How To Tuesday

First things first, I have a winner to announce from last week’s “Favorite Things” giveaway. Thank you all so much for your comments. And the lucky winner is …

Congratulations! Please email your full name and mailing information (including your phone number for shipping purposes) as well as your choice of current Pebbles collection to pebblesincdt(at)gmail(dot)com and put “Favorite Things Winner” in the subject line.

Design team member Laura Vegas is going to share a fun ribbon technique with us today.  You’ll also notice that Laura is using our brand new mid-release collection Floral Lane – isn’t it gorgeous?!?  Here’s what Laura had to say … “One of my favorite Pebbles products is their ribbons. I love all the fun and bright colors that they come in. I’m always looking for new ways to incorporate ribbons onto my layouts and cards. One new technique I have been having fun with, is making flowers out of ribbons.”

First, you’ll need to gather your supplies. You will need some ribbon, thread or floss, a needle, glue dots, and your embellishment of choice to add to the centers of the flowers. I’m using some dimensional stickers for mine. But you could also use buttons, felt embellishments, chipboard flowers, etc.

Thread your needle. White thread works just fine, since it really won’t show once the flower is assembled. Start at one end of the ribbon, and do a basic running stitch (up and down through the fabric) along the bottom of the ribbon. You want to go about 1/8 of an inch from the bottom of the ribbon.

The length of your ribbon, will depend on how big you want your flower to be. I suggest doing your running stitch, and bunching up the ribbon now and then to get a feel for how more you need to stitch. For my flowers, I used a 10 inch strip of ribbon.

Once you have completed your running stitch, you will want to gather up the ribbon. To do this, you will hold the remaining thread (keeping the needle on there) with one hand, and push the ribbon down the thread to gather it. You might need to work it down from the bottom a little, and then come back to the top and work that part down. You can gather it as tightly or as loosely as you like.

The gathered ribbon will curl up, so you need to work it into a nice circle shape, making sure it doesn’t get too twisted up as you go. Then hold the two ends of the ribbon together, and use your needle to sew those ends together, tying it off on the backside.

Repeat these steps for any remaining ribbons. I created three flowers, using yellow, pink, and blue ribbon. Also pull out your embellishment of choice for the flower centers.

To assemble my ribbon flowers, I use mini glue dots to adhere the ribbon to my card or layout, leaving the center open. Then I use foam pop dots to adhered my embellishment to the center, which gives it some lift and dimension in the center of the flower.

These ribbon flowers will look super cute on your layouts or cards. I hope you’ll try out this fun technique, and see what you can come up with!

Pebbles supplies used:
Floral Lane You’re Sweet (751121)
Floral Lane Dimensional Stickers (732056)
Raspberry Ribbon (744030)
Sun Yellow Ribbon (744033)
Baby Blue Ribbon (744037)
Pebbles ABC Stamps (747106)

Other supplies used:
Thickers (American Crafts)