Winners!!!!

We have two winners tonight, first the winner of the Aqua Colour Challenge which is

Emma

...and the winner of the Christmas mini kit which is

Miria

Ladies, please email us so that we can arrange to post out your prizes.

Everyone else - come back tomorrow as we will be celebrating a birthday!

Party favours made easy by Andrea

Last Sunday was my Mam and Dad’s Ruby Wedding Anniversary. 40 years so it was always going to be special but I wanted to make it a bit more special so there was the usual stuff that daughters do for their parents – a cake, balloons, handmade card, spending the day doing the chores etc. being a taxi driver so that they could both drink at the party they hosted for their closest family and friends at their favourite Italian restaurant in the city where we live. As a last minute thing on Saturday morning I decided to make some party favours to put on the table at the restaurant, they were really quick to make and to be honest took hardly any effort but my Mam was thrilled and everyone who came to their party talked about them and generally enjoyed them. They added something a little bit personal to the restaurant meal and got everyone talking at the table which was a bonus as not everyone had met before. This is how I made the favours

Quarter of an A4 sheet of double sided paper

Tape on one short and one long side, wrap into a tube joining the short sides

Nudge the join over to one side and nip the ends together - no need for glue as you've already applied it before rolling the tube

Flip the tube over and pinch the ends together twising 90 degrees as you do

Punch a  hole in the end

Add in the treat

Tie with a ribbon

Add embellishments

So, what I really wanted to share with you is that it doesn’t take a lot of effort to Make It Special, just do something a little bit different, to the norm. I am so pleased I did this for my parents and they were thrilled – I guess what I could have done was to take a photograph of both of them but I forgot!!

Papers – Enchanted by Kristin Cronen-Barrow at sweet Shoppe Designs

Heart charm and 7mm ribbon from Ribbon Girl

Andrea x

ps don't forget that the aqua colour challenge closes on Sunday night, as does the red mini kit give away - see below!

Mini Kit Giveaway ...

Hello, we've been celebrating at the Ribbon Girl this week as it was Mary's Ruby Wedding Anniversary on Sunday. To celebrate we're giving away one of our red mini kits

If you'd like the chance to win a mini kit from us just leave a comment on this post before Sunday evening (UK time) and the lucky winner will be drawn at random

Colour Challenge #10 ...

** edited to add the winner of the Christmas Mini Kit give away - it's you Archies Mum - please email us with your name and address please and we'll post the kit to you.
Here we are with our tenth Ribbon Girl colour challenge and for this challenge our very talented design team member Nicole has chosen shades of aqua as the main colour focus. Once again we have two fabulous prizes for the challenge from our friends at Lili Of The Valley and Ribbon Girl.

Lili Of The Valley have given us a £10 voucher to spend in their online store

Our second prize is a gorgeous Aqua mini kit from Ribbon Girl

So, on to the challenge - create a new project using shades of aqua and link us up to it using the inLinkz button at the bottom of this post. You don't have to use ribbon but of course that would be nice and if it happened to be from the Ribbon Girl that would be even better! :)  Our fabulous Design Team have been busy creating some amazing projects to inspire you:

By Nicole

(Lace, satin, charm)

By Dawny

(Lace, organza spot ribbon, bakers twine, polka dot button)

By Claudia

(seam binding, button twine, polka dot button, charm)

By Gail

(crystal swirl, polka dot buttons, button twine, lace, satin ribbon, seam binding, pin)

By Jane

(seam binding, cluny lace, pin)

By Andrea

(sheer ruffle, crystal swirl, heart charm, fancy pins)

(fancy pins, organza spot, pom pom trim)

By Kath

(lace, dewdrops)

By Jo

(cluny lace, seam binding, fancy pin, dewdrops)

By Mandy

(cluny lace, sheer ruffle, seam binding, wool felt)

(seam binding, polka dot button)

By Vicky our talented Guest Designer

(Openweave, polka dot buttons, charm, bakers twine)

By Tiets

(Sheer ruffle, heart charm, dewdrops, polka dot button, button twine, very fine cluny lace)

By Jacqui

(Cluny lace, seam binding, fancy pin, polka dot button)

Our challenge will run until July 31st at 10:00 PM (UK time) and one winner will be chosen at random to win both the Lili Of The Valley and Ribbon Girl prizes
*** edited on 27th July to add this card  below from Ellen who does not have a blog

Pink and Blue challenge over at Lili of the Valley .....

