Fantastic Washi! - Monday 1st July

Good Morning Friends,

I hope you all had a fab weekend and the sun shone wherever you are! Thanks to those of you who commented on my post yesterday; it is a such a shame that so many have become almost afraid to 'love' our Country and more to the point show it! I thought we had turned a corner last year when we were all celebrating the Jubilee and the Olympics, I will never forget the images on TV of the sea of flags in the Mall. As for our armed service personnel, none of us like the idea of war and fighting, but without those prepared to fight for us we would have no defence. I felt very humbled listening to Jake on Saturday. Just as a quick side to this...he explained that having lived with three other soldiers in nothing more than a hill fort for 6 months, firing at Taliban, he was sent home on 2 weeks leave..can you imagine the transition and how you couldn't possibly adjust? After his first term there, he came home and went back to his banking job in London(he was a Reservist), with no real adjustment time and obviously couldn't settle..it's frightening isn't it?

Yesterday, Hazel mentioned in her comment about sending cards to Forces overseas, I don't know of any collections to do this, but one of my crafty twitter and facebook pals, Cazz Wright, has been collecting cards to send to an RAF Squadron for them to post back to loved ones at home for some years now and they are always so grateful. For details of this please check out http://obws.webs.com - I do send some when I can, but lately have had a hard time keeping up with my own makes I'm afraid.

Fantastic Ribbons Design Team project...

                                                         Wonderful Washi!

This month our Design Team project at Fantastic Ribbons is to alter household items. Washi Tape is a must for your craft stash, as you can do some much with it and my immediate thoughts went of course to my craft room (afterall most of my spare time is spent here!).

I decided to alter a few of my desk top items: a little plain wooden desk top tray, some flash drives, pencils and notebooks.

For the pencils I simply wound the washi around the barrel and hey presto you have a brand new, colourful pencil! I also found an old cardboard tube at the bottom of my box of card I've saved for projects and wound some washi around it to create a small pencil pot and washi tape stand.

The wooden tray has been on a shelf waiting to be 'loved'; I think it was originally part of a gift pack, but I can't remember what was in it! This was the time to give it a new look, so I gave it a coat of salty ocean distress paint and lined the base with some pretty scrap paper; then I covered the rest with some blue polka dot tape - now it sits proudly on my desk.

Washi tape is great for labelling - electric cables have never looked so attractive and neither have flash drives! I stuck this pretty floral washi to some card, cut it to size, punched a hole in one end and cut the other end into a banner shape. As you can easily write on washi, I just used a pen to write on each one,what the drive contains and then I tied them on with narrow ribbons (all available from Fantastic Ribbons).

These two books started out as  plain notebooks and with the addition of some washi they could be given as gifts. I haven't included a tutorial because if you look at the Fantastic Ribbons website, Kirsty Wiseman has already added a brilliant video tutorial.

I decided to use two different tapes on each book, to co-ordinate with the pencils. On the shopping list I also made a ribbon banner from washi and on the note book I stuck some washi to card and then die-cut the butterflies. To finish off both books, I added some cover titles using Spellbinders die-cuts.

If you haven't tried washi tape I hope this has inspired you to try some, it really is a simple way to give something a new look. I used rolls of washi tape that had already been used on cards and other items previously and after completing all these projects, I still have lots left - a little roll goes a long way!

Why not pop over to Fantastic Ribbons, they have lots to choose from

Love,

Carole X

Floral Ribbon Wreath - Sunday 12th May

Hello Friends,

This month the design team at Fantastic Ribbons were asked to create a project with ribbon flowers and for my project I decided to decorate a  summer door wreath.

The  flowers on this wreath are made from a selection of ribbons all available from Fantastic Ribbons. I always have a seasonal wreath on our front door, but  wanted to create an inviting summery wreath for an internal door.

The individual flowers are all very easy to make and were made using three different techniques. I added finishing touches of buttons, beads and felt for the leaves.











To make the 'loopy' flower, just take a small square of card, locate the centre and stitch the ribbon in loops joining at the centre. When you have finished, trim away any excess card and you will have a looped flower like the one below. I have added a second blossom to the centre, along with a bead.

The blossom in the centre of the loopy flower is made by zig zag stitching along a length of ribbon: when you get to the end, just pull it together and sew the ends to create a double ruched affect and a very full blossom.

My third blossom was made by simply making a running stitch along a length of ribbon;pull it in at the end, sew the two ends together and you will have a flower just like the one below, to which I have added some pearl beads.

Thank you very much for visiting and I do hope that you have been inspired to brighten up your rooms with some ribbon for the summer!

I would also like to enter this project in the :

Artful Times Challenge Blog: Blooming Marvellous #29

Love,

Carole Z X