I love how they only take a very small amount of fabric (or ribbon!) so raid your scraps and see what you’ve got!  You can also use ribbon you’ve got lying around too!  (Here’s a little tip for you:  If you want to make a custom color of ribbon, try coloring a white or ivory ribbon with your Copic marker.  It’s permanent and you can make it any color you want to match a project or outfit!)

What you’ll need:

8″ x 1″ pieces of fabric strips (or ribbon)

Ring blank

Hot glue gun

Velcro

Coordinating beads

Tacky Glue

Take your ribbon and fold the end in half, then in half again.  This makes a nice little strip to make into a flower.  Lightly coil and wrap about 1/2″, then glue to the side of your coil.  Continue coiling and gluing until you have the size you want.  Even with the 8″ I found that I stopped with about 1″ – 1 1/2″ left.  When you’re about finished coiling, wrap the remainder underneath your finished flower and glue.

Now if you want, use some of Aleene’s Tacky glue to add a few beads to the flower center.  Just add a drop or two of the glue and place your coordinating beads right on.  When it’s dry, glue half of the velcro to your flower, and the other half to your ring blank.

Now make as many flowers as you want and when you change up outfits, just pull off one flower and stick on another one!

Don’t want to make a ring?  Try making a larger strip that’s about 10″-12″ x 1 1/2″ and making a brooch or an embellished napkin ring.  Need earrings?  Try a smaller strip instead.

Remember how I said that you could make your own with Copic markers?  Here’s how I did it:

Start out with a 8″ length of ribbon.

Color it.  I used two similar colors of my Copic markers to do it.  Don’t worry if it looks streaked at first, while it’s drying, the color runs some and I’ve never ended up with them being streaky!  Follow the directions above to make your flower.

Here’s a flower embellishment I made for a card.  I just stamped the Branch from the Boughs set, then added my flower embellishments.

Happy Crafting!

(I used this tutorial as a basis for mine, but made some adjustments as I saw fit.)

The larger flower was made from some 1 1/2″ wide satin ribbon.  I LOVE how it turned out!  I added a fancy brad in the middle for a little accented touch.  What do you think?  I’m thinking they would also make great hair clips, brooches, or embellishments on a little handbag!

I let it sit for a few days on my craft table while I mulled over what to do with it…and here’s what happened!

Want to make your own?  It’s easy!  Here’s how:

Gather the following supplies:

Ribbon for napkin ring, flower and leaves.

Needle and thread

Hot Glue Gun

Cut a 5″ piece of ribbon for the flower and one for the napkin ring.  I used a plain pink satin ribbon for the ring part.

Turn under one edge and hand stitch (or machine if you prefer) to make a ring.  Do this for both the flower and napkin ring ribbon.

Set aside the napkin ring get ready to do a little loose stitching around one edge of the flower ring.  You can see my clear thread in the top of the red section there in the picture.  Don’t forget to knot one end so it holds!

Pull tight and gather the ribbon around the stitches.  Pull it tight, but not too tight.  (If you lay it on a flat surface and it doesn’t lay flat you’ve pulled it too tight.)  Tie off the thread so the gathered ribbon flower holds in place.  You’re almost there!  Set this aside and grab your leafy ribbon.

You only need to cut a few 1″ pieces to make your leaves.  I used this green velvet ric-rac that I got from a scrapbooking store.

Fold over the ribbon pieces to make a few leaves and use the hot glue to hold in place..

Glue your leaves to the back of your flower, then glue the completed flower to the seam you sewed on the napkin ring.  You’re done!!

]]> http://www.schlosserdesigns.com/blog/2009/08/ribbon-napkin-rings/feed/ 4 http://www.schlosserdesigns.com/blog/2009/04/one-of-my-favorite-projects/ http://www.schlosserdesigns.com/blog/2009/04/one-of-my-favorite-projects/#comments Wed, 22 Apr 2009 13:12:00 +0000 admin http://www.schlosserdesigns.com/blog/2009/04/one-of-my-favorite-projects/ This is one of my favorite projects that I’ve used a few times this week already!

Ribbon Bordered Picture Frame.

See here for the complete instructions.

Why have I used this tutorial several times this week already? Well, you see, last week my husband got into the MBA program he was hoping to, and it’s not in the area, which means that we’re moving—to Chicago! And very soon too as his semester starts in June! So, I’ve been madly staging the house to sell and this tutorial works great for adding a little something extra to your pictures.

I’m excited about the move, but also sad that we’ll be leaving warm Texas for the cold that is the northern U.S. Have you been to Chicago? What are your favorite places to visit? What are some great craft stores in the area? Because that’s the most important thing, right?

Don’t worry though, new projects arriving shortly! I’ll be needing some help too with some testing! So stay tuned for opportunities to test out some projects before they are released here!

Also- Don’t forget to enter into the Design Challenge at Fresh Nest Design! There’s a $125+ Kelli Kit up for grabs to the winner!!!

This is what I started with:

-Picture Frame (I got this from Target, my favorite store ever! It was a set of 5 different sizes for $10.
-Scotch Transfer Tape (I’ll have this in my store because it is the MOST AWESOME tape ever!! It comes in HUGE rolls and is really inexpensive, and it works for glass, plastic, paper, ribbon, and is permanent.) Terrifically Tacky tape will work too.
-1 yard of ribbon per frame (I got all ribbons shown for $1 each at Hobby Lobby and Michaels.)

Start with a frame of your choice. You don’t even need to take out the glass, just make sure that the glass is clean.
Tape your ribbon to the glass right up against the edges of the frame, overlapping each corner as shown below. I tucked the ends under the frame for a nice clean look.

You can add embellishments. I tried the buttons here. Also try larger scrapbooking brads for a metallic accent, flat beads or anything else you like.
I layered two ribbons to make the one at the top. The patterned one which matches my guest bathroom exactly and then a smaller width lime green ribbon to frame it out a little more. I’ll be putting it in my bathroom but need a humorous quote to print out and go inside. Any ideas?
All in all the project only took me about 5 minutes and cost about $3. Very easy to customize. It would make a great gift with a photo or quote in it. Don’t forget Mother’s Day is coming up soon! Check places like Ross, Tuesday Morning, Goodwill, and Big Lots for inexpensive frames.

When you buy it, make sure that it has loops at the bottom, and is not cut. If it’s not looped it will not work. I bought about one yard for $4.00. This particular fringe has four different ribbons in it. If you are cutting fringe, wrap the area that you want to cut with some tape. Then cut in the center of the tape. (See picture below.) This will keep both sides from unraveling before you’re ready to unravel it.

After you’ve cut off a piece to use, start unpicking the top that holds the fringe together. A unpicker (don’t know if that’s the right term) or a pair of scissors with sharp points should work well. As you unpick it it, you’ll get pieces of ribbon. I usually wrap these around a small piece of foam core to keep it from getting tangled. Now you have 2 yards of 4 different types of ribbon. (Yep, you doubled what you had because it was looped back on itself.) You can use just one, or all on a project.

Here is a card I made with all of the ribbon. There were two pieces that were about 1/4″ wide and two that were 1/8″ wide. It is also shimmery. (You can see this a little better in the close up at the bottom.) I printed out a sentiment on a piece of cardstock in a color to match the ribbon and matted it on a piece of dark red paper. I wanted a little more dimension on the card, so I folded up the matted cardstock to give it a little frame around the sentiment. (You can see that a little better on the closeup below too.) The sentiment says: “Hope is the ability to hear the music of the future. Faith is having the courage to dance to it today.” I really like this quote!

Hope you enjoy it!