30 December 2013

Tea anyone? .....


Andrea and I had great fun making teapots - mine was all in pinks and hers is in shades of blue.  We cut the card on the silhouette cameo (Andrea's new toy for Christmas!) and then cut designer paper to suit.  All edges were inked.  When all the glue was dry I had a great time decorating my teapot with 'Olivia' lace, Pink Darjeeling Pink Blossom flowers, WOC pink sweetheart blossoms, 7mm dusky pink satin ribbon and ivory flat back pearl trim - all from The Ribbon Girl


This photo shows the teapot with the lid removed - it would make a stunning gift box or favour for a wedding or special occasion dinner and it can be decorated in as many ways as you would decorate a card - I can see this becoming a favourite thing to make!

see you soon, Mary x


25 December 2013

A gift box by Jack ...and cards by Jessica...

Jessica sent the following two cards to be entered into the Kids Christmas Craft Challenge


By Jessica


By Jessica



 


I'm entering this project into the Ribbon Girl Kids's Christmas Craft Challenge on behalf of my great nephew Jack aged 10  who hasn't got a blog of his own.  He made this pillow box to give to his Mam for Christmas  - never more happy than when he is kicking a football for his medal winning team, Jack was chuffed to bits with his finished gift box when he'd filled it with his secret gift.

  


see you all soon, Mary x

17 December 2013

Last Christmas ....


This week's challenge at Papertake Weekly is 'Last Christmas card of the year ' and I used paper and an art pad image from LOTV.

I added 'Daphne' 25mm white fine vintage style lace and red satin ribbon - the lace bow was tied with a red/white sweetheart blossom flower and some silver twine.  My flower arrangement contains red cosmos flowers and white beaded stamens - the frond leaves were punched with a Martha Stewart punch - sentiment was computer generated and printed onto Safmat.

Sweetheart Blossom Red/White Pk of 10 25mm 'Daphne' White Fine Cluny Lace A 5 metre bundle of Silver Metallic Twine   

Lace, flowers, ribbon, twine and stickles all from The Ribbon Girl online store

Looking forward to seeing your Christmas Cards at Papertake Weekly!

Mary


16 December 2013

Kids Christmas Craft Challenge

click here to go to the Ribbon Girl Kids Christmas Craft Challenge

'Just for kids aged 16 and under'

We know lots of you like to make cards or do various other crafts when your Mums, Aunties, Grandmas, Nannas, carers and big sisters and so on are all making cards or colouring in so we thought it would be nice to have a special challenge JUST FOR KIDS!   The challenge will run until 9pm (UK time) on Saturday 28th December.

The winners will be announced on New Years Eve - we're sure you will have some time to fill in before Christmas and maybe some spare time between Christmas and New Year - you might even be hoping to get some new craft things in your stocking and this is a great opportunity to put them to good use.




There will be 3 prizes of crafty goodies and the challenge will be judged by 3 UK crafters:

Dawn Phillips freelance designer, craft tutor and TV presenter for Lili of the Valley
 Happy Birthday Dawny P - enjoy your day!!

  Kath Stewart  well known Freelance Craft Designer, Craft Tutor, and Demonstrator

Andrea Gourley - Craft Designer and Teacher 

The winners will have their project displayed here on our blog, on The Ribbon Girl Facebook Page and on the front page of The Ribbon Girl online store website on 1st January 2014

Good luck everyone and we're really looking forward to seeing all of your fabulous projects
so pop over to the Ribbon Girl blog
g e t   c r a f t i n g  !!

10 December 2013

Christmas Creatures at Papertake Weekly .....


Today's challenge at Papertake Weekly is 'Christmas Creatures' and you can see there are two little rabbits sitting in this christmas stocking!  I made the pillow box using my new punch board and used LOTV Classic Christmas paper and the image from their Christmas art pad 

I added 20mm 'Charlotte' lace, 15mm red satin ribbon, flower shaped acrylic button tied with natural button twine.  Those tiny little holly leaves were punched from the dark green paper in the LOTV paper pack with a 'palm -punch' and the flowers are red/white sweetheart blossoms - I added plenty of Stardust Stickles to make everything sparkle!  
Lace, flowers, buttons, twine, stickles are all from The Ribbon Girl online store

I hope you will fbe able to pop over to see the fabulous projects made by my teamies at Papertake Weekly - we'd love to see your paper craft projects and you could win a super prize!

