Nearly forgot
19/07/2010
Oh we nearly forgot to make the draw for this weeks Friday FREEBIE!!
Bev was jsut about to drive off as I remembered. I went running out to her waving the "Bingo" bag at her, then rushed back for the camera. What number would she pick...........
....number 32. - craftygranny
ooh lovely ribbons . I'd love to win.
Hi craftygranny, all you have to do to claim these fantastic 3mm streamers is to email us your address details craftyribbons@gmail.com. Sorry to everyone else who left super comments. I was in London all day on Friday, so I had great pleasure in reading them on my return.
Sorry if you have perhaps been waiting for the draw before making your order for the Todays Special,
because of the delay we will hold the special prize deal till tomorrow morning.
Have fun.
Ahoy Sailor
15/07/2010
Ahoy sailor!
What a super collection of "makes" from Toni to share with you all this evening. Not sure what sort of day you have had, but it has been blowing a hoooly here in Dorset, certainly pleased we were not at sea!
This picture frame is a work of art, it is wicked Toni, how can you bear to part with such a treasure.
Look at this super box, it is Sydney's 5th birthday today and she would have loved a little box like this. The colours of the flowers match the ribbon perfectly.
I must admit that this balloon ribbon is one of my favorites and Toni has really set the colours with the striking blue backing paper - yummy.
A gorgeous easel card, the design is so simple with just the ribbon and flower, I love the simplicity of this card Toni.
This was Toni's first challenge with us, glad you enjoyed playing with the ribbons. I am having great fun opening the parcels, I will show you Anji's goodies tomorrow.
Before I leave you this evening you must pop over to Louise's blog (HERE), she received her Jam Pot Ribbon Friday FREEBIE Prize - you must see what she has done with them, or should I say the dolls!!!!
Hello Wednesday - Scarlet Magic
14/07/2010
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.
Crafters create
13/07/2010
Louise was really happy to win last weeks Friday FREEBIE prize of the Jam Pot Ribbons. She e-mailed us to say she was stunned to be the winner and that she had been unwell over the weekend due to the hot weather. We hope you are feeling better Louise and your ribbons should be with you tomorrow.
Louise normally buys silk ribbon from us for her miniature work, she sent me these photos, they are just stunning.
This was for a customers order for a Regency stove-pipe bonnet for a 16 inch fashion doll. The bonnet was made in hand-dyed very fine pure wool (dyed by Louise) and lined in pure silk habutai with cotton lace. She used our ribbon for the bonnet ties.
Louise also used the 7mm silk ribbon for the mock slashing on the false sleeves of her miniature (5.5 inches tall) Tudor ladies, picture is of the young Elizabeth 1st.
Thank you for sharing your work with us Louise, it is so fine.
Another talented lady is Beryl, she has sent a most wonderful Beach collection of cards for our Ribbon Challenge - Fun in the Sun.
As I opened the envelope from Beryl, only one item came out, oh that's unusual I thought, Beryl normally sends me such wonderful crafty treats. But this folder held an Aladins cave of delights. I had photographed the back which read sand but sadly it was one of the photos that became corrupted after my SD card recovery. Sorry Beryl.
When I opened the folder I was greeted with this....... an awesome collection of cards. This would be perfect to take on holiday with you, and send to family and friends, the cards are wicked. On the left we have a collection of sand cards and on the right a collection of sea cards, all using our Fun in the Sun Ribbons (can be found HERE)
What a colourful fun card, the colours are just perfect. If I told you that the crab ribbon (HERE) is the best selling ribbon from the Fun in the Sun collection, I am sure you would not believe me, we thought the flip flops (HERE) would be the star!
Same ribbons, same colours, I love the glossy accent on the little girls glasses, great idea.
These three sand cards have all used the same ribbon but in different ways, it just goes to show what you can do with ribbon, they are all perfect.
Now onto the sea - Beryl has chosen two blue ribbons to embellish this collection, blue stripe always shouts Nautical. This little girl is enjoying her seaside chips! The ribboned tag can be removed and reads "Hot Summer Days", it was hot when I took the photo, but it is raining today. The little paper clip detail in the corner is quite unique Beryl.
Cheeky monkey - this card is so simple but perfect, I love it.
