Hello wednesday - 3 Tea Towels
08/06/2011
Don't you just LOVE wednesday's? Say hello to wednesday "hello wednesday" It's all downhill from now on to the weekend - yippee!!!
I seem to have lost my crafting Mojo. It upped and left me about two weeks ago, not a needle or a bit of sticky tape have I handled. I didn't even do any crafting with Syd, I got all the bits out for her to have a play and then walked away. Poor Syd I will make it up to her. Oh I have the ideas but I do not have the ummmmph to craft. Somebody please tell me it will come back soon.
Thankfully I had already finished this project before Mojo decided to up sticks and leave me. Another one of my "What can you do with Tea Towels?".
Honest - this bag is made from a pack of 3 tea towels from Wilkinsons, If I remember correctly they were £3.25 for the set. Two blue ones and 1 pink and they have that perfect cotton feel. I used one blue tea towel for the inside and then the other two were used for the handles, bag and the pocket inside. As soon as I spotted these towels I knew I had some perfect ribbon to match. Polka dots, swiss dots, random dots - what ever you call them are "so" in at the moment. You can find this 25mm white grosgrain polka dot ribbon HERE.
I am not a patchworker so if I show you this close up, do not look too closely at the joining seams!!
I simply cut 9 squares in pink and 9 in blue to make both sides of the bag, sewed them together to create the chequer board effect.
The fabric I had left was used for the handles.....
.....one pink and one blue handle! I sewed the ribbon onto the handles and then all the way round the bag. Don't forget when sewing ribbon sew each side in the same direction - DO NOT sew one side and then turn it around and sew back in the other direction, the ribbon will not like it and will start to pucker.
I do like bags that you can put things in, ok that may sound a bit odd. But some bags are so flat that you have to squeese everything in and then take it all out when you want something. Hence why I made a box bottom to my bag.
Perfect for taking all my bits to work each day. It has been overloaded rather in the last few weeks. We have been sourcing Christmas Ribbon - please do not shout at me for mentioning Christmas! But if we do not find and secure our Christmas Ribbon NOW then you will only have other peoples left overs at Christmas!!
Today is the final selection meeting. Samples have been arriving for weeks, how many different Santas are there......boy do some look grumpy when put onto ribbon! I spent the weekend surrounded by santa's, snowmen, holly in red, green and golds (someother scrummy colours too but sorry my lips are sealed!). I had them all laid out on the carpet, Tony kept coming in and checking on me, I could him mumbling "Oh Christmas" in a bah humbug type of way. No wonder my Mojo has gone AWOL.
So today is the day, everyone is involved a full blown Crafty Ribbons board meeting. We have decided to do it in a big way this year, we are setting the scene to get us into the Christmas Spirt. Sarah is bringing in some Christmas CD's to have playing in the background. Rachels mum is making us a Christmas cake, Rachie was going to try and make some mince pies (she is painting at home at the mo so not sure if she would have the time). Bev is making us hot Chocolates with foamy cream, rather then tea. We are going to turn the AC on full so that we are freezing and............. we have a bah humbug hat for Tony!
Wish us luck.
Friday stand in
06/06/2011
Thanks to everyone that sent me get well soon messages, I am feeling much better although I would not say I am back to normal- but as the girls said this morning "You will never be normal Ali!". Not too sure how to take that. Also thanks to my stand in, didn't he do well!
I have been busy this afternoon taking photos of the button challenge goodies, wow what stunning creations you have all sent back, they are truly scrumptious, more about those later.
But first it is the Friday FREEBIE winner, as Sydney is still on half term until tomorrow, she grabbed the "Bingo" bag first. Ummm sorry about the orange fingers, we had been painting. So who is the winner of our £20 voucher?
The winner is Number 3 = Dee
Hope you feel much better very soon Ali. I`d love to be entered in the Friday Freebie 22 for a voucher - sooo many lovely things to choose from!
Best Wishes
Dee W
Congratulations Dee, please email me at craftyribbons@gmail.com and I will send you all the details to start spending! Any ideas what you may choose Dee? Do tell, I am sure everyone would like to have a virtual look in your basket.
Back to the button challenge, I just have to show you this first (I will do a proper button showcase tomorrow) I think he is super.
