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Tuesday, February 28, 2012

MFT February Creative Chat

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It's time for the MFT Creative Chat. The My Favorite Things Design Team Creative Chat is a monthly feature, where we are challenged to explore our creative spaces and share valuable organizational methods, tools, and shopping strategies with you. You'll be able to peek into our creative spaces, ask questions, and share your own ideas in the MFT forum.  This month, we were asked the following questions: 

 
Show us how you store your ribbon.
What are your favorite types of ribbon?
Any tips or tricks on how to use ribbon on stamped creations?

Visit Kim's Blog for a full list of designers that have taken up the challenge and get ready to delve into the minds of our creative team.


OK, ready for a tour of my ribbon storage? I have a lot of pictures for you to see, so get comfy.

First of all, here’s a fabulous rack my DH built for me for ribbon that I want to keep on the roll. It’s attached to the door of my stamp room using otherwise wasted space. I keep scissors and a measuring tape handy on a hook. I just love looking at all those colors, LOL! At the very bottom, I store all my 1/8” ribbon rolls. It’s too narrow to wind and I use it to package cards I sell on Etsy.

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In this close up, you can see there’s a dowel just above each shelf that the ribbon is passed under. I can pull off what I want and it keeps the whole roll from flying off the shelf.

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To get the most in my space for all other ribbon, I adopted this system that I saw on Becca Feeken’s blog a couple of years ago. I love it! You will notice that I can see every ribbon I have at a glance. I really like being able to do that (otherwise I forget what I *do* have) and this does the trick. Each color of ribbon is wrapped on a cardboard “bobbin”, secured with a tiny rubber band, then “filed” in a drawer of a Sterlite tote. More about that later.

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I arrange my ribbon by colors. In this drawer I have blacks, grays,  whites, and creams. Metallic silver is considered gray.

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This drawer has browns, yellows, and the start of oranges. Metallic gold is considered yellow.

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This drawer finishes the oranges and goes on to rust, then the start of the reds.

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In this drawer I keep the rest of the reds and the start of pinks.

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In this drawer you’ll see the rest of the pinks.

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This drawer has purples going into true blues.

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This drawer has more aqua blues and the bluer greens.

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This drawer contains all the yellow greens.

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In this drawer, I keep all my multicolor/holiday ribbons.

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OK, now for a little about HOW I do it. I get this mat board weight board at Office Max. It comes in 30” x 20” sheets and I have them cut it into 15” x 10” pieces for me so I can handle it on my paper cutter.

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Then I cut each section into 2” x 2 1/2” “bobbins”. I get 5 strips and 6 “bobbins” from each strip. So, you can see you can get a lot of bobbins from one sheet of this board. If I remember correctly, it’s about $6 for each board and they charge a few dollars to cut it into quarters. I also use this board for the dividers in each drawer. They’re 12” long by 2” high. When I was first implementing this system, I taped the dividers to the bottom of the drawer, but now that the drawers are pretty full, they’re not going anywhere ;-)

After I wind the ribbon—I only put about 3 yards of heavy/wide ribbon on each bobbin, but I can get up to 10 yards of thin and narrow on a bobbin. After I wind it, I just secure it with one of these little black rubber bands, which I find in the hair accessories aisle at Wal*Mart, quite inexpensively. Now, this project will take some time to get set up, but I found lots of time to do it while watching TV, riding in the car--I’ve even taken it to meetings and worked on it there :)

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One caveat: most ribbon will develop creases from being on the bobbin. To take care of that problem, I keep a small flat iron handy beside my craft table chair. Once I decide what ribbon I’m going to use, I turn the flat iron on, measure what I need, and cut it off the bobbin. By that time the flat iron has heated up and I just pull the ribbon through to smooth out the creases. Takes another minute but well worth it for the ability to find what I want quickly.