The fish and shell detail at the bottom of the card is ribbon (HERE), I promise, the way Beryl has backed it with white card has really made the images stand out.
Beryl this collection is a work of art, thank you so much for creating it for us. We hope others will be able to create their own projects from it using some of your inspiration.
Jammy Winner is
12/07/2010
Who is the jammy winner of our Friday FREEBIE?
Who will be getting their sticky mitts into our Jam pot ribbons?
No. 24 Louise
I love the idea for these jam pot ribbons. They look really scrummy! Hope I win some!
Best wishes,
Louise.
Well you have won them Louise, all we need is your address please to craftyribbons@gmail.com this is a stunning collection of ribbons. We liked the mixed fruit idea from Kim, and as for all your jammy comment - thank you. You all left such interesting words, such wonderful comments.
Sorry if you were not the winner of the Jam Pot Ribbons but please remember the Special Offer ends tonight, click HERE for the offer. Did you know that there are 105 different ribbons in these jam pots, that's 105mtrs of drop dead gorgeous ribbons at less then 11p per mtr, bargain, bargain, bargain.
You may have thought that I had stopped showing you the goodies from our Ribbon Challenge - nope I had it all planned, taken the photos and was scheduled to do a posting of Marjories on Thursday and Beryls on Friday and the rest this week. BUT disaster struck, in the form of ME, I did the most stupid thing. While copying over the photos from my camera SD card, instead of pressing copy, I pressed DELETE. No, No, No, I felt sick, 922 photos had been eaten, all of them wiped out, not only photos of the challenge goodies but, 4 NEW ranges of ribbons, a NEW button range, Hello Wednesday projects - it was like I had been robbed, I couldn't talk, I was in shock.
This story does have a happy(ish) ending. After almost two days of silence, I spent saturday trying to recover the photos using a piece of amazing software from America, while waiting, which seemed to take an age (I now have no finger nails or hair, both of which took the brunt of my frustration). I am pleased to say that I managed to recover most, but not all of the photos. We do now have a project for this weeks Hello Wednesday and I have 4 of Marjories cards - sadly the 5th was so badly corrupted that I was unable to retrieve it, so sorry Marjorie. I will re photograph it with the batch that arrived this morning.
Anyway here goes with Marjories super duper Fun in the Sun Challenge goodies.
Oh Marjorie this card is really sweet, such detail, I adore the little sail boat tag at the top of the card.
Another stunner Marjorie, the way you have cut ot the fish to embellish the mermaid is a wicked idea.
What a great fun birthday card to receive, reminds me it is Sydneys 5th birthday this week so I will have to get a thinking. Marjorie has used some of the scrap 3mm ribbons (you can find them HERE). She thinks the bags are such amazing value and has been using them over and over again, perfect for tags.
Pretty card surrounded by ladybirds, love the ribbon slider Marjorie.
This is the first time Marjorie has made a brooch, it's stunning and would brighten up any jacket or would look great on a straw hat.
Once again, sorry about your other card, will re photograph it this week. I loved my card you sent in Marjorie - it is a pleasure to look at.
I have a totally empty Sd card so I am off to take some photos!!!
Friday FREEBIE 28
09/07/2010
Another week gone.
Another Friday is upon us.
Another Friday FREEBIE up for grabs - yippee!
We all think this is an amazing prize, Bev reckons she is going to enter under an assumed name, so she can win it! Ummm - Bev we do post the parcels out, and I sort of know your address! Do you want to see this weeks prize?
A set of Jam Pot Ribbons, yep every single flavour. You can indulge in your favourite flavours whether its Apricot (Tony likes it on Pancakes), Blackcurrant (my little indulgence) Strawberry (keep it away from Sydney) - what ever takes your fancy.
We have one complete set of these NEW Jam Pot Ribbons for this weeks Friday FREEBIE, do you want a chance to win them - you know the routine just leave a comment and we will pick a number from our "Bingo" bag on Monday.
I will say this again, if you are having trouble leaving a comment it will be down to our spam filters, we do not delete comments or anything silly like that. If yours does not appear, please email us craftyribbons@gmail.com and we will add it for you. Comments do not have to be authorised by us before they appear.
