The Christmas ribbon

Hi!

I've been wanting to post about this for a while, but haven't had the chance. It's my ribbon - a new decoration for me this year.

Have wanted to do something like this for years.

The concept? Hang a ribbon and then make bits to hang on it over a period of time. I always thought I'd do one in my craft room, but never have. All of a sudden this year a Christmas version made sense and out came the ribbon and all the bits I had at the time. A shopping trip to Spotlight was necessary afterwards as well. I love crafty shopping trips. It's always fun to buy stuff when you know what you need and you know you're going to use it straight away. Takes the guilt out of it, I reckon.

Now, all this inspiration hit on Oct 18. I know, very early, but I went with it because I've learned not to flick these things - if the inspiration (and actual time) is there, the time's right.

Here's what I made. I'm very much a "hang the ribbon and make a few bits and then see what we need and see how we want to go from there" type person.

I know, not a lot going on, but it was (still is) a work in progress.

The ribbon is hung between three wall lights in my dining room. In our last house we only had a fluro above the table, which made me feel like we were in an office when having dinner. Fluros are good for working by, not eating by.

In this house I made sure we got some wall lights too, so we could have both the fluro and mellow light options. They've worked, and I've gotta say, those lights have come in very handy for decorating the area too. I've hung all sorts of things from them - baubles, bunting, this ribbon, lots of things. 

Okay, here are some close-ups of the bits.

Cuttlebug die (it's the one that comes with an embossing folder) from red felt. The ric rac is from white felt and is a Papertrey Ink die. The white felt is self-adhesive, which is fab when sticking the ric rac on. Bought it from Spotlight.

Oh, and most of the things are hung with baker's twine (of course) and that thin gold string stuff you buy to hang ornaments from.

This is the Bigz Sizzix die called Pinwheel.

So simple to make because the die cuts the holes for the brad too. I only put brads in the centre of mine, but you can dress them up however you want.

These two are from the same Bigz Sizzix die called Ornaments (I think that's what it's called). I love this die, it's one of my very favourites. And they go beautifully with the Cuttlebug one to make a nice set of three.

Both the ornaments above are felt again.

The tops are made from gold cardstock. I bought mine from a scrapping shop, but have since found it at my local newsagent too, so you might like to check there if you don't have any. You can use yellow bling too - that works.

Okay, that was the first session of making ribbon stuff. Now onto the second session. This was on the first of Nov. 

A little fuller.

Somewhat...

This is from a Sizzix die too. It comes with the stocking, a bauble and an ornament/party light. It's discontinued unfortunately, so I was lucky to get it. Not sure why it got discontinued because Sizzix doesn't have a stocking like this in their range right now as far as I know.

I die cut the stocking in red and then just the top in white. The ric rac is white (self-adhesive) felt again too. Looks cute.

Sizzix ornament again. This time I did a few of them, folded them in half and glued them together to make them 3D.

It doesn't bother me that the tops aren't gold. Not at all.

This one is right in front of the window and when there's a breeze it spins. I like watching it. Pity the pinwheels don't spin. Can't.

Sizzix Pinwheel again, but this time in felt. Nope, can't spin.

You can see how one idea turns into another and then "oh, I've got to try that in felt" happens. You've been there, right? Yep, thought so.

Sizzix ornament again.

That's some paper from last year's My Mind's Eye's Colourful Christmas collection - I was using it up.

And the ribbon's not just for handmade stuff. It's for anything.

Candy canes make for a cheap filler - they're hung using that gold string stuff I mentioned before.

I found the Noel ornament in Woolworths for about $4. I've learned to buy the ornaments I like when I see them.

Also saw the same ornament in Target. They were $2 and were bright pink or purple. I think there were other colours too. Or spaces for them.

And the stocking again, but this time the top is in white glitter paper from Spotlight. It's American Crafts and is about $3 a 12 x 12 sheet. They have lots of colours - it's gorgeous stuff, really glittery and looks fab in real life.

I tell you, Spotlight is a real treasure trove of stuff. I find a lot of fun things down there...

Here's the bunch of stuff I pulled together to make the things for the ribbon.

The gold spray paint is to paint some wooden stars I have. It's sitting on a packet of wooden butterflies that I thought I might paint too. I know, butterflies aren't usually Christmassy, but I thought I'd give 'em a go. I actually just saw some of these butterflies and stars at Photo Continental recently too. They're from Kaisercraft.

What else do I have?

Gold glitter paper, cork sheets and candy stripe ribbon - all from Spotlight.

Not sure if I'll use the cork, but I pulled it out anyway. You never know.

Jingle bells - ooh, these were a real find. Yep, Spotlight.

Not sure how I'm going to use them yet. Maybe in a bunch or hanging under something else...we'll see.

Those letters are from the Tinsel and Twig line that I talked about recently. Was hoping to use them on some bunting of some sort.

So many ideas, so little time!

See the stars? They're the ones I'm going to paint. They'll look nice when they're hung up. Might even put some glitter or something on them.

Mum gave me the little red pegs. I'm not sure where she got them from. You know where I'd go if I was looking for some more, don't you?

Okay, so that's the ribbon. I've added some more things since I took these photos - it's coming together quite well and is a fun addition to the decs around here this year. I think I'm going to be sad to take it down, but I can always do a generic one with flowers and bits on it at some point if I want to. No reason why not. 

What I like too (about the whole concept, not just the Christmas decs bit) is that it's an ongoing thing. If I have a bit of time and just want to make something I have a place to put it afterwards. 

Do you ever buy something new and want to try it out, but you don't want to sit down and make a whole card or anything at the time? Take a new butterfly die for example. Die cut the die out of some pretty paper, punch a hole in it and hang it up. You got to try out your die and you've added something to your ribbon. Nice.

Oh, one other tip. Try to make things that look nice from both sides. The pinwheels have a definite front and back and often I find myself looking at the split pin at the back. I could decorate them with something, but I've left them for now. 

This guy had to come down though...

I made two of him. One for the front of this year's Dec Daily and one for the ribbon.

It was the case of wanting to make this idea I had (the porthole Santa on an ornament rather than a card like I did before), so I went to my desk to do it. I decided what I was going to do with them half way through making them. Do you ever do that?

Anyway, no matter which way I hung him up, he kept turning to the wall and all we could see was the back. I finally just took him down and hung him off one of the shelves on the dresser and now he faces the front all the time. Finally.

The next couple of things I want to make are some of the craft tree ornaments and I also want to do some stars in some other gold paper I found. Oh, and use the jingle bells somehow.

Okay, hope you enjoyed. Talk soon!

:o)