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Friday FREEBIE 30

23/07/2010

Yippie I am so pleased it is Friday. My worst ribbon nightmare came true yesterday. We received a delivery of ribbon, and it must of had a real bumpy ride getting to us. The rolls had all popped open and 10000 mtrs of ribbon were all mangled together at the bottom of the box. I was so confused should I scream or cry!!!! If in doubt a strong cup of tea was made. We all kept going and peeping into the box, unbelieving what was staring back at us. What a mess.

You all loved these ribbons a few weeks back, so here is another Friday FREEBIE chance to win yourself a cupboard of......

.....yes that is correct a collection of Jam Pot Ribbons - yeah!!!!

All you have to do to get your name into our "Bingo" Bag is to leave a comment - that's it - simple. I am hoping that your wonderful comments will put a bit of spring back into our normal happy bunch of girls and stop them from thinking of the ribbon mess. We will make the draw on Monday as always.

Normal blurb if you are having trouble leaving a comment it will be down to our spam filters, we do not delete comments or anything silly like that. If yours does not appear, please email us craftyribbons@gmail.com and we will add it for you. Comments do not have to be authorised by us before they appear. Your comment is very important to us - so please leave one.

I have the last of the Fun in th Sun Challenge goodies to show you and as the others that have gone before them, they are FANTASTIC!

I think a trip to the sea is just what I need. This card fits the bill Chrissy, the blue stripe ribbon is so nautical!

This card made me smile, and reminds me of the fields and fields of sunflowers you see in France, delightful Chrissy.

Yes Carol I do try and guess who made the cards without looking at the back first. You are right it is fun, just like this card of yours. I love the "blueness".

Oh what fun, swing in the wind with the butterflies.

Are those flowers for me.....? How kind Carol, thank you. What a big smile you have!

Natalie has designed another super pair of cards. Little Tilda looks as if she is enjoying her ice cream.

Not sure what the tech name for this type of card is called, so I have called it an envelope card. It comes with a pull out centre card.

Very clever Natalie, gorgeous card.

I hope you have enjoyed all the makes and goodies our talented challenge crafters created for you over the past few weeks. Amazing girls, thank you all so much, I hope you will join in with the next one.

Have a super weekend.

Fun in the Sun Treats

22/07/2010

Here is another selection of Fun in the Sun treats to get your creative juices flowing!

I will start with Dorothy, she always sends in such a delightful array of goodies. this little girl has her own hand made deckchair to recline on, not 1 but 3 pairs of flip flops to choose from, and a cupcake to munch on. She has brought along her doll and handbag so is expecting a long day on the beach!.

And all of this came out of this wonderful decorated box. Dorothy what a cool idea.

Lets all join in with Dorothy's Fun in the Sun party card, I do believe they are having fun!!

Wow this is a pretty unique card Dorothy, how on earth did you manage to know where to put your score lines - brill.

Cool surfing dude Dorothy.

Scrummy yummy card Anne, I love the colours - perfect.

Oooh Anne I hadn't thought of putting these two ribbons together (the stripe one I used on the Fathers Day project HERE), great combo.

Margaret your projects are fantastic and they certainly fit the bill. We hope your work commitments have not taken you away from crafting for too long.

Simple and elegant Margaret.

This is a brill idea Jenny, I love the magnetic stripe on the back - perfect for the fridge door!

All us girls have a little notelet addiction in the warehouse - it drives Tony mad, every computer he goes to has these scattered around!

Oooh if only I was this thin!!!What a fun sunny card Jenny.

Another super wonderful collection of makes, they really are superb and thank you all so much for sharing them with us. Carol, Chrissy and Natalie don't panic your creations have arrived and will be showcased tomorrow.

See you all tomorrow with our Friday FREEBIE - what treat can I put together for you.....

Hello Wednesday - Party Plates

21/07/2010

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

It was Sydney's 5th birthday last Thursday (how can she be 5!), this was the first year she had to go to school on her birthday and was a little put out that there was no party!

What she didn't know was that it was all planned for after school, just a little one at the office. We had everything a good childrens party should have, cakes, chocolate, sticky buns........all laid out on party plates.

OK, OK, Auntie Ali may have gone a little OTT with the plates, but Syd loved them and insisted on taking them home. Come on, plain white plates are soooo boring.

All you need to make people smile (or think that you have too much time on your hands!), is a single hole punch, cheap white plates and ribbon.

Beacuse I decorated quite a few plates, I made myself a template out of paper and used a protractor thinga ma-jig, you know the semi circular plastic thing you have left from your school geometry set. I drew round a plate onto the paper and cut it out. I then found the centre and worked out how many holes I wanted around the plate, marked the paper with a dot. With the single hole punch, I punched all the holes in the template.