Your comment is very important to us - so please leave one.
When we pick a winner from the "Bingo" bag on Monday we always feel so disappointed for everyone who did not win - ahhh. So this week we have come up with an idea.
If you buy all 7 flavours of Jam Pot Ribbons this weekend, you only pay for 5 - that's two flavours FREE. No special codes needed, just order them HERE.
Each bag of Jam Pot Ribbon (sorry jars are not included) contains 15 different ribbons all 1mtr long. A puree of textures, sheer, satin, polka dots, swiss dots, feather edge, gingham - oooh so many. Go on indulge yourself in flavours this weekend.
Have fun
Hello Wednesday - Ribbon Jars
07/07/2010
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!!!
What do you give a crafting friend that has everything, and I mean everything?
Who could resist these ribbon jars, they are jam packed with ribbons!! Just perfect for that little summer treat for your crafty friends, much better then a box of chocolates and you are also doing your bit for recycling.
O.K. you have to eat the jam, but if you have a Tony or a Sydney in the family then your jam pots will never remain full for very long! They both love this type of jam and I love the labels, you know, black and white with that old fashioned feel.
I washed out the pots carefully so that the labels didn't get damaged, and left them to dry. The fun part was picking all the different ribbons to match the name on the jam pot labels. You can use the ribbons from your stash (if you can bear to part with them) or we have put together Jam Pot Ribbons, you can find them all HERE.
We have tawny orange, with a zany collection of orange and lemon ribbons. Oh the Blackcurrant pot is bursting with berry delicious purples! I am sure you will find a flavour you love, the ribbons are all narrow to a maximum width of 15mm, which could be used to tie the bow on the jam pot. (Sorry the jam jars are not included, although Tony and Syd eat a lot, certainly not enough to keep up with the (hopeful) demand! Buy all 7 flavours and only pay for 6 - bargain.
But you can make your own, they are really easy - cut a circle of fabric for each ribbon jar, the fabric was from a tea towel, I liked the waffle effect design. Just place the jar lid onto the fabric and cut around, making sure you make it about 3cm larger all the wayround the lid. It was a bit fiddlly getting the fabric to stay on the lids while tieing the bow, until I thought of an elastic band (lightbulb moment). Put the lid onto the jar, place fabric over the top of the lid, pop an elastic band over the fabric - fabric stays in place while you tie the bow, magic!
If you can not remember how to tie these simple bows, you will find the tutorial HERE.
Do you like the Purple Polka Dot ribbon? It is a limited edition colour and also comes in Turquoise. It was added to the site this morning you can find it HERE
Please, please if you want this ribbon get in quick, it is a true LIMITED EDITION Colour so stock is very limited.
Challenge 16 - Goodies
06/07/2010
Woo hoo the sun is still shining, it's just fantastic and perfect to show you our Fun in the Sun Challenge goodies. We have had some truly cracking crafting summer goodies. Looks like you are loving this NEW range of ribbons - Fun in the Sun can be found HERE.
So lets showcase the first selection of parcels I have opened from our Ribbon Challenge # 16
Dawn has used two of the ribbons on this charming card, the shell and fish ribbon looks as if it has been printed onto the card and not ribbon - amazing. Did you colour the crab motif in Dawn? It's perfect.
I don't mean to make a joke, but this flip flop ribbon is walking out! Honest. Dawn has used the ribbon to sit ontop of the pink wave ribbon, very clever. Oh I could do with a nice ice lolly, fab colouring.
This card is stunning and has captured the uniqueness of the ribbon perfectly - was it Tracey's or Paul's card?
Sun, sea and buckets and spades, this ribbon has it all. Love the way the suns have been punched out from the squares and the yellow placed behind. Another classic from Paul or Tracey, thank you guys, hope you enjoyed the ribbons.
What a fun card Claire, all those balloons (yes they are ribbon - HERE) floating in the wind. A perfect cloud background. Think Claire has put glossy accents ontop of the balloons, please tell me if I am wrong Claire.
I tried to get a little girl to model this for me, but as she has very little hair, Mollie was not keen. This is delightful Claire, and the little girl is magic.
This is a really cool idea Claire, perfect for a trip to the beach. A box containing a Tic Tac Toe board with instructions and cut out ribbon as the disks. Just wicked, I can recommend this to slip into any beach bag.
