Playing with Ribbon. . .

I have thoroughly enjoyed sorting out my new ribbon stash from Jane Means.

Organisation is the key when you are a butterfly crafter like me - my stash of fabric, yarn, buttons, ribbons, beads, paper tools and haberdashery tend to spill over their allotted spaces and find their way into all sorts of unlikely places (which usually means that when I am actually looking for a particular item I can never find it without an extensive search and much muttering under breath!) I knew I had to take control of all these lovely ribbons straight away or things might get messy. . .

Fortunately I had the perfect little 'treasure chest' sitting empty waiting for something suitably precious to fill it. Wrapping the ribbon around card 'bobbins' (cut out from cereal boxes) and writing the product code and description next to each one looks so cute AND will help me share all these ribbons with you when I blog all the lovely projects I am planning!

Ribbon Bookmarks

 

I love to read!  I usually have AT LEAST 3 books on the go at any one time - currently I am reading the very funny 'An Utterly Impartial History of Britain' by John O'Farrell, a novel from the fantasy series by Raymond E Feist as well as flicking through the new Erica Knight book on crochet. Trouble is I can never find a bookmark when I need one, which means I usually end up using scraps of paper or *gasp* folding the corner of the page over!

Here's a really simple idea for using up small lengths of ribbon you may have left over from another project to save your pages and they make great little gifts for the literary people in your life!

Now obviously, a length of ribbon on it's own would make a perfectly good bookmark but it's very easy to pretty them up with some necklace ends and a few beads.

I have used these bar clamps to finish off lovely knitted necklaces my mother-in-law makes but they are the perfect width for these 15mm stripe ribbons.  Just attach a few beads to either end to add some weight and voila! Gorgeously simple bookmarks ready to adorn your latest read and helpfully remind you where you got up to without a folded page corner in sight.

This lovely piece of Ocean Jasper co-ordinates well with the sage green and cream stripe ribbon for a more masculine bookmark.

Why not create a ribbon bookmark to match a special book to give as a gift?   I have used the orange and brown stripe with some amber coloured beads here.

The beads at either end create a bit of weight that hold the bookmark in place. I love the green and purple stripe combo with beautiful swarovski crystals and acrylic star charms.











You don't have to use beads at both ends - a lovely silky tassel in co-ordinating colours would look gorgeous too!   Why stop at one? Create pretty bookmarks for all your favourite books :-)