Ribbons

By rowarrior

First we hit the hardware store and got washers and hinges and numerous other ‘useful' items for our scrapbooks, then we moved a little closer to home and hit the haberdashery – suddenly there was a whole new world out there full of acid free stuff in the shape of fabric, and all things related to it. Ribbon is, for all intents and purposes, just thin strips of fabric, and it comes in so many different colours and patterns and materials and widths that we can match our other page elements with ease, but where can we use it? Pretty much everywhere! Here are a few ideas:

•  Create a frame with it to border your pictures or journaling: make a simple rectangle, leave the ends slightly overlapping to create a small cross at each corner, put it at an angle… the list goes on!

•  Use it to tie something onto your page: buttons, acrylic accents, label holders, charms, photo anchors, as a photo corner, as a ‘picture rail' to tuck photos under etc

•  Use it to hang something from your page: tags, journaling or pictures (the last two should be hung like a painting from a brad or nail head or similar)

•  Use it to divide areas of your page to indicate different topics, to separate different patterned papers or to break the page monotony: stick it down, weave it through eyelets or holes or slits in the page etc

•  Wrap it around things: photo frames, slide frames, oversized monogram letters, journaling blocks etc

•  Tie it onto things: around strips of paper to give a row of tied ribbon knots for a border, around clips, safety pins and jump rings etc

•  Use it to tie something closed: mini-books, tag books, hidden journaling etc

•  Create loops, tabs and flashes with it: as a pull for hidden journaling, to create a border, to be used at the top of a tag either by creating a flash and stapling it on or by punching a hole and looping through it etc

•  Tie it into bows either through holes on the page, or off the page to be stuck down

•  Embellish plain ribbon yourself: stamp it, print onto it (see fabric article for directions), apply rub-ons or letter stickers to it etc

•  Add it to pre-made embellishments for extra dimension

Once you have decided where to use it, here are some ways of adhering it:

•  Xyron (150 model should be sufficient)

•  Glue dots (mini or regular sized, depending on the width of the ribbon)

•  Hermafix

•  ‘Wet' glues (though very sparingly or it will seep through)

•  Brads

•  Eyelets

•  Nail heads

•  Safety pins

•  Sew it

•  Staple it

•  ‘Fastenate' it