If you’re anything like me with your cardmaking or scrapbooking then on your craft table you’ll have a tin full of bits of ribbon that you continue to fill but never use.  What is it with ribbon that no matter what size it is we just hoard it?  Well I’m on a mission to use up those bits of ribbon in fun and creative ways.  Here’s one idea you might like to try yourself:

I made this card yesterday using bits of coordinating ribbon ends.  I did trim them down a bit and I purposely didn’t want them all the same size as usually we have odd sized bits left over anyway.  I must admit I had some issues with the flat-cut ends fraying so I used a tip I heard a while ago which is to singe the ends of the ribbon.  This worried me a bit because last time I tried to burn around the edges of cardstock I nearly burnt the kitchen down but being slightly brave I gave it another go.  So the trick is to just use the tip of the flame (match, lighter) on the end of the ribbon to give it a very light singe and the flame seals up the end of the ribbon very nicely so that it doesn’t fray.  To adhere the ribbons I just used some SNAIL adhesive on the back of the ribbon and stuck them down on to the chocolate chip cardstock.  Because they still looked like they needed something extra, I added a silver brad to the top of each ribbon.

The images in the centre (and the sentiment) are from the Stampin’ Up! stamp set called “Bird on a Branch”, I must admit although this is a small set it really jumped out at me when I first saw it in the catalogue as it’s really very much my style.  So the branch is stamped in Old Olive onto Very Vanilla cardstock and then the bird was stamped in chocolate chip ink.  It was really easy to position the bird by eyeballing it because you can see the rubber dip in where the bird’s… um… butt, meets it’s tail – so very easy to stamp.  I felt that it would be nice to duplicate the two-toned main image as a backing, so I mounted the main image on a piece of Old Olive cardstock on the left and then chocolate chip on the right.  Then the whole piece was mounted with Stampin’ Dimensionals onto the ribbon base.  The sentiment was stamped in Chocolate chip and I added two little rhinestones to the end of it to emphasise it.

So I hope I’ve inpired you to start using up all those bits of ribbon that you’re collecting.  If you’re a scrapbooker then try using the same idea to make one of your photos stand out as the focal point of your layout.

Here’s a list of products I’ve used to create this card: (all Stampin’ Up! products available for purchase through me at angelasargeant@gmail.com)

Bird on a Branch stamp set
Regal Rose textured cardstock
Old Olive cardstock
Chocolate Chip cardstock
Very Vanilla cardstock
Left over bits of ribbon in Old Olive Very Vanilla and Regal Rose
Silver Brads
Old Olive Inkpad
Chocolate Chip Inkpad
Clear rhinestone brads with the rhinestones pulled off the brads
Snail Adhesive
Stampin’ Dimensionals

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Another card for the Twilight fans out there, if hope you like it and that it gives you a giggle.  If you’re not a Twilight fan and you’re scratching your head over this card then please pretend that instead of ‘tofu’ that the message on the card reads “For You”.

It’s a bit cool here today in Sydney, seems like Winter is really on it’s way and using these colours on my card warmed me up somehow.  I love the rich tones and I feel that the colours go well with the theme of my card.  If you’re wondering how I did the centrepiece of the card, that’s gloss cardstock which I sponged with ink and sponge daubers.  I simply dabbed my sponge dauber into my Sahara Sand inkpad and then using a small circle motion, I sponged ink into the centre of the card.  I was going to use a template to get a perfect oval in the middle then decided I wanted it to look more natural.  The outside of the main image is sponged again with a sponge dauber but this time Ballet Blue ink… an odd colour combination over all with the other colours but I think it works well.  After I sponged the gloss cardstock completley I went over the edges of the cardstock again just to give definition then stamped the script (En Francais background stamp) using Sahara Sand ink over the top of the background – I only stamped it lightly though so that it wouldn’t be too bold.  Next I stamped the tree image (Le Jardin Botanique stamp set) in Almost Artichoke and the (rein)deer from the Winter Post stamp set is stamped in Bravo Burgundy.  Actually, after I stamped the deer I dabbed it’s body a little with a blender pen so that it would look more ‘furry’ rather than a solid image… just to give it some texture and then under the deer I used a blender pen with some Almost Artichoke ink to ‘ground’ it so it didn’t look like it was floating.  So then the main image was adhered to a piece of textured Sahara Sand cardstock.  The word “tofu” was printed out on my computer as out of all the alphabet stamps I have (around 30 of them… cough, cough), I couldn’t find the size and font I wanted to match my card so I just typed it on my computer and printed it onto Very Vanilla cardstock then adhered it to the oval bookplate.  So, under the main section of my card is a piece of Almost Artichoke cardstock and Mellow Moss cardstock.  You’ll notice the Artichoke and Moss cardstocks are distressed, I did this using Stampin’ Up!’s cutter kit.  A little while ago Kathryn and Julie asked me about the Cutter Kit and this is one way to use it – to distress cardstock. Yes I could have used my fingernail to do this but I find that apart from it being damaging for your nails, you seem to bend the cardstock more than distress it if you use your nails, so I like to use the Cutter Kit for that.  As an aside, I will make some more cards using other parts of the Cutter Kit to show you what else it can do but this is a start.  Back to my card… the base of the card is Bravo Burgundy textured cardstock and I’ve also added some piercing to the top and bottom corners as some added interest.

Here’s a list of all the products I’ve used on my card, let me know if you have any questions – of course I also supply all these Stampin’ Up! products, so if there’s something you’d like then feel free to email me on angelasargeant@gmail.com

Le Jardin Botanique stamp set (tree)
Winter Post stamp set (deer)
En Francais background stamp
White gloss cardstock
Sahara Sand textured cardstock
Bravo Burgundy textured cardstock
Almost Artichoke cardstock
Mellow Moss cardstock
Very Vanilla cardstock (just a scrap to print the word ‘tofu’ onto it)
Sahara Sand, Ballet Blue, Almost Artichoke and Bravo Burgundy inkpads
Sponge Daubers (to sponge colour onto the main image and also sponge ink onto the edges of the green cardstocks)
Styled Silver Hodgepodge (bookplate)
Earth Elements brads (Artichoke brad)
Hemp Twine
Cutter Kit (to distress edges of cardstock)
Crafters Tool Kit (Paper Piercer and template to make holes)
Blender pen (to add texture to the deer and add grass under it’s feet)

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