Mary x



9 December 2013

Small pillow gift box ..


A dinky little pink pillow gift box made with a small piece of patterned paper, using my new punch board .  I added WOC cosmos, baby pink sweetheart blossoms, a mulberry rose, Kort & Godt purple rolled rose and RG white beaded twirl.  The lace is 13mm white droplet guipure and the leaves have been punched with my Martha Stewart punch.

Flowers and lace from The Ribbon Girl

Only one more go-to-bed before Andre Rieu concert on Tuesday night - yay!!

3 December 2013

Less is more ..... and I find it so difficult ....

only 7 more days until the Andre Rieu concert - can't wait !!


The challenge over at Papertake Weekly is 'less is more' which I find very difficult!  My card features Rudolph (from Hero Arts) stamped onto craft paper with the dots coloured in with a white pen.  The nose is a pearl coloured with red Copics.  Sentiment is computer generated onto Safmat and thebow is 25mm small check red gingham.  The background is embossed with a 6 x 6 snowflake folder.

I hope you will find time to join us at PTW and if you pop over you can see loads of inspiration from the design team!  There is a great prize to win too

Pearl and ribbon are from The Ribbon Girl online store

see you soon
Mary xx

1 December 2013

Christmas anything goes at The Ribbon Girl blog ......

It's the first day of December and it's only 10 days until we go to see Andre Rieu at Newcastle Arena!! We've had the tickets for ages and are really looking forward to the performance!


There is a mega Christmas/Winter 'anything goes' challenge over at The Ribbon Girl Blog which will run for the next couple of weeks. 

I made a Winter/Christmas Wedding Cake -  which is actually three gift boxes - I made them up from scratch using white card and some pretty paper.  To embellish my 'cake' I added  'Deborah' lace, 7mm cream satin, cream tiny pom pom, lots of 3mm double sided sticky tape, Wild Orchid 20mm cream roses, 30mm ivory roses, ivory cherry blossoms, white lily flowers, Ribbon Girl tiny red berries, and Kort & Godt ivory beaded berries all from The Ribbon Girl


The cake dividers are empty ribbon bobbins covered in paper and enhanced with mulberry and beaded flowers


here are the three gift boxes - I had a great time making this project - and hope it inspires some of you to give it a go - you could make a little replica 'cake' for friends and family who are getting married

 There will be a £10 voucher for The Ribbon Girl, a £10 voucher for Lili of the Valley, a kit of red ribbons and a snowflake stick pin - so what are you waiting for - you will find masses of inspiration from the entire Ribbon Girl Design Team

 Diamante Stick Pin Snowflake
  


see you soon, Mary x











30 November 2013

Little angels......


Lily the Christmas Angel (well, she has got a white Wild Orchid Crafts lily for a head-dress!)



Jackie and I thoroughly enjoyed making these little 'sister' angels


Using a tea plate we drew a circle on white card, cut it out, then cut it in half and formed a cone which we stapled together.  We cut a doily in half and covered the cone.  


We wondered whether to use feathers for the wings but thought they wouldn't last very long so decided to use white tulle instead



For the head we poked a WOC white lily flower through a polystyrene ball and added half of a long white pipe-cleaner for the arms.  This was then poked through the top of the cone and taped inside to prevent it moving around.

For the dress, we gathered up half a metre of 110mm 'Rosamund'  lace and stitched it to the neck of the angel.  The bodice is guipure lace stitched in place at the back of the neck as are the sleeves.  I used two layers of pale ivory rose organza at the bottom of the skirt and stuck it on with double sided tape - Jackie used a mixture of the organza rose ribbon and some more eyelash guipure lace

For the wings we made a large bow with white tulle and stitched it to the back of the bodice. We applied 5mm clear flat back crystal gems randomly to the wings and also to the lace skirt. The eyes were marked with a pen and we applied a little blusher using a cotton bud for cheeks

110mm 'Rosamund' Ivory Flat Lace 32mm Eyelash Edge White Guipure Lily Flowers White Pk of 5
Rose Organza Pale Ivory  White Tulle 15cm Wide 5mm Clear Crystals Self Adhesive 


26 November 2013

Sketch time at Papertake Weekly ...