The new challenge number 105 over at Lili of the Valley is to make a project using the colours pink and blue and the Ribbon Girl is providing one of our new green mini kits and Lili of the Valley are providing a £10 gift voucher to use in their online store - here is the fabulous card that our Ribbon Girl teamie Jacqui made:

Jacqui used cluny white fan lace, paradise aqua seam binding, aqua polka dot buttons and aqua decorative pins, all from the Ribbon Girl,

By the way, if you want the chance to win a fuschia mini kit, why not enter the Papertake Weekly challenge where the theme is HOT, HOT, HOT - they'd like to see pinks, reds, oranges etc - we're giving a Ribbon Girl fuschia mini kit!

and last but not least, you've still got time to win a Christmas mini kit - our giveaway remains open until Sunday 17th July!

We're so proud of Jo ..... and new arrivals .. and Norwegian Scrappers

Our super talented Ribbon Girl teamie Jo is through to the final rounds of the Papercrafts Gallery Idol - 502 designers submitted 1,671 cards for 20 spots in the final of Papercrafts Gallery Idol and this was the last minute card that Jo submitted  -  she said she was totally amazed that her card made it through! we're not Jo, you really deserve it!

 The theme for the first round is Do-It-Yourself embellishments and this is the card that Jo created, complete with a mini hand crafted book - we're sure you'll want to join us in wishing Jo the very best of luck in the competition!  The cards have gone live and you can now vote in round one.

We're now stocking super sparkly buttons to enhance your cards etc - at only £1.00 for a pack of ten 2-hole 15mm buttons we think these will be very popular 

We were approached by Wenche Jensen who is a member of the Design Team in the largest scrapbooking forum in Norway, http://www.scrapping.no/  with 14300 registered users! Wenche told us that Scrapbooking is actually a pretty new hobby in Norway but is expanding more and more each day.  It was our pleasure to send them some Ribbon Girl products and we will feature some of their creations in the coming weeks.

Many thanks to Ann Kristin of Norway for the photo of these fabulous creations - she managed to use no less than 7 products on project shown above including very fine Cluny lace, cotton lace, pink satin ribbon, raspberry dewdrops, a pink polka dot button, some button twine and creamy white organza ribbon with heart border!

Ann includes a step by step to show how she made the fab flowers with seam binding and lace on this layout - thank you Ann.

We'll be back soon with information on new charms and don't forget you've still got time to leave a comment to be included in the give-away for one of our Christmas Mini Kits - the jingle bells make a gorgeous jingly sound!!  

Also, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their get well soon messages following my total hip replacement three weeks ago - I'm getting around the house on two crutches and confident that in a few weeks time I'll be like a new woman!  Mary x

More DT cards, new mini kits and a Christmas give away ....

It's never too soon to start making one or two Christmas cards and following on from the success of our Special Selection Ribbon Kits we are launching a range of Mini Ribbon Kits in red, orange, green, fuschia, black, aqua and Christmas - if you would like to win one of the Christmas Mini Kits all you have to do is leave a comment and add a link on your own blog - the winner will be chosen at random next Sunday, 17th July

Now here are more fab cards made by our very talented Ribbon Girls:

Dawny P



White spotted organza and flat lace was chosen by Dawny to finish her gorgeous blue themed card



Jacqui

Jacqui's colouring is superb and this delightful image is complemented by a gorgeous Zva Creative crystal swirl and some cotton zig zag lace

Riets

Our June GDT Riets used Ribbon Girl Flat Lace, Seam Binding,Organza and White Hat Pin

Tiets




Tiets finished this lovely card with white satin ribbon



 Mandy

Mandy used Blue Faux Silk and very fine cluny lace on this exceptionally pretty card

Felt Hairclips ...

How to make a felt hairclip

 Cut a small slit in a rectangle shaped piece of felt, open the hairclip and push through the slit, fold the felt over

 Using coordinating thread and a small running stitch sew around the hairclip through both layers of felt

 Trim around the hairclip

 Diecut felt flowers and stitch around the edges

 Add a polka dot button and stitch the flower onto the felt covered hairslide

Woolfelt, hairclips and polka dot buttons

Love from Andrea x