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.

Everlasting Corsage of Roses for a Winter Celebration

How many of you have paid for a beautiful fresh corsage only to have it collapse during the day?  This post, I hope will help you to avoid this and show you how to make your own corsage.

Here is the finished article and I guarantee that it will look this good next week and next month.
So, to get yourself started you will need:

1 really large rose
2 curly roses
barrel roses
small rose buds
medium rose buds
Ribbon





  If you look above you will see what I used. Now, apart from the larger roses, you can vary the others a little. However, you will need lots of sizes. You will not get the same effect if you use all of the same size flowers so be warned.

I layered the smaller roses as shown below.

 

Start with the barrel at the top and gradually work down.Twist the stems together as you go.

Put the large rose in the centre and then twist the wires together at the back of the corsage so that they lie flat. At this point, this is what you'll end up with.

Add any of the barrel roses that you will use and twist in to place. You will see that there are barrel roses on one side and small buds on the other. You need that to balance out the design.

 

Do not be tempted to add the really large rose too soon. Get everything into place first and then twist in the large rose.

 

 Now add the last of the small roses and twist. Add the last of the large curly roses. twist into place.

To make the bow, fold the ribbon in a figure of eight shape and then go over the figure for a second time. Wrap the wire of one of the pearls around the centre of the ribbon and use the remaining part to wrap around the corsage and secure it in place.

Now you have youe corsage that you can wear, but have you thought about making several corsages and using them as table decorations? They make your table look superb.

Trying out a new technique

I'm in the middle of making cards from the Flower Power stamps from I Brake for Stamps which is a super versatile set of images. I've made quite a few lately and this one is the latest.

The new technique is to use just a part of the stamp for a different effect. I also rotated the stamp so that it faced in different directions to make the tulips look as if they were growing in differing ways. The stamps were coloured with Art and Graphic pens from Kuretake which are available here.
The sheet of stamps is available here.
The ribbon here.
Happy crafting,
Yvonne

Daisies always bring a little sunshine

Many of you that heve visited my blog of late have probably noticed a flurry of creative activity. You all, no doubt, know that I'm off to Westpoint in Exeter in a couple of weeks and that I've been making as many samples as possible with stamps and lots and lots of flowers. Today. I've made a card with flowers, but I've stamped them rather than using the mulberry paper ones. I'm using the daisy stamps from the I Brake for Stamps Flower Power sheet today. I felt the need to move on from the Glamour Girls for a little while just in case you thought that I was becoming obsessed. One of the wonderful things about this card is that it's made with very little stash: 2 small stamps available here 1 small saying a scrap of ribbon available here some punched circles The leaves are the holly leaves cut down so if you have any left over fron Christmas then get snipping to make them into something else. Just hope that your friends are not botanically minded. As the ribbon is tied on, I'm entering this card in the Craft Your Passion challenge for something tied on. Tip Top Tuesday Anything Goes

The tulips are back

Many of you have seen this tulip stamp before and it's one

of my favourites as it's so versitile. I've chosen to pair it with some of the craft fairy blooms and a button with some ribbon.

I've used Sketch 96 from the wonderful CPS as a basis for my design. You can look there for more interpretation of the same sketch.


To make this card you will need to use the fuschia stamp from the flower power stamp sheet from I Brake for Stamps which you can get by clicking here For all those who want to see all of the stamps on this £10 sheet here it is:
I also used a sentiment from the Inspirational Sayings plate for the words on the card.
The ribbons are:
16mm Pink Organza
9mm azelia organza

To make this card

Stamp the image with Stazon in Stone Grey.
Colour it with the Art and Graphic pens 202, 200 and 56.
Stamp the saying and mount both the saying and the image onto pink card. Use 3D foam pads to attach both to the base card.
Tie a length of pink and azelia ribbon to the card and embellish the knot with a flower.
Happy crafting
Yvonne