There is a sketch challenge at PTW this week - you can choose sketch Number 85 or any of the Papertake Weekly sketches you particularly like.  I chose number 85, and skewed the layers.

I used a LOTV image from their Winter Wonderland No 18  art pad and applied loads of stardust stickles to make those little snowpeople sparkle!  I inked all edges of patterned paper and white card.  I used 20mm 'Charlotte' white cotton lace and 15mm scarlet berry satin ribbon.  I cut the poinsettias and that gorgeous holly branch with a die and added pearls to the centres of the flowers, the sentiment was computer generated printed onto safmat.  

I hope you will pop over to PTW to see the lovely cards made by the design team and we look forward to seeing what you create - as usual, there is a great prize to win!

Stickles, ribbon and lace are from The Ribbon Girl online store
see you soon
Mary x

19 November 2013

Giving thanks ......


This week's challenge at Papertake Weekly is 'Giving Thanks' and I  made a thank you card and used this gorgeous image from  LOTV Artpad 'Party & Cake' .  The paper is LOTV 'Always and Forever' and added pink velvet lace, rose petal pink seam binding.

My flowers are WOC pink cherry blossomss, sweetheart blossoms, white Kort & Godt chrysanths, pink lily, pink/white 30mm wild rose andd white starburst stamens.

The butterflies are punched from a Martha Stewart punch and I inked all edges and added 5mm pink self adhesive pearls.  A touch of Stardust Stickles finished off the card.

I hope you can pop over to the PTW challenge and be inspired by all of the fabulous creations by the design team

see you soon
Mary x

Lace, ribbons, all flowers, pearls and stickles  are all from The Ribbon Girl

17 November 2013

A Christmas wreath .....


The Ribbon Girl November Colour Challenge is 'white' and I had great fun making this Christmas wreath.  My base was a white polystyrene circle. I embossed good quality white paper with a snowflake pattern, then cut out the stars with nesties.  I scored and creased the stars.  I cut some plain stars out and stuck them around the polystyrene base then added the fancy stars - fairly tricky to get them to stick but patience is a virtue! if only I had some lol.  I embellished my wreath with white daisy flowers but I took out the yellow middles and added 14mm clear crystal flatbacks; silver star flowers; white organza flowers with diamante centres and ivory gardenias.  I die cut various types of foliage in white and stuck them here and there.  At the top of each star I added a clear diamante flatback gem.   I added silver sparkly mesh ribbon and white seam binding at the top of the wreath then used silver twine to make a hanging loop.  When everything was firmly stuck I added copious amounts of Stardust Stickles to the stars and paper foliage and I now it will look lovely when I hang it up nearer to Christmas

Daisies, silver star flowers, organza diamante flowers, all gem flatbacks, ribbon, twine and Stardust Stickles are from The Ribbon Girl

I hope you will be able to join in The Ribbon Girl challenge - there are some amazing projects by the team and our guest designers - I never thought so much white could look so beautiful!

We have two fabulous prizes for our lucky winner  a £10 voucher from our very generous friends at  Lili Of The Valley and  a £10 voucher towards a shopping spree at Ribbon Girl



see you soon, Mary x


16 November 2013

A little cracker .... and some bird houses ...

