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Hello wednesday - bias love

26/06/2013

Don't you just LOVE wednesday's? Say hello to wednesday "hello wednesday" It's all downhill from now on to the weekend - yippee!!!

Todays project may not be for you, but it made a little girl very, very happy.

Mollie asked if I could make a rain cover for her dolly's pushchair, as baby was getting wet. Oh, Mollie I do not know how to make one. "But Ali you can make everything" came Mollies reply with a little quivering lip.

Oh dear, so I put my thinking cap on. It was not until I was doing a bit of sorting out at home, that I came across one of those zipped plastic bags that duvets and such come in. It was edged in blue plastic all the way round the seams. Perfect the plastic would be strong enough to sew. I was really excited and showed it to Mollie. "But Ali its blue and baby is pink" Mollie informed me. So I let her choose her bias binding here and went home to sew.

Ta da!!! One baby pushchair rain cover edged with plain bias binding. Bias binding ties allow for it to be removed when it is not raining - very practical Ali!

Mollie was over the moon and I have restored her faith in her auntie Ali.

Thanks for your wonderful orders over the weekend, you do like your buttons. You caught us slightly, and even I have been helping pull orders this week! Bev did inform me that I was rather slow weighing the buttons out - I was rummaging about while weighing!!

Button flowers - sit back and relax

21/06/2013

Morning everyone, last day of our Button flower week - boo hooo, I have so many more ideas.

We had some NEW buttons arrive and I just had to have a play.

You have seen these flowers before BUT not in these awesome colours.

There are 8 different colours in assorted flower shapes.
I only used the large shapes but there are smaller ones too.

Just straight stitching to make the stems and then sew the flowers on top.
How easy is that?

You can find these flowers here

But that is not ALL...................
Due to the quantity we now buy our buttons in from the factory.................
we have been given a bigger discount.............
and we have passed it on to you.
YEAH!

We believe we have the largest selection of assorted buttons on the UK web,
some of which are EXCLUSIVE to us.
All our assorted buttons can be found here and start from only £1.25 for 50g

BUT THAT IS NOT ALL

We hope we have inspired you with our button projects this week, so we are having a flash button sale

ALL our Basics 2 Go Buttons are reduced by 20%

For this weekend ONLY

Grab some button love before Midnight on Sunday.

Mono winner is......

21/06/2013

Number 7 = Dorothy

Fantastic display and i love the ribbons,hope I win

Congratulations Dorothy you have a super collection of Mono ribbons. Please email bev.craftyribbons@gmail.com with your address to claim your prize.

Many thanks to everyone that left us a great comment.

Have a great weekend.

Button flowers - button on buttons

20/06/2013

After my uphill mountain climb of yesterday I have gone for another stroll round the park project today.

Button on buttons nothing could be easier then these little beauties.

See I said they were easy!

Cut a disk of felt or card just slightly larger then your middle button.

Arange 5 similar sized buttons around the outside and glue in place.
Glue the centre button on top to cover the disk and you have your button flower.

You could add faux stitching, but maybe less is more today.

I used our exclusive range of knit buttons here, but any buttons will work.

The hardest part is selecting just 6 buttons!

If you have been tempted to go button shopping - hold off until tomorrow!
I have several new colours going onto the site and you never know you might just fall in love..........

Button flowers - summer brooch

19/06/2013

These are my Mount Everest!
My night demon.

I started with a small mountain..............
Machine embroidered the centre, hand sewed the ribbons and buttons as well as the brooch pin on the back.

.........and then I went for it!
Full on - all the way round the felt flower and then the fabric flower.

What are you talking about Ali?

HAND SEWING

I can hold a needle!
YEAH!
Well sort of, not very elegantly, I would not make it into the Royal School of Embroidery....

BUT I can hand sew again.
I can not feel the needle from below the knuckle, but with the aid of my other fingers I have worked it out.
For those of you new to our blog, I had a accident and crushed my finger here.

I was so pleased with myself, talk about a cheshire cat!
Look proper hand sewing, small running stitches.
The little ribbon label reads "Sew a little happiness" here - Rock on tommy - that's me!!

No stopping me now - I went for blanket stitch................

Ribbon embroidery is my next mountain.

