There's A Use For Everything!

 

RIBBON SCRAP CARD

As a general rule, unless something looks truly hopelessly useless, I don't throw stuff out.  Most of the cards you see are made from whatever I have lying around.  I am sure I could make superb cards if I went out and bought new stuff everytime and planned ahead, but I'm a fly by the seat of my pants (impatient) kind of girl, so I work with what I have as best as I can :)

A card like this is perfect for using up scraps of ribbon!  Plus it's just plain cute!

Ok, so I selected my main card size as 10.5 x 14cm (it will be white, as usual!).

Now cut a piece of coloured card at 5 x 13cm.  One centimetre in from the right edge, cut a slit.  I used my paper slicer to do this, however as it's a rotating blade, it's hard to gauge where it is cutting in instances like this.  I went for "safe" and extended it out with a hand blade.

As you can see it's straight but a little dodgy at one end - NOT a big deal!  You don't want a big gaping hole or anything, but the ribbons will disguise this anyway.

Next I got some contrasting paper (about 6 x 13cm) with a colour in its pattern that matched my coloured card.  I used an edge punch to pretty it all up a bit and stuck it to the front of the coloured card, at the left side, leaving roughly a centimetre of the coloured card (to the left of the slit) visible.  I trimmed the left edge of the patterned paper so that in total now it is 5cm from left side to scalloped side.

As you will see in the picture below, I also got the same patterned card (another piece about 6 x 13cm), and stuck it to the underside of the coloured card with about a centimetre and a half sticking out the right hand side of the coloured card.

IMPORTANT:  Don't stick down the coloured card to the right of the slit or you can't feel ribbon through it!

Ribbon time!

Pick out a menagerie of colourful ribbon scraps and and slide them through the yellow slit upside down.  Take the time to decide what order you want them in and what colours work for you.

Now fold each ribbon over and, imagining your worst enemy, jam a reeming tool through the ribbon and card (in the centre of the ribbon, a few mm from the edge of the coloured card).

I use a cheap thick old-style foam mouse pad for "reeming tasks".

Once folded and reemed (ooer!!), carefully hold the ribbon in place while you replace the reeming tool with a mini brad.  I started with the two end ribbons, then did the middle ribbon, then finished up with the rest - just to make sure the spacing was ok.

It gets a bit messy flipping it over each time you stick a brad in, so let it sit in there and keep doing the same to each ribbon.  It actually helps everything stay where it should be while you work because the brads are wedged into the foam mouse pad.  Then, once all the brads are in place, carefully lift the card up, flip it over and secure the brads properly.

Trim the ribbons to look how you want them to look - generally the front half of the ribbon is shorter than the back half.

And now the finishing touches -

• Affix your ribboned card onto your main white card, keeping the margins even on top, left and bottom.
• One square coloured card 4 x 4cm layered beneath one square white card 3.5 x 3.5cm.
• Stamp greeting on white square, embellish if you wish
• Stick to the middle of the top patterned card

Done!

Happy Scrapping!

Dani :)