Photo


A little Christmas cracker, first one made using the envelope score board, ok once I got the hang of it, there was an excellent demonstrator called Shari on the Crafts u Love stand at the NEC last week andd she showed us how  to make the cracker - however, a week later I had forgotten so I found a video on u-tube and watched that 

I used 12mm white polyester flat lace, 7mm red satin ribbon, green/white saddlestitch ribbon, red tiny ric rac and a star buckle slide with the centre removed - these crackers will make gorgeous gift containers and could be used at the table with a tag with the name of each guest

Photo

 and also a pic of the little houses my little sister Jackie and I made the other night, hers is the green one with the red ribbon hanging loop. Mine made with the Graphic 45 12 days of Christmas paper has got a little glass santa tree ornament in, so you can see him when you look through the hole!  I'll be making more of these to hang on our Christmas tree.  I used a Sizzix die and the extra long plates and we used a pair of thin round sticky backed magnets so the roof can be opened to reveal the gift within the house.

I hope you will all be joining in with The Ribbon Girl Colour Challenge which begins at 9am on Sunday 17th on The Ribbon Girl blog
see you then,
Mary x

12 November 2013

Snow and Ice .......


This week's challenge at Papertake Weekly is 'Snow & Ice  - blue or 'cold' colours or include snow somewhere'
and this my DT card - I used this lovely snowman image from LOTV Artpad No 18

I'm sure you are all busy making Christmas cards for friends and family and are sure to be inspired by this week's theme!

I added some silver twine, a large snowman charm and lots of stardust stickles, all from The Ribbon Girl online store 

I hope you will find time to join in with this challenge and you can get a stack of inspiration from my teamies over at PTW

see you soon, Mary x

10 November 2013

Make it Sparkly ....... my favourite thing!


The frost outside this morning is certainy sparkly - so thick it looks like snow!  Andrea and I had a lovely time when we visited the Hobbycraft exhibition at the NEC yesterday - we were lucky enough to meet up with Gina Knott, Kath Stewart, Dawny Phillips and Enfys Cashmore and had a jolly good laugh watching them with Barbara Gray and Joanna Sheen taking part in the 'Fiskars Fuse throwdown challenge - there will be lots of photos on Kath's blog on Monday I've no doubt

This is my project for the Ribbon Girl Lovely Lili Challenge - I do hope you can join in, what could be better than adding a bit of sparkle at this time of year and you will find loads of inspiration from my very talented teamies so please pop over and have a look and join in!

I made this Christmas easle card with a drawer below for my great niece Gemma - I used LOTV papers and that sweet image is from the 'tis the season' artpad.  I added white tiny pom pom trim, 7mm scarlet berry satin ribbon, Zva crystal lines, a 'Fleur' round vintage style sparkly brooch.  My flowers include a red cosmos, white beaded stamen, white sweetheart blossom, white Kort & Godt chrysanth and a red rose.  I finished off the top of the card with dots of White Opal liquid pearls.  The little knob handle is from Tim Holtz

Mary x

########


They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old,
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them

5 November 2013

Feeding the birds ......


My DT card for this week's Papertake Weekly Challenge which is 'anything goes' with the optional extra to make a Christmas Card - this week's challenge is sponsored by Lili of the Valley.  The papers are LOTV and the image is from 'Tis the season' artpad.  I used silver lame ribbon, eyelash edge guipure lace, 5mm clear gems, tiny red berries, Kort & Godt Chrysanth, mocha beaded stamen and I made the poinsettia flower with a die, glittered it then added some berries from an ivory gypsophalia in the centre


The trees are shedding their leaves ready for winter - spotted this one at the weekend and just had to take a quick photo 


see you soon, Mary x

3 November 2013

Include stripes .....

Posted by Mary

This is my DT card for The Ribbon Girl November card challenge 'include stripes'  - I used paper from 'Always and Forever' pad from Lili of the Valley.  The image is from their marvellous art pads which are so useful and match the paper pads perfectly.

My flowers are 30mm wild rose, pink cherry blosso, lily and sweetheart blossoms, ribbon is vintage pink fluted edge with silver twine and some scallop edge guipure lace, all from The Ribbon Girl


 As usual we are kindly sponsored by our lovely friends Lili Of The Valley who will give our lucky winner a stamp of their choice from the LOTV catalogue and the Ribbon Girl who will give our winner a £10 voucher towards a spending spree in their online store
 
 

I'm lookin forward to seeing your cards!

Mary x