Carols floral delight

Isnt this an absolute treasure?  Read on and find out what Carole has to say about this:

This month the design team at Fantastic Ribbons were asked to create a project with ribbon flowers and for my project I decided to decorate a  summer door wreath.

The  flowers on this wreath are made from a selection of ribbons all available from Fantastic Ribbons. I always have a seasonal wreath on our front door, but  wanted to create an inviting summery wreath for an internal door.

The individual flowers are all very easy to make and were made using three different techniques. I added finishing touches of buttons, beads and felt for the leaves.

To make the 'loopy' flower, just take a small square of card, locate the centre and stitch the ribbon in loops joining at the centre. When you have finished, trim away any excess card and you will have a looped flower like the one below. I have added a second blossom to the centre, along with a bead.

The blossom in the centre of the loopy flower is made by zig zag stitching along a length of ribbon: when you get to the end, just pull it together and sew the ends to create a double ruched affect and a very full blossom.

My third blossom was made by simply making a running stitch along a length of ribbon;pull it in at the end, sew the two ends together and you will have a flower just like the one below, to which I have added some pearl beads.

Thank you very much for visiting and I do hope that you have been inspired to brighten up your rooms with some ribbon for the summer!

We are baaaaaaack!

A slight hiatus and now the team are back with a wonderful challenge this month!  Ribbons and flowers, a sa-weeeeeeeeeeeet combination, is always a winner.  Louise brings you here contribution for you to take inspiration from:

Good Evening to you all. On this fine fresh Spring day the Fantastic Ribbons Design Team will be bringing to you the theme of Flowers this month. 

For the project I had in mind I wanted some light and fluffy flowers and decided to use 

Rhapsodic lace.

A running stitch was placed along one edge of the lace. The stitch was then pulled together to create the scrunched flower. I made two a few (I got a little carried away...) and used them to decorate an over-sized, layered, shaker tag to accompany a thank you pressie. The flowers are just enough to add texture and dimension.

I haven't used lace to make a scrunchie flower before neither have I tried making shaker tags. A friend showed me how and the effect is really lovely.

The twine, lace and button are all from Fantastic Ribbons. 

Thank you for stopping by, I hope you all feel the need to add some ribbon or lace flowers to your projects this month. 

Mothers Day Pretties

Mothers day is always a pretty affair - the team have come up with some very gorgeous projects to share with you that you can use on any girly card and not just for mothers day.

Lets start with Carole's project:

Today is my March Design Team card for Fantastic Ribbons..our theme this month is Mother's Day...

  I chose papers from Tilda and Pink Petticoat..and some fuchsia satin ribbon from Fantastic Ribbons. I wanted the ribbon to be the focal point of the card and tied it in a criss-cross around the front panel, finishing off with a big double bow.

I also decided to make a small box with the left over card, tying it with a selection of ribbons..the fushcia, a pale pink satin and a white heart Grosgrain..all finished with an abundance of bows!

Friends, if you are looking for ribbon take a look at Fantastic Ribbons there a huge choice of gorgeous ribbons, buttons and wash tape.

And now for Louise's project: 

Sunday the 10th March is Mothers Day here in the UK, so the Fantastic Ribbons DT were asked to share their Mothers Day Cards. 

Washi Tape Feathers - have you seen them? 

I first noticed them on Pinterest and decided to make some myself. 

• All you will need is your washi tape and a fine wire.
•  Place a strip of wire down the middle of your washi tape, the length of the tape (and wire) will depend on how long you'd like your feather to be.
• Fold your tape over and down the other side, leaving a little tape at the end with no wire in it.
• Shape your tape by slightly tapering the top and rounding each end.
• Cut into the sides of the tape to create those ruffles.

I look forward to seeing all your projects with your very own handmade washi tape feathers.

 Big or small you can ruffle them all.  

And finally, Bethans project:

The challenge this month at Fantastic Ribbons was to make a mothers day card, sadly I have no one to make one for, but here is a card I made for my lovely Aunt whose birthday was last week.

I used a kraft card base and a selection of wallpapers from the Galerie Memories papers I was given. The main floral image is cut from a border. I added some faux stitching around the outside, some lovely senorita ribbon, then some layered circles and a button with twine. Ribbon and twine are from Fantastic ribbons. The sentiment is a printed one from Kirsty Wiseman, and is punched with a 1.5" circle punch.