I then placed the template onto the plate to transfer the hole, the plates I had were covered in a plastic type film and I could not find any pen that would mark it, so i just kept the template on the plate and hole punched the plate through it.

Find some pretty ribbon, I am sure you all have some pretty ribbon! If not you will find lots and lots here www.craftyribbons.com . Thread the ribbon through the holes and tie a bow, (Bow Tutorial HERE). Sit back and listen to all the compliments and comments!!!!

These would look great for a wedding, matching in with the bridesmaids colours, or for a christening in pink or blue, I hope I have given you some food for thought for this weeks Hello Wednesday.

Animal Cuties

20/07/2010

I have never been a fan of the word "cute", but I am pleased to say that these NEW Animal Cuties Ribbons are just awesome, they are sooooo cute! Sorry there was just no other word to describe them.

How cute are they??

Sorry, I will get a grip any moment. I do get rather carried away with my ribbons. There are 16 super cute ribbons in this collection, and if you want to find them they are hiding away HERE. As always there is a WANT IT ALL of these Animal Cuties, 16mtrs - 1mtr of all 16 designs for £12.00 that's only 75p per mtr, so not only cute but a great price too.

I have been busy with my camera again, and opening lots of Challenge goodies, so here is the next instalment of inspiration.

A stunning pair of cards from Margaret, wow they are amazing. Margaret used the same stamp for both cards (from S.V.) but trimmed them differently.

Oooh I like boxes, there is normally a surprise inside.....

.....yes, look at these sweeties. Margaret has made little mini cards, suitable as gift tags or just a little note. They are perfect, what a delightful surprise.

Sydney and Mollie had little prezzies from Margarets recent holiday. Matryoshka dolls - they are delightful Margaret, thank you so much. We will keep the little dolls safe from Mollie for a while. Sorry to hear you have been unwell, we wish you better Margaret.

Welcome back Tina - we have missed your makes. What a brilliant idea, a holiday fund tin, we like. I found a stray crab in the your envelope, I hope I have put him back in the right place Tina.

This ribbon has really hit the spot with you card makers, (I was the only one in the office that liked it!). Just perfect for that masculine card. What have you sprayed onto the blue card Tina? It make it look like a night sky.

I do think these easel cards are special, who would not enjoy this Birthday card? Great makes Tina, thanks for joining in.

The last card for today is from Marjorie, this is the one that my computer ate!!! Maybe it has a thing for "cuisses de grenouille". Great card Marjorie- what fun.

Please do not worry if you have not seen your creations displayed yet, ALL photo's have been re-taken and will be posted onto the blog this week.

Nearly forgot

19/07/2010

Oh we nearly forgot to make the draw for this weeks Friday FREEBIE!!

Bev was jsut about to drive off as I remembered. I went running out to her waving the "Bingo" bag at her, then rushed back for the camera. What number would she pick...........

....number 32. - craftygranny

ooh lovely ribbons . I'd love to win.

Hi craftygranny, all you have to do to claim these fantastic 3mm streamers is to email us your address details craftyribbons@gmail.com. Sorry to everyone else who left super comments. I was in London all day on Friday, so I had great pleasure in reading them on my return.

Sorry if you have perhaps been waiting for the draw before making your order for the Todays Special,

because of the delay we will hold the special prize deal till tomorrow morning.

Have fun.

Friday FREEBIE 29

16/07/2010

I have had one of those weeks that I am really happy is over - I am sure some of you can relate to that. Did you get the storm last night? Wow it was a bad one.

We normally have such a mild climate here in Dorset, we can grow things down here that others only dream about, look at this NEW hybrid of Jasmine....

.....if only it had come out in bloom last week, we would have entered it into the Hampton Court Flower Show!! But sadly Vicky had not finished putting the colours together of our NEW 3mm Sheer Streamers. You can find the Streamers HERE, There are 8 different colours of 3mm sheer to each streamer and they are all 1mtr lengths, and 7 different streamer colours.

Do you want to win a set in our Friday FREEBIE? Yes? Then leave a comment between now and Monday and we could be pulling your number out of our "Bingo" bag on Monday. That's one complete set of 7 different coloured 3mm Sheer Streamers for one lucky girl!

You seem to all enjoy our first Today's Special last week, we noted that several of you waited until we had picked the winner, just in case it was you, before ordering the Today's Special - clever.

Well this week we have another great special offer - ALL 7 of the 3mm Sheer Streamers for £10, that works out less then 18p per mtr for this popular ribbon. No special codes needed, just order them HERE.

I promised you another selection of Challenge goodies from Fun in the Sun today, these are from Anji who is also NEW to one of our ribbon challenges.

Wow!! I have my own beach bag, isn't it awesome.