Sorry it is such a quick posting, but I have a snowman waitiing for a decision.......
Friday FREEBIE - 22
03/06/2011
Hi all it's me Tony, OK I know you do not hear from me a lot, I am more of a back room boy!
Ali is a bit under the weather today, and did not even feel like sitting at her computer. She asked if I would set this weeks Friday FREEBIE. By the time she finished telling me what to do she could have written the posting herself, I could say "That's women for you" but as 99.9% of our blog is read by women I had better not!
Following Ali's instructions to the letter - as this is the first Friday of June it is Voucher Friday. Who would like to have a £20 voucher to spend on our goodies - ribbons, buttons or both.
For a chance to win, leave us a coment and the little ones will do their thing on Monday with the "Bingo" bag.
That's it, think I have remembered everything, not too many tellings off I hope.
Have a great weekend and I am sure Ali will be back with you next week.
Tony x
Hello wednesday - 1 today
01/06/2011
Don't you just LOVE wednesday's? Say hello to wednesday "hello wednesday" It's all downhill from now on to the weekend - yippee!!!
Hello wednesday is a year old this week - a different ribbon/button project or idea for every week of the year!! Wow how did I do that?
HAPPY BIRTHDAY HELLO WEDNESDAY
Please join me with a stroll down memory lane the hello wednesday way!
It is amazing how much you forget, to jog your memory just click on the project title and it will take you back in time.
Hello wednesday for Dad Dino Day
Poms Away! Belt it in Ribbon Jars
Scarlet Magic party plates just add ribbon
Ribbon Apron Dotty Hearts from the vine
with this ring Lavender? up, up and away
Hair spikes Spooky Ribbon wands
Funky Christmas Bowdabra Bag for a heart
Winnie witch Recycle with Jumbo Button necklace
Away from home Ribbon clock Paper heart
Valentine card lots of ruffles Seam Binding rose
Cute as a.... Ribbon pansies Button beauties
2 ribbons & card only Wear a bit of ribbon Necklace time
Button baby Royal colours LOVE
T shirt blooms Tea towel aprons The Royal Cushion
Buttonflies Ribbon carnations Pirate school
Relax in style
We all hope you enjoy your Hello wednesday fix each week, it is amazing how versatile ribbon can be, from cards to jewellery, cushions to aprons, clothing to gifts - ribbon is SIMPLY AMAZING!
I have more hello wednesday projects and ideas planned. Some take me ten or fifteen minutes to think up, others take several weeks.
I always have something on the go, at the mo only 4!
p.s The eagle eyed of you will notice that there are only 49 photos - but remember in December we had the Advent Crafty Truck, which was also packed with ideas, tips and projects.
Umbrella for rain or shine?
31/05/2011
Rain or shine.....not sure the weather has any idea what it is doing at the moment. So take an umbrella with you....just in case. You are loving the NEW umbrella colours we introduced on Friday, the red is in the lead.
Mollie and Sydney have been using their umbrella as a sun shade today, making camp, it kept them busy for hours - it's half term (arrrrgh) so expect to see a little crafting this week.
I interrupted their game to get some help with the Friday FREEBIE draw.
This weeks winner of the WANT IT ALL Collection of Umbrella ribbons is....
Number 39 = Pam T
What lovely ribbons, I think I could make good use of them. Enjoy your weekend everyone.
Whether you use them for rain or shine Pam you have some super ribbons, all we need is your address please to craftyribbons@gmail.com I thought your ideas of Get Well cards and Under the Weather cards were brilliant. What super imaginations you all have. Thanks to everyone for your cool comments and we hope you had a good bank holiday despite the weather.
OOOOPS! I have made a boo boo. A big sorry to Anji, her Seam Binding Challenge goodies had got mixed up with the NEW Button Challenge (I will start to showcase these this week) so huge apologies for being so late with them.
What a super soft bag, lovely seam binding bag and plaited handle, but it is not until you turn it over..........
.......WOW that is super cool. Ribbon weaving with Seam Binding could not have been easy Anji.
As I was moving the bag about, ooooh there was something inside......
....a pretty necklace. Did you paint the flowers on the beads Anji - they are wicked. What a fresh colour to wear this summer. Thank you Anji, and once again sorry for getting them mixed up.
