Ribbon Weaving...the tutorial!

Morning Bloggers, as promised here is the ribbon weaving tutorial.

I must thank Sue Wilson first for teaching me how to do it even if my first attempt looked like I was trying to strangle an octopus.  Thankfully, I've improved since then!

Right, step 1.

For a circle the size that I have on the card (a couple of posts ago) you need 10ft of ribbon.  The card I've used is 8x8.
I've used two tone ribbon from Creative Expressions which comes in some fab colours.

Fold the ribbon in half and make a slip knot.

You should now have one side of the ribbon which will slide and another side which will tighten.

Taking the side that tightens, make a loop and take it through the loop of the slip knot.  Pull the piece of ribbon that slides to tighten it.

Now make a loop from the opposite piece of ribbon (this should be the piece that doesn't slide again) and take it through the new loop at the top.

Tighten by pulling on the side of ribbon that moves. 
Keep repeating until you reach the end of the ribbon then tie a knot to join the 2 ends together.  This can be disguised by adding a bow of the same ribbon.

If you don't have 2 tone ribbon, you can use 2 lengths of different coloured ribbon.  Just lay one over the top of the other and it works the same.

Just be careful not to twist the ribbon and it should look like this when you've finished!  And Claire, if you're reading this, look away now!!!  It may or may not be going on your wedding card!!

I hope I've explained it OK.  If you have any questions, just get in touch and I'd love to know how you all get on with it so please leave me a comment.

Many thanks for visiting.

WOYWW

Good Morning Everyone and Happy WOYWW!

Got back from the last folk festival of the season yesterday and am now officially "festivaled" out....until next year!  There's nothing like live music to gladden the heart (except craft of course!).

As I haven't had much time to play (been playing the ukulele instead) I thought I'd have a go at making Dorset Cartwheel Buttons and that's what's on my desk (well, the kitchen table) today.

I was taught how to make them at another festival I was at earlier this year and it's so relaxing to do.  I just have to find something to do with them now! I also made the little tartan purse at the same festival.  I'm really glad I did as it's so (sew!) handy for keeping all the bits and pieces together when I'm travelling.  Dorset buttons were made from the 1600's and the tradition of making them nearly died out in the 1850's when the 1st button making machine was invented.  Luckily, the skill has survived and you can get a book from a place called "Henry's Buttons" (which is also online) showing how to make them.  There's a lot of different designs and all you need is a tapestry needle, crochet cotton (or similar) and a brass ring.

I will put the tutorial up on here tomorrow for the ribbon weaving (see the last posting).  Sorry I haven't done it before but I ran out of time before we went away.

Here's todays card.  It's one I designed for the Creative Studios Design Team Blog and the step by step will be on their website later today.

 

Well, that's all for today.  Many thanks for visiting and leaving comments, they are much appreciated.  There's still the blog candy up for grabs as soon as I reach 300 followers.  I'll try to get around as may desks as I can but if I don't get to yours, I apologise in advance!!

Until next time, happy crafting!

Just a Flying Visit!

Just a quick post today as we're back off to another festival.  It's the last one of the year for us so I'd determined to make the most of it.  Best of all, there's loads of ukulele workshops so I'll get the chance to have a thrash with other people.  It's much more fun than playing on your own plus I can't sing!

Anyway, it's my day to show something on the Creative Studios blog and I've posted a tutorial for this card.

I haven't done a step by step for the ribbon weaving but if anyone would like to see how it's done, please leave a comment and I'll post a tutorial next week.

That's all for today.  I'll be back next week so until then, have a great week and enjoy the weather.  Many thanks for visiting.

WOYWW

I really don't know where the time goes, one minute it was Thursday and I had loads of time to visit the desks and the next minute it was Wednesday again!

Apologies for not getting around too many last week but the computer was playing up and on top of that I was prepping samples for Sam's TV shows on Ideal World today.

Anyhoo, what does my desk look like today...it's actually quite organised (by my standards!!).

I'm putting together one of the projects for the cruise in November (a 3d pop up card).  I'll be running 20 workshops and I need to prep 50 of each project so I thought I ought to get started!

It's also my day to post on the Creative Studios design team blog today with a step by step project.  I decided to use one of the cards I made for the TV show (I think it's on at 11 and 3).

I've used Sam's new A6 Holly background stamp and also stamps from the new silhouette Poinsettia A5 stamp set.  I won't repeat the step by step on here but pop over to the other blog if you'd like to see how it was made.

And so to finish....not a travel photo but a picture of the clay owl I made at a workshop at the Larmer Tree Music Festival!  He now lives outside my studio and looks quite at home there!

 

 

I nothing else, it's made me decide that I'd better stick to paper and not clay!

Hope you all have a great week and thanks for visiting and leaving comments.  Hopefully I'll do better this week and visit more of you!

WOYWW

Happy WOYWW.  We're finally back from the festivals and have enjoyed some glorious weather and fantastic music.

We also had a very special guest with us...can you guess who it was?

Of course, Flat Susan!  I know that it's supposed to be about our workdesks but I hope you'll forgive me for telling you about her adventures instead!

Flat Susan had an uneventful journey getting to us, I'm pleased to say that the Royal Mail didn't manage to crush her!  We set off in our campervan and arrived at Warwick Folk Festival where it didn't take her long to start making new friends.  She seemed particularly taken with these 2 chaps on the bus into town.  They were off to perform Morris Dancing in the town square.

Given half a chance I think she might have hidden in their hats and run off with them!

It wasn't all fun though, we soon put Flat Susan to work helping with the filming for the big screens on the stage.  The cameras were a bit heavy for her so she stayed in the OB truck and oversaw the vision mixing. 

She did so well that she's been offered a contract for next summer!

There were certainly plenty of interesting people at the festival who all wanted to get to know Susan.

This is the Green Man, famed throughout Folk Legend in the British Isles.  He stopped by to tell stories and thought Susan's travels were wonderful.  He told us about a small drum that is travelling the world on it's own and being taken to festivals and rituals where it's played.

We did have time off for some sightseeing.

Susan on the bridge overlooking Warwick Castle.  If she looks a little blurry, it's because she had a late night with some real ale the night before!

 On top of a Victorian Post box.  One of two that are each side of the arches that lead into the town centre.  They were placed there in 1866.  There's not many of this style of post box left.

No sign of Susan in this one....she was taking a rest.  It's one of the streets near to the castle.

I hope you don't mind this instead of my desk but to prove that I have been working in between the festivals, here's one of the cards that I made for Sam's Create and Craft shows that were on Monday.  There will be a full step by step on the Creative Studios Design Team blog today.

It's been made using Sam's new stamp designs from her "singles" range of stamps.


That's all for today.  Many thanks for visiting and I'll get round to as many of you as I can over the next couple of days.  Thank you all for leaving comments, I do appreciate how long it takes!