I think this would be a very special point in time to thank Tony and Bev.
They both have been so patient and kind to me.
Please forgive my "Finger tantrums" my paddys have been spectacular at times.
Frustration is evil, sewing has been part of my life since I was 4.
The thought of being unable to sew....................

Button flowers - ribbon and buttons

18/06/2013

How could I have a flower week without using ribbons as well. No way jose!

As Mollie would say "Oh cute Ali!

Three pieces of Swiss dot grosgrain ribbon here cut into lengths of 12cms.
Fold the ribbon in half to mark the centre.
Fold the cut edges to the centre and glue or sew to secure.
Repeat the folding/gluing stage above on the other two pieces of ribbon.

Join all three bits of ribbon in the centre with a blob of glue, to form the cartwheel shape.

With matching thread to the ribbon, sew stitches into a white button here, secure the thread with a knot at the back.
Stick the button onto the ribbons.

These are a smaller vision of my big ribbon brooch - instructions here

Any idea what I made these for - or should that be who I made them for?

Miss Mollie.

Button flowers - paper & buttons

17/06/2013

Oooh for once I have all my projects made for this week...tee hee.
But which one shall I show first..................

Only fair that I start with the first button flowers I made.

Paper flowers with button centres.

Circles cut from several different papers. One is an old music sheet.
I have inked the edges of some of the circles, just to make them slightly different.

I think you can all see how they are made, I had Sydney my niece making them in seconds!

Punch 7 circles from paper, 6 for the flower and 1 for the flower base.
Fold a small section of the circle over, repeat on the other side.
Repeat with all 6 petals.

Put a big pile of silicone glue onto the 7th circle and arrange the petals onto the glue.
Just fiddle with them until they fit.
Leave to dry.

I used our Cream buttons here, they went perfectly with the papers.
With embroidery thread I stitched across the holes just
to make it look as if they had been sewn.

I then used a hot glue gun to stick the button to the flower,
you can still see some of my glue threads!

I glued a selection of these flowers onto a box lid, added a few extra buttons to fill the gaps.
So easy a child (Sydney) can make these!

Friday FREEBIE - a little mono

14/06/2013

We just love it at Crafty Ribbons when our customers show us what they have used our ribbons for......

.........and over the moon when they get First prize.

Alison entered this bouquet into the Guildford Country Show.
The title of the competition was to design a hand tied bouquet for a rascal.

Alison choose Cruella de Ville from the 101 Dalmations.

We would like to congratulate you Alison, an amazing creation and a well deserved first prize
and thanks for sharing your success with us..

What would you make with a selection of our mono ribbons...........
..................any ideas jump to mind?

Do tell, we would love to know. Leave us a comment and we will pick a winner from our "Bingo" bag next Thursday.

Have a great weekend.

If you are unable to leave a comment due to our spam filters (comment disappears when screen is refreshed), please email it to craftyribbons@gmail.com and we will add it for you. Winner(s) will be announced on Thursday.
Please check back to see if you have won, it is up to you to claim your prize - we do not contact you.

Button flowers

13/06/2013

How many different button flowers can we make?
Janet popped into the office last week on the hunt for some buttons and she got me thinking.

I have been sticking, sewing, machining - oh, all sorts,
and have created a different button flower for everyday next week.

Janet can get your inspiration popping with her fresh button bouquet.

She found some old silk flowers on stems removed the sad looking flowers
and added our buttons.

Janet used our flower buttons here.
She joined them together with embroidery thread and glued them to the stems.
So simple and truly effective.

Thanks Janet - you can come button raiding anyday!

Hello wednesday - say it with a heart

12/06/2013

Don't you just LOVE wednesday's? Say hello to wednesday "hello wednesday" It's all downhill from now on to the weekend - yippee!!!

Need an idea for a quick fathers day prezzie? Then this may be just the thing for you.

I used an old chart from our sailing days, but you could use a map. If you have a favourite place you like to visit, or a special holiday then it would be perfect to use that map. I drew a heart shape on to paper and then cut it out. I laid it on top of my chart to get the position correct. Stuck it with a few bits of tape and then cut round my heart.

The box canvas I have had for ages and came from The Works. I used décopatch glue to stick the heart to the frame, covering it with the glue. Once dry I used our new Navy buttons here to stick around the heart shape.

It looks brill on a brick wall - maybe in a garage, perfect for Dad.