I think Beryl has come up with a NEW Challenge for us - how many Crafty Ribbons products can you use on 1 card.
Well I can count 6 - Purple Ric Rac, Christmas Teddy Button, 3 small buttons from our Button Boxes, and Purple Star ribbon. WOW can anyone beat that?
An awesome card Beryl and many thanks for sharing it with us, Beryl has also sent me some super photos of cards using the Pirate ribbon she won the other week. I promise to share them with you later in the week.
I am expecting a delivery this week, a super large delivery with some super NEW Ribbons. Ooooo I do like deliveries!!!
Friday FREEBIE - 21
27/05/2011
Will you be needing one of these today?
Is it going to rain or not? Just to be on the safe side why not take an umbrella with you......we have added 12 NEW fun Summery colours to our Umbrella range of grosgrain ribbons. With colours to match any of the summer events, Ascot - Hot Pink, Wimbledon - White Pastels, Isle of Wight Festival - Turquoise there is a colour for all. Go and have a dabble with a few umbrellas HERE.
Give you something to smile about, imagine - There I am laying flat out on my tummy in our carpark, just cleared the area of dead leaves, camera ready, set up my two little green wellies, added the first pink ribbon, then the turquoise about to place the white.....when......"What you doing Ali?" Thump as Mollie lies on the floor by my side "Mollie help" she grabs the pink ribbon, topples the wellies - "Mollie likes pink ribbon". She gets up and walks away, I might add still holding her new ribbon!!! The pains and troubles I have to go through to photograph ribbons!!!
Would anyone like some Umbrella Ribbon? We have two WANT IT ALL Collections for this weeks Friday FREEBIE prize - 16mtrs in each collection all 1mtr long. If you do then you know what to do - that's right leave us a comment and we will pick the two winners from our "Bingo" bag on Tuesday.
Have a great weekend, and we really hope you will not need those umbrellas this Bank holiday weekend!
If you are unable to leave a comment due to our spam filters, please email it to craftyribbons@gmail.com and we will add it for you. All the comments go into our "Bingo" bag and we draw a random number(s) on Tuesday.
Please check back to see if you have won, it is up to you to claim your prize - we do not contact you.
Spread the word....
26/05/2011
....we have three NEW Button Boxes....
Hearts Hearts Hearts - as the name suggests this box is full of nothing else but HEARTS!
Dolly Mixture - a box of shapes, circles, squares, hearts, stars and more!
Angel Delight - fluffy pink, smooth and silky!
Still great value at £4.50 each or any 3 boxes for £10 find them all HERE
Sadly we have LIMITED STOCK of Choc Chip and Strawberry & Cream Button Boxes. If you have had your eye on these two boxes, please do order them soon as we are unable to repeat them.
We have also added these to our range of buttons.....
As you can see the hearts are bevelled with a shank on the back, they are about 20mm square.
We think they are fab, and at 40p each rather a bargain! You can find them HERE
I was just writing this posting when a email arrived from Beryl, she said a little "thanks Ali" this morning! She needed some small buttons to finish off a card.
She found just what she was looking for in our Button Boxes! Perfect timing Beryl - thanks.
Super card Beryl, I do love the buttons in the flowers - just what the card needed!
As promised here are a few pics of the ring cushion Lucy made for her daughters wedding.
Lucy made this along the style of my Hello wednesday ring cushion (here) but with one large rose rather than 9 small ones.
Close up of the centre heart detail.
Look at the back, it is also beatutiful.
And your little fairy charm is wicked.
So pleased you enjoyed the wedding, your cushion is wonderful Lucy. Your daughter is very lucky to have such a talented mum. Thank you for sharing your creations with us, it brings such delight to us to see what our ribbons and buttons are turned into.
surprise party
25/05/2011
We arranged a surprise birthday party for Ali....
....we even had Buzz, a fairy and a princess arrive....
...a party with yummy cupcakes.....
...and birthday cake with candles!!....
...everyone helping Ali blowing out the candles.....
Hello wednesday - relax in style
25/05/2011
Don't you just LOVE wednesday's? Say hello to wednesday "hello wednesday" It's all downhill from now on to the weekend - yippee!!!
