Ribbon wreath for inspiration

Today I have a ribbon wreath for a little Christmas inspiration. I don't have a photo tutorial for you as I forgot to photograph it as I went along but I can give you written instructions instead.

Basically what I used for this was a 20 cm polystyrene wreath that came from a twin pack that I bought in the Range for a £1. Yes, you did read that right, 2 for a £1. I was shocked that they could be so cheap.

I stuck a piece short (about 6cm), of double sided ribbon to the outside edge of the wreath and stuck the end of the ribbon to it and started winding until I reached the end of the piece of double sided. The I stuck the next piece onto it. I continued to wind and stick until I got to the end and then I stuck the end to the back of the wreath.

Now take a piece of the wired tartan ribbon and create a loop at the top of the ribbon. Tie a bow to the loop with a couple of extra tails to make it look fuller.

Finish with a couple of really large roses to create a colourful Christmas ribbon wreath.

All items used for this wreath are available here at Craft Fairy.

Organza Ribbon flower

Well I must say that I do seem to be on a roll as far as these ribbon flowers are concerned and this is the latest. Ribbon and button offer.

What you will have in this tutorial is the basis bow that will allow you to build up lots more bows. I've kept this simple for you so I hope that you're ready to play along.

You won't need much to make this, just:

1.5 metres of 23mm ribbon. ( The wider the ribbon, the fuller the flower. If you use thinner ribbon you will need to wrap it more to get the fullness. All will become clear).
1 large button
a scrap of contrasting ribbon
thread
needle
1 piece of still cardboard 5cm x 15cm. ( Cut it off an old cardboard box).

To make the flower:

Start with cut piece of ribbon at the top of the card as seen.

Wrap the ribbon around the cardboard overlapping the pieces as you go. Tie a good knot in your thread ( don't worry as it's not going to be seen) and sew a running stitch along the bottom edge of the ribbon.

 Slide the ribbon off the cardboard.

 Pull the thread abd it will ruffle up the ribbon.

When you've pulled tight you can sew the two edges together at the back of the flower and open out the loops. Now you can leave it like this if you like.

 Or you can.....Cut the tops off the loops at a diagonal as shown.

Thread the scrap ribbon through the button and tie tightly. Sew in place in the center of your flower.

Do you like it?

Now I've put an offer on the Craft Fairy home site as usual so that you can get this ribbon at a lower price.
Click here for the offer.

Christmas Ribbon Rosette

Have you noticed how rosettes of all shapes and sizes are becoming high fashion itmas and are being worn by so many people, crafty and otherwise? This is why I've chosen to do my latest project of a ribbon rosette and I've made it in Christmas colours so that it is in time for the coming holidays.

What's even better, is that I've put together an offer for you over on the mothership ( AKA http://www.craftfairy.co.uk/ ) so that you don't have to search around for each product and you will also get a discount by buying the lot! Even better. Click here for the offer.

So let's get on with it. You will need:

16mm red with green dots grosgrain ribbon. This should be cut into 4 x 15cm lengths.

16mm willow green grosgrain ribbon cut into 6 x 10cm lengths

1 piece of satin edged chiffon in a 30 cm length. No need to cut this in to short pieces.

1 red button

1 length of strong green thread.

1 strong needle. I know that I've said this before, but when you have to sew through several layers of grosgrain you will not be able to manage with a thin needle. A thimble is also a good extra to have.

Thread your needle and lay out the cut lengths of willow grosgrain as shown.

Secure the legths of ribbon in the centre with a couple of stitches to stop them moving when you sew the next layers. Your needle should now be on the right side of the work.

 

 Take one of the 15cm strips, form a loop and center the bottom of the loop on the underneath as shown in the image. The edges should overlap about 1cm. Push the needle up through the bottom of the loop, trying to get as closely centered both lengthwise and width wise as you can.

Pull first loop down the thread to sit on top of the bottom ribbons, then repeat process for remaining 3 loops. When all are threaded, arrange  them so they are evenly spaced in a nice circular arrangement. As you will see below.

Nearly there.

Now concertina fold the satin edged chiffon so that the folds are slightly narrower than the ones below and thread the needle up through the centre. Fan the folds out and stitch into place. It is at this point that you will be glad that you have a strong needle. Sew the button into the centre of the rosette.

Last of all you will need to trim the bottom layer of ribbon

on a slant. Then seal the edges with the flame of a tea light, This is by far the safest way to do it. The open flame of the gas hob is a bit too erractic. Finished.

Poinsettia Wreath for Christmas

Some of you may remember the poinsettia flower that I did as a tutorial a few weeks ago. I pondered and pondered about what I could do with it and finally this wreath is what I came up with.

If you want to make one then you will need some red felt to make the wreath and some kapok to stuff it. I cut out a circle of felt. I used a large ribbon reel but feel free to improvise and use whatever you have in the house. The centre was marked with a reel of beading wire that I happened to have handy.

The wreath is sewn together using good old blanket stitch and stuffed with kapok just before it is completely sewn together. Sew the poinsettias to the wreath.

