Line dancing
09/12/2009
These little guys are a "MUST HAVE" at Christmas. Don't they look good all lined up with their little dickie bows dancing in the breeze!
Ooooh - gingerbread and red gingham ribbon were made for each other!
I confess I did not make these, but I had great fun dressing them up with the ribbon and the icing. The little ribbon dickie bows only take a few minutes to make and make the men look sooooo good..
You need scissors, 25mm and 5mm red ribbon which can be found HERE, thread and a needle. Cut the 25mm gingham into lengths of 9cms.
Fold the ribbon ends towards the centre so they overlap slightly. With needle and thread, (I used green thread so you can see my stitches) sew small running stitches across the overlap.
Just a few stitches are required.
Gather the stitches up as tightly as they will go and secure with a few extra stitches.
Wrap 5mm gingham under the dickie bow and tie the first stage of a knot.
Pull the ribbon so that it fits securely around the bow and finish tying the knot. Tug the ribbon ends so they sit behind the back of the bow and cut the ribbon ends with scissors.
Because I cheated, and got the famous bakers of Mr Marks and Mr Spencer to bake my gingerbread men, they had no hanging hole to thread the ribbon loop through, boo hoo. But that was easliy sorted with a wet cocktail stick! Just dip the cockatil stick in some water and place on the gingerbread man where you want the hole to be. Gently press down, slightly twisting it, re damp the stick if needs be. Don't push down too hard, gently does it and a hole will appear.
Thread 5mm gingham through the hole and tie a knot at the end of the loop. I jazzed mine up a little bit more by adding white icing for their eyes and buttons.
So whether you bake your own gingerbread men or cheat like me, make them extra special by adding Red and White gingham dickie bows and hanging loops.
I promise you, no one will be able to resist these little guys!!!
FREEBIE Winner is...
07/12/2009
Sydney has this weeks Friday FREEBIE winners parcel all wrapped and ready to be posted - but to who????? It has been raining all day here, so no photo's outside, so Sydney decided to have her photo taken while sitting ontop of one of the work tables in the warehouse! She wouldn't get down.
The lucky winner of this weeks Friday FREEBIE parcel picked from our "Bingo" bag, which is all wrapped up to go under the Christmas Tree is....
10 - Dorothy
Well done Dorothy, you have a great ribbon book and two bags of value ribbon. Please email us your address using our NEW email craftyribbons@gmail.com and we will get the parcel in the post to you, we do know your address BUT you may want us to send your prezzie to someone else!
Thank you to each and every one of you who left a message, we really do enjoy reading them.
I saw Bev's Christmas Tree over the weekend - Oh its beautiful, tall and elegant in red and green. She tried to tell me it was from a kit, but I didn't believe her. The only thing missing was ribbon, she said she had been working so hard at some local warehouse, that she had no time to make bows!!! Cheeky!
So I have made her a box of Tree Bows, all in colours to match her tree - hope she likes them. Do you want to know how to make them? It's another tutorial so lots of pic's, hope that is ok.
Get all the bits you need - ribbon, wire edge is best, scissors, pencil, clear nail varnish and our magic cord which can be found HERE.
Cut your ribbon into 50cm lengths and fold in half to mark the centre point.
Fold one end of the ribbon so that it overlaps the centre mark.
Repeat with the other side, it should start to look like a bow!
Thread the magic cord under the bow and tie the first stage of a knot.
Pull the magic cord tightly so that it scrunches the ribbon up in the centre and tie a knot.
Now the "magic" bit - wrap the magic cord around a pencil. Because there is a wire running through the centre of the magic cord, when you remove the pencil the magic cord with remain in the swirls - MAGIC!! Trim the magic cord with a pair of scissors, it will fray so seal the ends with clear nail varnish or PVA glue.
Fold the ends of ribbons together and cut at an angle to create "dove tails". Repeat for the other ribbon end.
Play with the bow slightly to give it some shape.
They are called Tree Bows but they do look really good on parcels! I am building up to the really big pom pom bows later in the week Wilma - you will have to wait a little bit longer!!!
Hope you are enjoying our Christmas Countdown, we still have lots to show you.
A cheery welcome
06/12/2009
We are all making our way back to the little village where we grew up in Oxfordshire today, famous for the Maharajahs Well. It will be the first of a series of Christmas family meals! Sydney proudly told me yesterday evening she and Sam were going to wear Santa’s helpers outfits for Grandma Edney, I gather it was meant to be a secret.
Hang a beautiful Christmas Wreath.
I am not a florist and so will certainly not tell you how to make your own wreath, but I do like Christmas wreaths that are full of fresh fragrances of pine and rosemary with the deep glossy green of holly and shiny red berries. Add a twist of ribbon and a bright red bow and you have a gorgeous festive welcoming wreath to hang on your door.