As soon as I saw Bev's NEW Ribbon Bag (here) I was itching to play with the ribbons. But what could I make?
Chatting away to Bev on Friday gave me a spark of an idea.....
She mentioned that she had been trying to relax on her lounger in the garden while watching Sam playing, but could not get comfy. She said she needed a sun lounger pillow. Oooh perfect I thought, I can do that.
So Saturday morning I had a play. I machined several strips of ribbon from Bev's New ribbon Bag onto some lime fabric. I put a backing on it, turned it through, and gave it a good iron. I decided it was too big for a lounger pillow, so turned it into an "Oxford" Pillow case by machining a distance away from the edge. I added a few hand sewn buttons from our Jelly Bean Button Box (here) to the corners and I had a perfect relaxing pillow for Bev.
The hardest part of this Hello wednesday project was trying to take the photos. I am sure it was a force 10 gale, the daisies were almost bent double and the pillow kept blowing away!!! I must have looked a right sight if any one had seen me, but thankfully all the other inhabitants of Blandford had decided it was far to windy to go walking in the daisy field!
Thank you all for all my Birthday comments and emails, I had a totally wonderful day - it was perfect.
I had guessed correctly on Monday, we were heading down to Cornwall to Watergate Bay.
Tony had booked a table at.......
(I now understand why they wanted bright pink ribbon for their Christmas puddings!)
Tony had arranged for a table right at the front of the restaurant....
I had to look at this view all through lunch.......
Wow! Totally awesome Tony x
All of a dither
23/05/2011
I am all of a dither today. Tony woke me up this morning with a cup of coffee and gave me a photo.
What's this? I ask.
With rather a large smile on his face Tony replied - We are going to be looking at this view tomorrow while having lunch. (It's my birthday tomorrow.)
Ooooh, oooh aaah, I try to get him to tell me where it is, I think I know - (if I am correct we supplied ribbon to this restaurant for their Christmas Puddings last year!) But he will not spill the beans, there is only one road to Cornwall from Dorset so I should be able to tell pretty soon. We leave this afternoon he explains, a gentle drive (like heck!), a stay overnight and then arrive at the restaurant for lunch. WOW! He arranged all of this without me getting a whiff of it, ALL the girls in the warehouse knew! I must be losing my touch.
So everything is a little rushed for me today, this post is much earlier than normal for a Monday. Poor Sam - I almost jumped on him with the "Bingo" bag when he arrived back from school!! But he was willing to help out his Auntie Ali.
Thank you for all your wonderful comments, so many this week. Although you like the Pirate ribbon it sounds as if Bev's NEW bag was the overall winner. Those colours are stunning, I was using all the ribbons on Saturday morning, making a little something for Bev - they all work so well together.
So who are the lucky winners - well that was down to Sam......
.......the lucky winners are...
(Sam was so thirsty from school that he would not put his lolly down for the photo!)
Number 3 = Claire
Definietly Bevs bag for me if I was lucky enough to be picked. Lovely seam binding jewellery, I do agree that longer ribbon would be better for the crocheting as it was the same with the pieces I crocheted.
Have a lovely weekend, we're off camping to the lakes so fingers crossed for some sun x
Number 17 = Janet
Hope the pirate catchers have had a good week, must say you had me stumped thought the map must be in a pub, The Ship, Black Bear, the Dolphin etc. how wrong was I.
Have a good weekend all of you.
If lucky,will have to be pirate ribbons for the grand children.
Janet
Number 38 = Liz
Bev this weeks bag looks so delicious, if I am the lucky one it will have to be your bag,
Liz x
Number 55 = Samantha Ascott
Ooh i can't choose... i think i'll have to be Bev's bag summer splash though 
Congratulations girls there will be three splashes and a bunch of pirates in the post - all we need are addresses please to craftyribbons@gmail.com Once again thank you all for such super comments, you do say such nice things.
This post is a little shorter than I planned, Lucy has sent some wonderful pictures from her daughters wedding and I was going to show you all - but as I am short of time I will do this later in the week, something for you to look forward to.
Got to go, I have a bag to pack!! Have a great couple of days and I will see you all on Wednesday.
my basket