And look proper sewing. Oh Anji you made me very envious when I saw this stitching, my sewing machine has been at the repair shop since before the world cup, weeks ago. They are waiting for a small part to arrive from Pfaff, I am really missing it and have several Hello Wednesday projects lined up waiting for it's return - think I am suffering from machine withdrawal symptons!! Anji this bag is super, we love the way you have used the thicker Deckchair stripe ribbon (HERE) for the handles.

Anji has even made some super cute notebooks to take to the beach as well.

How cool are these!

Anji even made the notebook inners with perforated tear off pages and then sewed them in - awesome. Truly stunning work Anji, now where can I hide them, so my little niece will not find them!

Lots more makes and goodies to share with you next time, we hope you all have a fantastic weekend and the weather is perfect.

Ahoy Sailor

15/07/2010

Ahoy sailor!

What a super collection of "makes" from Toni to share with you all this evening. Not sure what sort of day you have had, but it has been blowing a hoooly here in Dorset, certainly pleased we were not at sea!

This picture frame is a work of art, it is wicked Toni, how can you bear to part with such a treasure.

Look at this super box, it is Sydney's 5th birthday today and she would have loved a little box like this. The colours of the flowers match the ribbon perfectly.

I must admit that this balloon ribbon is one of my favorites and Toni has really set the colours with the striking blue backing paper - yummy.

A gorgeous easel card, the design is so simple with just the ribbon and flower, I love the simplicity of this card Toni.

This was Toni's first challenge with us, glad you enjoyed playing with the ribbons. I am having great fun opening the parcels, I will show you Anji's goodies tomorrow.

Before I leave you this evening you must pop over to Louise's blog (HERE), she received her Jam Pot Ribbon Friday FREEBIE Prize - you must see what she has done with them, or should I say the dolls!!!!

Hello Wednesday - Scarlet Magic

14/07/2010

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

Poppies bring a splash of colour to summer, to some people they are weeds, to others they are a scarlet blanket of beautiful wild flowers. And to others they remain the symbol of the tragedy of war, whatever they symbolise to you - enjoy their simplicity.

I have been passing these poppies on the way to work for the past week or so, they are happily inhabiting a area of waste land, brightening up the space. They were the inspiration that I needed for this project. Ribbon poppies are so simple to make and can be added to almost anything - garment, bags, corsages, cushions, cards or in this case a freebie photo frame from a perfumery company! I hate wasting anything, but really did not want their logo displayed around my photos, so I did a bit of disguising.

Heres how you make a Ribbon Poppy.

1. Gather the bits that you need - wire edge ribbon in red, I have used this 25mm sheer ribbon (can be found HERE), black ribbon, toy stuffing or cotton wool, needle and thread and scissors.

2. You need four lengths of 25mm red ribbon 10cms long, remove the wire from one side of the ribbon.

3. Put a knot in the bottom of the thread and secure it to the ribbon edge with the wire in. Sew down the selvedge edge, along the bottom edge of the ribbon, without the wire, and then back up the other selvedge edge. This will appear like a boat shape.

4. Gather up your stitching so you create a petal, secure with a few stitches.

5. Repeat steps 2, 3 and 4 for petal number 2. While the thread is still attached to the petal, sew it to petal number 1. You want the petals to slightly over lap each other.

6. Repeat steps 2, 3 and 4 for petal number 3. Once again while the thread is still attached to the petal, sew it to petal number 2. Remember you want the petals to slightly over lap each other.

7. Repeat steps 2, 3 and 4 for petal number 4. Sew the last petal in place. You may have a large messy centre, but do not worry this will be covered.

8. Sew a circle in a piece of 39mm black ribbon, cut away the excess ribbon to leave a small selvedge edge.

9. Gather up the thread and put a small amount of toy stuffing or cotton wool into the centre of the ribbon circle. Gather this up and secure. This is the centre of your poppy.

10. Cut away the wired edge from a piece of black ribbon. Gently ease out the long fibres and put to one side. These are the little black stamens you find in poppies.

11. Put a small amount of contact glue (I use a hot glue gun) into the centre of the poppy. Place the long fibres over the centre (don't worry if they are too long), and place the black poppy centre on top. With sharp scssors cut away any long black fibres to give the poppy a good look.

To finish off the frame I used Saddlle Stitch Ribbon, in this really rich red (can be found HERE) and just loosely gathered it.

Enjoy the poppies.

Crafters create

13/07/2010

Louise was really happy to win last weeks Friday FREEBIE prize of the Jam Pot Ribbons. She e-mailed us to say she was stunned to be the winner and that she had been unwell over the weekend due to the hot weather. We hope you are feeling better Louise and your ribbons should be with you tomorrow.

Louise normally buys silk ribbon from us for her miniature work, she sent me these photos, they are just stunning.