I spent a morning hunting around my garden and the hedgerows looking for seasonal ingredients – pine, holly, rosemary, ivy and the white fluffy things! Mum always called them “old mans beards” so I have no idea what they are called.
Think where the wreath is going to be placed, (what coloured door) and choose ribbons to match. Whether you make your own, there are a plethora of free goodies out there that can be used, or if you buy one, a ribbon bow will make it extra special.
Use a light weight ribbon, this is a wire edge sheer and can be found HERE. As this will be outside and may get wet, keep the ribbon loops small so they do not become too heavy when soaked.
I made two of these, one each for our parents, I hope they would have liked them. Mum used to make her own, so I am sure she would have been rather critical of mine!!!
Have a restful Sunday.
Make a Rose
05/12/2009
I went Christmas shopping for the first time this morning - it wasn't that bad. So the prezzies I have just wrapped are real ones - strange thing to say you may be thinking, but I am so used to wrapping empty boxes for our exhibtion stands, do you know they get stolen. I would love to see their faces when they open up the parcels to find empty Daz boxes!!!
Ribbon Roses are not just for Christmas, but they do looking stunning in this sheer gold ribbon. I hope my step Mum likes them, they are for her!
If I told you how easy they are to make I am sure you would not believe me, so I will show you. All you need is about 1mtr of wire edge ribbon per rose.
Tie a knot in one end of the ribbon about 5cm from the end, pull the knot tight.
Go to the other end of the ribbon (the one without the knot), ease back the ribbon on one side to find the little wire that runs through the ribbon edge.
Gather the ribbon, all the way along the wire - like a net curtain! You want as many gathers as you can, the more gathers you have the fuller the rose will be.
Place your fingers just below the knot.
Gently roll the knot along the gathers. You want the gathers to sit ontop of the knot.
Keep rolling it along the gathers.
When you run out of gathers and you are at the end of the ribbon, place it ontop of the knot and tail of ribbon you have been holding onto, see photo below.
With the spare wire, twist it around the ribbon to secure.
Trim the stem of the ribbon rose.
Play with the rose a little, put your fingers in the centre and give it a little twist to create the bud.
One Ribbon Rose - was that easy or what?! I use a hot glue to stick it to my parcels. You can use any ribbon as long as it is wired edged, the ribbon I used can be found HERE.
I am off to Syd and Sam's to deliver their advent calenders - I know I am a bit late but I only finished them this afternoon, what a bad Auntie I am.
Happy rose making.
Friday FREEBIE
04/12/2009
It's not often I look forward to Fridays, but I am this week - it has been one of those weeks. So Friday is here so it must be Friday FREEBIE time. We have a prize that is a little bit different today, yes there is ribbon but also a book written by Christine Kingdom, it is packed full of ideas and inspirational projects using ribbon.
One lucky winner will receive the book plus a value bag of ribbon in red and green. Each bag of ribbon contains 13 or 14 different ribbons totalling 18mtrs - hence why they are called value bags! You can find them HERE.
For a chance to win this weeks Friday FREEBIE, all you have to do is leave a comment. We love reading your comments, we have all been very ill this week with an awful bug virus thingie and really need some cheering up. We will pick the winner from our "Bingo" bag on Monday.
We have received one more parcel of cards from Chrissy, this was her first challenge with us - the cards are wonderful, we hope you enjoyed the ribbons.
I love the colour here - gorgeous and is perfect with the simple white snowflake ribbon.
Chrissy said she would not normally work with ribbons this wide, so it was a true challenge for her. Just what we like to hear! It would appear that one of our ribbon challenge parcels went astray enroute to Jan, we sent a new batch to her yesterday, so hopefully that will cheer her up.
Another daily project for using ribbon this Christmas, and my first tutorial. I have never done one of these before, so I hope I have done it correctly! We all have a lot to think about this time of year, so here is a very quick project that will make your Christmas table look a treat.
Gather all the bits you need - tea candle, a glass or container for the candle, elastic band, rosemary, scissors, glue or pins and ribbon.
Place the elastic band around the glass, and thread the rosemary sprigs underneath it.
Continue feeding sprigs of rosemary around the glass, cutting the bottom of the sprigs to fit the glass.
Try and keep the elastic band in the centre of the glass.
Once the glass is covered, check to make sure that the rosemary is not sitting too high at the top of the glass (you do not want the rosemary to catch on fire).
Now its ribbon time! Choose ribbons to match in with your table colour theme, play with mixing a few widths and colours. I wanted to create a earthie (is there such a word) country feel so used 2 ribbons the Country Check in 25mm and the Merry Christmas Twill ribbon.