I think this would make a lovely mothers day card if you changed the sentiment.

More fun ways to tie....

Marions simple yet stylish ties really do add that lovely finishing touch to your projects, here is what she came up with this month

This month for Fantastic Ribbons we were asked to make BOWS....

So here's what's probably the quickest layout EVER..... With added dimension, thanks to Fantastic Ribbons :) :)



Whoops....sorry the picture's a bit wonky ;)

I quickly made a gathered flower using the red grosgrain and attached it top right of the photo, then I wrapped the lovely Center stitch ribbon around the photo and tied it off in a 'faux' bow then added a multi bow with the bakers twine...


And lastly, I added 'leaves' to the stems of the flowers by way of more 'faux' bows...


And there you have it, a quick and simple layout where the ribbon and paper did all the work !!

Tune in over the next few days for Mothers Day ideas x

Cute way to tie ribbon

Beth has come up with a dinky, cute way to tie ribbon - see what she had to say..........

So this month the challenge for the design team was to do something fantastic with bows! Easy, right?!!

Well I think its fair to say everyone can tie a simple bow (although getting it to sit right on a card isn't always easy), but I decided to do something a little different.
This is a tiered bow.
The great thing about this type of bow is that you can use up all your scrap pieces of ribbon.

I used 3 different types of ribbon, varying lengths and widths, and used some white cotton thread to tie them together, as I was putting an embellishment over them. You could just as easily use another piece of ribbon to tie them together to get a nice neat finish. Think I'll try that on another card!

 Here it is on the card, and I put a length of the main ribbon along the card too.

The card is for our next door neighbours who have just had their first little one, and I cut the name on my Silhouette Portrait. The concentric circle stamps are Waltzingmouse Teeny Trees, and the Special delivery date stamps are from Post Marks PTI, and the Welcome little one is from a Hero Arts Baby set. Ribbon is from, of course, Fantastic Ribbons

Beautiful way to tie ribbon

Carole has come up the the most luscious way to tie ribbon.  This sumptuous card has the team all drooly and ribbon-happy.  Here is what she has to show you:

For this month's Design Team Projects for Fantastic Ribbons we were asked to create projects with bows. I love ribbons and bows on cards, so I chose to make three cards with different bows.
Most of us use ribbons on our cards..some of us all of the time, others less often. I think a bow, either big and bold or small and simple can really give cards that finishing touch and sometimes give them that 'wow!' factor.
I had some lovely red ribbons to work with, so with it being the 'Month of Love', I have made some cards with romance in mind!
For my first card I made a bow by gathering one length of ribbon in folds all meeting in the middle and secured with a brad..this is much like you would make a bow for a gift. This particular ribbon is also wired, which makes it easy to shape as you like.The brad is hidden with a glittered 3D foam heart.

For  second card I used the same ribbon, but this time made a double bow by using two lengths of ribbon and tying them together at the same time. Double bows have to be my favourite style tying a ribbon.

Finally I used a  heart motif ribbon, folded outwards from the middle each side, secured with extra strong tape and finished off in the centre with a button.

So come on, get out those ribbons and start tying...even your little off cuts can be tied in the middle to make a simple little bow!

Tying bows

Lets face it we all struggle from time to time.

Well why not take a gander at this months DT's challanges as they take you through some cool bow ideas.  We know you are hoarding that ribbon JUST for challenges like these.

Louise starts us off with her veeeeeeeeeeeeery pretty bows:

I don't think tying a bow is as easy as I looks and after many attempts over the years I tend to make bows by piecing together lengths of ribbon and building them up. 

I chose ribbon to match the patterned paper and found the bright colours worked well.

The big orange bow has been made from four lengths of ribbons.

 Each length a little shorter than the last. 

The ends of each length have been stuck together to form a circle.

 The circles are flattened and laid on top of each other. 

A narrower contrasting colour ribbon has been placed over the middle to hold the four lengths in place. 

The green bow has been made in the same way with a brad to hold the top two lengths together. 

 

 

used: Orange Grosgrain 22mm and orange Grosgrain 9mm white dot

I really love the same colour combination of the wide and narrow ribbon.

used: kiwi 22mm dot

Go and get prettifying those ribbons, crafters!