By Angie Felix

Using Ribbon

One of today’s hottest trends is ribbon. Striped, polka dotted, or solid, simple fabric ribbon has made a big impression on paper crafters all across the world. Ribbons are easy to tie onto your projects—or attach them with Glue Dots™, Glue Lines™, brads, eyelets, staples and more!

One quick tip to keep in mind when working with ribbons—always trim the tails of your ribbon at an angle or into a “v” shape to prevent the fibers from fraying.

How can you incorporate ribbon into your designs? Here are a few bright ideas on how you can incorporate ribbon into your next projects:

Borders

Stringing ribbon across the bottom or side of a page or card is a quick and simple way to create a fun border. Susan wrapped this 13” piece of lavender sheer ribbon around the bottom of the page, taping the ends to the back to secure it. For an added touch, she secured ribbon to the paper embellishments with brads and created ribbon loops to hang them from the border.

LeNae created a vertical border on the card to the right with green grosgrain ribbon, then embellished the ribbon border with small pieces of knotted ribbon.

You can also use ribbon to create a more detailed border on a project. Shauna punched five holes near the edge of this photo mat, then threaded pink grosgrain and yellow woven ribbon through them. She simply tied knots in the pink grosgrain and bows with the yellow ribbon. This technique gives the page added detail, and helps to bring the eye to the photo while brightening up the layout.

Topping Off a Tag or Embellishment
Ribbon is also a great way to add a simple little finish to the top of a tag. Punch a hole in the top of a tag and thread the ribbon through, then knot, or do what Susan did here: Tie a simple shoestring bow and attach it to the top of a tag with a Glue Dot™—it’s quick and easy! A great alternative to a bow? Simply tie a knot in a piece of ribbon the trim the ends at angle.

Ribbon is also great for embellishing a piece of paper art, an alphabet tile, or even a slide mount, as LeNae did here. LeNae added a spiral clip to the top of the decorated slide mount, then knotted a length of ribbon around the clip to embellish.

Another great way to add ribbon to a tag or embellishment is to simply fold a length of ribbon in half and attach with a brad, eyelet, or even staple. Attach the folded end of the ribbon behind the embellishment to leave the cute tails sticking out, or attach the ribbon tails behind the embellishment to create a sleek tab.

The most important key to ribbon is being creative—a little bit of ribbon can go a long way in adding texture and dimension to your paper crafting projects.