This was for a customers order for a Regency stove-pipe bonnet for a 16 inch fashion doll. The bonnet was made in hand-dyed very fine pure wool (dyed by Louise) and lined in pure silk habutai with cotton lace. She used our ribbon for the bonnet ties.

Louise also used the 7mm silk ribbon for the mock slashing on the false sleeves of her miniature (5.5 inches tall) Tudor ladies, picture is of the young Elizabeth 1st.

Thank you for sharing your work with us Louise, it is so fine.

Another talented lady is Beryl, she has sent a most wonderful Beach collection of cards for our Ribbon Challenge - Fun in the Sun.

As I opened the envelope from Beryl, only one item came out, oh that's unusual I thought, Beryl normally sends me such wonderful crafty treats. But this folder held an Aladins cave of delights. I had photographed the back which read sand but sadly it was one of the photos that became corrupted after my SD card recovery. Sorry Beryl.

When I opened the folder I was greeted with this....... an awesome collection of cards. This would be perfect to take on holiday with you, and send to family and friends, the cards are wicked. On the left we have a collection of sand cards and on the right a collection of sea cards, all using our Fun in the Sun Ribbons (can be found HERE)

What a colourful fun card, the colours are just perfect. If I told you that the crab ribbon (HERE) is the best selling ribbon from the Fun in the Sun collection, I am sure you would not believe me, we thought the flip flops (HERE) would be the star!

Same ribbons, same colours, I love the glossy accent on the little girls glasses, great idea.

These three sand cards have all used the same ribbon but in different ways, it just goes to show what you can do with ribbon, they are all perfect.

Now onto the sea - Beryl has chosen two blue ribbons to embellish this collection, blue stripe always shouts Nautical. This little girl is enjoying her seaside chips! The ribboned tag can be removed and reads "Hot Summer Days", it was hot when I took the photo, but it is raining today. The little paper clip detail in the corner is quite unique Beryl.

Cheeky monkey - this card is so simple but perfect, I love it.

The fish and shell detail at the bottom of the card is ribbon (HERE), I promise, the way Beryl has backed it with white card has really made the images stand out.

Beryl this collection is a work of art, thank you so much for creating it for us. We hope others will be able to create their own projects from it using some of your inspiration.

Jammy Winner is

12/07/2010

Who is the jammy winner of our Friday FREEBIE?

Who will be getting their sticky mitts into our Jam pot ribbons?

No. 24 Louise

I love the idea for these jam pot ribbons. They look really scrummy! Hope I win some!

Best wishes,
Louise.

Well you have won them Louise, all we need is your address please to craftyribbons@gmail.com this is a stunning collection of ribbons. We liked the mixed fruit idea from Kim, and as for all your jammy comment - thank you. You all left such interesting words, such wonderful comments.

Sorry if you were not the winner of the Jam Pot Ribbons but please remember the Special Offer ends tonight, click HERE for the offer. Did you know that there are 105 different ribbons in these jam pots, that's 105mtrs of drop dead gorgeous ribbons at less then 11p per mtr, bargain, bargain, bargain.

You may have thought that I had stopped showing you the goodies from our Ribbon Challenge - nope I had it all planned, taken the photos and was scheduled to do a posting of Marjories on Thursday and Beryls on Friday and the rest this week. BUT disaster struck, in the form of ME, I did the most stupid thing. While copying over the photos from my camera SD card, instead of pressing copy, I pressed DELETE. No, No, No, I felt sick, 922 photos had been eaten, all of them wiped out, not only photos of the challenge goodies but, 4 NEW ranges of ribbons, a NEW button range, Hello Wednesday projects - it was like I had been robbed, I couldn't talk, I was in shock.

This story does have a happy(ish) ending. After almost two days of silence, I spent saturday trying to recover the photos using a piece of amazing software from America, while waiting, which seemed to take an age (I now have no finger nails or hair, both of which took the brunt of my frustration). I am pleased to say that I managed to recover most, but not all of the photos. We do now have a project for this weeks Hello Wednesday and I have 4 of Marjories cards - sadly the 5th was so badly corrupted that I was unable to retrieve it, so sorry Marjorie. I will re photograph it with the batch that arrived this morning.

Anyway here goes with Marjories super duper Fun in the Sun Challenge goodies.

Oh Marjorie this card is really sweet, such detail, I adore the little sail boat tag at the top of the card.

Another stunner Marjorie, the way you have cut ot the fish to embellish the mermaid is a wicked idea.

What a great fun birthday card to receive, reminds me it is Sydneys 5th birthday this week so I will have to get a thinking. Marjorie has used some of the scrap 3mm ribbons (you can find them HERE). She thinks the bags are such amazing value and has been using them over and over again, perfect for tags.