make her any newspaper crackers! Sorry there was no tutorial for the poinsettias I will work on one and get it posted. I was a bit short of time yesterday, we thought we had cracked the orders situation only to receive a last minute rush and several valentine orders!!!! I have some new valentine ribbons, but thought it was a bit early to add them to the site, so I have now added that to my "to do" list.
If you would like a collection of these ribbons to make your own tree, just leave a comment and we will announce a winner in tomorrows posting.
I have a collection of gingerbread goodies that i can find no names for - are they yours? Please leave a comment a claim your creations.
A perfectly tied bow, I love the beaded detail.
Someone must claim this delightful card it is wicked.
Another wicked creation with our gingerbread girl ribbon.
Wow a really cheeky gingerbread, this card is double sided and a super texture.
Not sure if these tree decs have been made by the same crafty person, but they are both wonderful. The one on the right hides a secret......a choccie mint!
Hope you have a good day before the snow arrives tomorrow!
Please note: We are closing our warehouse from 5pm Monday 20th and will reopen on 9am Tuesday 4th January.
Crafty's advent day 14
14/12/2010
I am always trying to do something a little different - so what do you think of these......
....newspaper and ribbon! I wanted the ribbon to be very lush in contrast to the flatness of the newspaper cracker, I think it has worked well. Red velvet in 9mm (here) for the ties and wide christmas ribbon with baubles (here) for the poinsettia. Rachie saw them and instantly asked for 6!! Although I have now stopped taking on commisions. I finished a Swedish costume for Sydney last night in blue and yellow and I made the white flowers from ribbon - what else!!!!
I hope you have not thought I had forgotten the balance of the Gingerbread challenge, more photos will be taken today.
Not sure about you, but the back logs in post offices and at delivery hubs is causing us a nightmare. Tony drove over to our local City Link depot yesterday as we were unable to make contact on the phone, their warehouse is stacked to the roof with undelivered parcels! We are still despatching orders on a daily basis, and trying to ensure your ribbons will arrive before christmas.
Please note: We are closing our warehouse from 5pm Monday 20th and will reopen on 9am Tuesday 4th January.
my basket