I uesd a 38mm satin ribbon in teal to make the bow and the hanging ribbon. You can buy it from Craft Fairy here.

Snowman and Holly for Christmas

Over the last couple of years it seems that Christmas has been geting colder and there have been far more snowmen around so the theme for this year's Christmas cards has to be: Snowman and Holly.
I decided to make it with some of the new ribbon that arrived with Craft Fairy last week.



To make this card you will need:

Snowman with checkered scarf rubber stamp from the Merry Stamper range on the Craft Fairy site.
Holly leaves
Candy Cane Christmas ribbon
Art and Graphic pens by Zig, Kuretake in colours 29 and 50
Some vintage Doodlebug paper : Jolly Holly stripe
Kuretake Calligraphy pen in silver for the border of the image and the card.
Stazon in Stone grey
14 cm x 14 cm base card in white plus extra for the stamped image
Foam pads
glue
Double sided tape

To make the card
Stamp (with Stazon), and colour your image on a spare piece of white card.
Edge the card with the silver calligraphy pen
Stick a piece of Christmas paper onto the bottom of your card.
Tie an esy bow in the ribbon and use the double sided tape to attach it to the card.
Attach the image and the holly leaves to the card with foam pads. Attahc a button to the holly leaves.
Draw a dot dash pattern on the edgeof the card as seen.
As an extra advantage I decide to enter it into the let it snow, Simon Says Challenge and the Paper Take Weekly challenge for Cut it Out.

Super fun Christmas

This is a card for the grumpy old ladies in us all.

Are you all getting ready for Christmas? If you are then here’s a rather different card for you to make this month. It’s a funny one for a change.




You will need: 1 base card 140mm x 140mm,
I used white linen card.
1 piece of white card 1 piece of red card
1 piece of doodlebugs jolly holly paper
1 length of 9mm red saddle stitch ribbon
1 sentiment and the package lady stamp from the 'Censorship' sheet of unmounted rubber stamps.
Stazon in Stone Gray
A selection of pens to colour the image.
H2O waterbrush from Kuretake.
paper glue 3d foam pads.

To make the card Stamp the image onto a piece of white linen card. Colour it in and trim the card to leave a fairly generous border around the image. Stick the image card to the red card and trim to leave a thin border. Stamp the sentiment onto another piece of white card and mount onto red card and trim to leave a similar size border. Cut a piece of jolly holly paper to cover about a 1/3rd of the card and stick to the base card. Tie a knot in the ribbon and use it to cover the join. Stick the images to the card with 3d foam pads.

Colour Challenge

Roses on Paper & Belles 'n Whistles combined Challenge Blog! have a colour challenge for Cranberry, Hunter Green and/or Gold! so I just had to make this little book and use those three colours. I've just spotted a challenge for embossing on Inky impressions so I just had to enter that too. What a surprise.

The stamp is from the new stamps from 'I Brake for Stamps' that can be found in out new in section on the Craft Fairy site.

The image was embossed in old gold embossing powder that I had in my stash and it was then coloured in using the, Zig, Kuretake Art and Graphic pens.

I love this stamp as I think that it looks really rich and baroque. Just perfect for Christmas. Next, I plan to make it look very late spring, early summer which is when the poppies bloom.

Poinsettia Card for Christmas

When else you might ask, but all will be revealed later on in the year when I show you how to use a poinsettia stamp that is not for Christmas. Today, however, I've decided to use this lovely stamp in the Red and Green challenge

I know that I've made red and green cards already but this one is really traditional so here are some details as well as the card.

All items linked below are available from Craft Fairy.

Poinsettia stamp from Stampinback

Red grosgrain ribbon with white dots

Pens for colouring: Art and Graphic pens from Kuretake; colours 1, 32, 57

Happy crafting.

Humorous Senior Christmas Card

The Challenge today on Charizma Cards is a sketch and as I've been making Christmas cards recetly, this seems to be the logical thing to do.

This hilarious image is from one of our ever popular stamp sheets that can be bought by clicking on the image of the sheet below.

Merry Christmas to you all.

Oh Christmas Tree!

A fairly cliched title to this post I know but you're entitled to be cliched at Christmas. It's the best time to be so.

For this post I've used one of our fabulous Christmas stamps that are so reasonably priced. This one is the green Christmas tree. Very modern, don't you think?

The card is simple too as I wanted to keep the lines very clean. So this is what I came up with:

This card is made with nestabilities and doodlebug paper but the star of the show is the tree image in the centre.

Ribbon is 3mm red ribbon with white spots.

Snowman card from our new stamps

We have a set of fantastic new stamps in the online Craft Fairy store and I've made a card from just one of the little snowmen. He is just the perfect size for an A6 card and I'm sure that you'll love him too.

To make this card you will need the snowman stamp which at only £3 is a super bargain.

Some of our dotty red satin ribbon.

I also used Doodlebug paper from my stash and Kuretake pens to colour up the stamp.