Wrap the ribbon around the glass so that it covers the elastic band, either glue in place or pop a pin in the back to secure it. Repeat with the second ribbon.
Before I end this posting I must express my thanks to our team of girls. Without their dedication and determination to struggle through this week, feeling as ill as they have, we would not have been able to bring our order backlog under control. Thank you girls, you are are a dream team.
Christmas countdown
03/12/2009
I am sure like me you have tree decorations that go back yonks! They all have speciall meanings - first christmas together, the year we had no oven (that's another tale). While at the Paris exhibtion last week I picked up these 3 metal decorations, but they came with only plastic hangers, can't have that can we.....
......a few new hanging loops of 7mm Christmas Check ribbon and a nifty little bow, and they have been transformed and are fit for any tree.
Why not give your decorations a little make over, add a few bits of ribbon, a bow or two and see what a difference it makes.
Just a very quick post today, we have all been affected by a tummy bug and everyone has left early. Tony is on his last legs and I need to get him back home!!!!
Bev's Christmas Bag
01/12/2009
1st December and Christmas is here - well it is at our house, the Christmas tree was put up over the weekend. I had two little helpers this year, I think they were trying to help! Sam wanted to climb the tree and Sydney wanted all the decorations to go where she could place them - hence only the bottom half was decorated!!
We have been busy shipping Christmas ribbons since August and I thought I may have got tired of it by now, but oh no. I have never had this range of ribbons to choose from before, the trouble I am having is finding a wrapping paper to match! I could never understand why Ali had a huge (and I mean HUGE) cupboard of wrapping paper mostly plains, I do now. I will have to start collecting paper as well!!
This is my NEW Bev's Bag and it is stuffed full of CHRISTMAS RIBBON - yeah! 17mtrs of "to die for" Christmas Ribbons, each ribbon bag we make is going to be slightly different, so you will get a nice surprise! Indulge in my Ribbon Bag HERE
I have taken enough "time out" from pulling the orders, so I had better get back to them.
Bev x
FREE Postage for December
01/12/2009
Heres how to get free postage on your orders? All you have to do is answer a simple question.
Each month we will set a question, the answer can be found somewhere in the previous months posts in the blog. So here is December's question....
What did Ali make the Pick 'n' Mix Ribbon Embroidery Kits into for the Paris Exhibition?
Enter the answer (all in lower case) into the voucher section on the website and the postage will be removed on all UK orders and will be reduced on overseas orders.
You can now have your orders sent by City Link Next Day Delivery.
So for all those urgent orders (you wouldn't think ribbon could be urgent - but it is!) you pay an extra £4.25 for this service. We MUST receive orders by 12 noon on the day of desptach.
We have a winner!
30/11/2009
Not sure about where you live but it has got really really cold in Dorset, so much so we did not open our big roll over doors today. Bev did the honours of picking this weeks Friday FREEBIE winner - that's if you can see her in her red coat in front of our red doors!
The lucky winner of our Friday FREEBIE is.....
23 - Tams
Well done Tams, all you have to do is claim your prize is to email us at info@craftyribbons.com with your address details. Thank you to everyone who left wonderful messages, so pleased you like the new check ribbon as much as we do.
We have nearly cleared the back log of orders, so I am hoping tomorrow I will be able to go back to "my proper" job, of updating the website with NEW goodies and ribbons and to show everyone the last ribbon challenge projects. It's not that I don't like working in the packing dept, because I do - now that I have re-organsied everything!!!! It's just I have lots to share with you all - oh and my office is warm!
Till tomorrow......
Friday FREEBIE
27/11/2009
Phew what a busy time we have been having, but with the weekend looming it must be Friday FREEBIE day!!
I have changed my mind on this weeks prize, I had something else lined up, BUT after playing with the Country Check ribbon that arrived in yesterday......
..... this ribbon is wicked, just look at the colours. Red and white is such a classic Christmas combination and gives a real country Christmas feel.
So what's the prize? How about 10mtr of all the 4 widths - 10mtrs of 7mm, 10mtrs of 15mm, 10mtrs of 24mm and 10mtrs of 40mm, so you can have a true traditional Christmas look.
Wrap it around the banisters, hang christmas cards from it, tie up parcels, decorate garlands and swags - all you have to do to win this weeks Friday FREEBIE is to leave a comment - it's that easy!
We have 2 prizes unclaimed from last week, please send us your address so we can send the goodies to you.
I have several new goodies to share with you, as well as the last ribbon challenge cards and projects BUT we have a back log of orders and I have been put in the packing department AGAIN!!!! By the end of today we hope to have caught up and be back on target - so please forgive us if you have had to wait a little longer for your orders over the past few weeks.
my basket