A super collection of goodies, we hope they give you some inspiration for your summer projects, we have more to share later in the week. i still have to open parcels from, Beryl, Marjoire and Toni. just a litle nudge, if you have finished your challenge goodies can you post them back please.
Have a good evening.
Sam picks the winner
05/07/2010
Sam wanted to pick this weeks Friday FREEBIE winner out of our "Bingo" bag, who could resist that smiling face - not Auntie Ali!!
So this weeks Friday FREEBIE winner of the £20 Crafty Ribbons voucher is.............
.....No 5 Helen
Wow - £20 voucher! Ooh I could have good fun spending that, please let it be me.
Good luck everybody and have a great weekend.
Hel x
Well done Helen, you have £20 to spend in our ribbon shop, we hope you have fun. Please send us an email to craftyribbons@gmail.com so we can forward you the details. Sorry to everyone else who left such wonderful comments, you will get another chance to win a voucher on the first Friday of every month or try your luck every Friday - there is always a FREEBIE up for grabs.
I started to put a NEW Range of ribbons onto the website this morning. I had the categories all set up with the photos but had uploaded only one of the ribbons before I got called away by one of the girls in the warehouse. Within ten minutes of leaving my desk Bev was taking a call from one of the craft magazines, they were on our website and WANTED the new range......BUT, BUT Ali is still working on it!
This is what the magazine wanted - In the Pink.
Make time for yourself with - In the pink
We just fell in love with this ribbon, Big Sister (Me), Middle sister (Bev) and Lil' Sister (Rachie).....
......we just had to have it, whether we can actually cut the ribbon up and sell it is another matter!!!
All the ribbons in this collection are pink, have a look and see what a fab collection it is - click HERE. Samples have gone off to the magazine tonight so you might see them out and about sometime soon.
Gail had a nice surprise on Saturday, her cross stitch crazy magazine turned up and there was her Strawberry and Cream cross stitch card staring back at her (jog your memory HERE), and they had included our web details. Huge thanks Gail, and congrats for getting your creation into print.
I am off to do a bit of digging - you will find out more on Thursday!!
Friday FREEBIE 27
02/07/2010
There are just too many Fridays, they are coming around soooo quickly I cannot keep up with the Friday FREEBIES!
It is the first friday of the month so for this weeks Friday FREEBIE we have another voucher to be won, that can be spent in our web store www.craftyribbons.com
What would you spend the voucher on? Fun in the Sun ribbons - Deckchair Stripe - have you had your eye on some ribbons for a while? Well you could win the £20 voucher, all you have to do is leave a comment. We will pick the winner on Monday from our "Bingo" bag - it could be YOU.
Normal blurb - If you are having trouble leaving a comment please email it to us at craftyribbons@gmail.com so we can add it for you. Once you have been added you will be able to leave comments without any hassle. We are very sorry if you do experience a problem. ALL comments should appear on the blog straight away and we do not have any form of moderation process. Comments are very important to us - so please leave one.
Yesterday I finally got all my Wedding Ribbons on to the website.
I know I have been talking about these ribbons for a while, and I have almost missed the "Wedding Season", but at least all the soft creams, sparkling pure whites and bridal whites are now all under one roof, so to speak! Why not check them all out HERE. There are some stunning NEW ribbons with printed Doves & Hearts, Flower Swirls and Roses.
You love our spotty buttons (HERE) so much that we sold out of some of the colours, these are on order and should be with us next week, but in the meantime I have added two NEW colours to the range - Black and Mushroom.
You can not have Spots without Stripes so here is a collection of NEW Stripe Buttons
12 fab colours all with white stripes. You can find them all HERE.
Lots of parcels and envelopes have started to arrive from the Fun in the Sun Ribbon Challenge, I can't wait to get a ripping and see what marvelous goodies have been sent in. We will start to share these with you next week. Please DO NOT forget to check back on Monday to see if you are the lucky number pulled from our "Bingo" Bag, you could be spending £20 on some drop dead gorgeous ribbons!! REMEMBER you have to check the blog, we do not contact you.
Have a truly scrummy weekend, and we will see you all next week.
my basket