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My favorite ribbon for card making is any that is soft and not too bulky. Seam binding definitely falls within that category so I use it a good bit. Here’s where I store my rolls of seam binding. I keep a roll of low-tack painter’s tape handy to keep the ends taped down—otherwise that tote would be a hot mess! I’m thinking I need some more colors, though, don’t you? Definitely need to place an order soon :)

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One tip about seam binding: I used to dye/distress a bunch of it ahead of time with Distress Inks. It takes quite a bit of time for it to dry if you want it wrinkled, and have some I did up that I’ve never used. Now I buy the colored seam binding and distress it as I need it. How? I use a Copic refill (E33 is my favorite) to distress what I need for a card/project. After I drop on some E33, I add some colorless refill to get it damp enough, then just scrunch it up in my hands until it’s wrinkled enough and dry. Since it’s alcohol based, it dries pretty quickly and I don’t have to have a lot of different colors made up, and I don’t have to find a place to store it. It’s a little stiffer than that done with Distress Inks, but the convenience more than compensates for that. After it’s dry, more scrunching will soften it a bit and this method ties as well as the other, IMO. Um, ignore the paper scraps on the floor, will ya? ;-)

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I’m also counting Baker’s twine in the ribbon category and it’s also all in a drawer—not neatly. This storage “system” is not earth shattering, LOL, but I thought I might as well share it. I started to arrange it all nice but I knew it wouldn’t stay that way so I thought: “Why bother—it’s all in one place, I can see it, and I can find it just fine” ;-)

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I also love regular twine and use it a LOT! I buy the large rolls and just leave it on the rolls. Silver is used more for Christmas projects.

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And, lastly, another favorite “ribbon” of mine is twill. I store it in a drawer on the rolls on which it comes. I have several sizes of natural, several of white (more sizes in another drawer--I can also color the white with Distress Ink pads by just drawing the pad over a length of twill), and one size of black.

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Thanks so much for stopping by to take my little tour of my ribbon storage system. I hope you’ve found a little something that will help you with your ribbon organization.

Hope to see you back tomorrow for the first teaser of March! This release is AWESOME (aren’t they ALL?) so you won’t want to miss a single thing :)

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32 comments:

  1. Seriously, WOW.....we MFT girls are NOT running short on ribbon, lol!!

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  2. wow love both your ribbon storage options Barb. You definitely have lots of ribbon!

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  3. Wow! I am envious of how amazingly organized you are! It's fantastic and I just had to "pin" it to me Scrapbook Organization board on pintrest for all others to see! :)

    XoXo,

    Katie

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  4. Oh my goodness...I'm loving all that ribbon and the way you store it. Wish your husband would go into business building that ribbon holder...I'd buy one!

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  5. amazing, BAr!!! looove those color coordinated drawers. and the flat iron is a great idea....in fact I have that same flat iron. i'd probably use it more for ribbon, than I do on my hair. lol.

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  6. I just love when MFT has you gals do the Creative Chat....
    Love the ribbon holder for the back of the door... your hubby is a treasure for sure! I use the draws and bobbons now for my ribbon and love it too! Thanks for sharing ALL your ribbons...
    Beutiful!!!

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  7. WOW!
    I want to come to your craft room and see all that yummy ribbon in person...What great ideas. TFS.

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  8. I have a feeling my jaw will be dropping through all these posts today lol. Love how you did the colors. Great tips!

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  9. whow...lucky Barbara...what a ribbon collection and greatly organized!

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  10. OMG...I LOVE that I've stumbled onto a new ribbon store! Can I place an order? LOL!!! Seriously though...that rack on your door is to DIE for and I really need to make some cardboard "bobbins" and start wrapping my ribbons. Fabulous storage Barbara!!!

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  11. ACK! OMG Bar...I LOVE your ribbon storage! The behind the door storage, with the handy scissors and ruler, is AWESOME! LOVE how organized you are!!

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  12. Oh Barbara!!! Gasp!!! LOVE all of your different ways to store ribbon! That rack your hubby built is AMAZING!! I, too, love twill and your collection is making me drool! =) What scraps on the floor? ;)

    If you don't mind, could I ask you where you purchase your seam binding?

    Thanks so much!

    Beautiful again!

    Crafty Hugs!
    Meredith

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  13. Thanks so much for sharing your storage methods. All ideas are appreciated. :)

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  14. Omgosh, Barbara, your husband rocks!!! Love that rack and love your rainbow of drawers!!! Just gorgeous!

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  15. Wow I love all the ribbon you have. The room must be like a rainbow. So pretty. I love what your hubby made for you. I pinned it.

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  16. Gorgeous ribbon...beautifully stored. I'm lusting after that back of the door rack your hub built you. Wonderful!

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  17. Thank you so much for all the photos and great details. I started reorganizing my ribbon Monday and your system is much better than mine. You've given me lots of great ideas!

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  18. Wow...thank you for sharing the way you store your ribbons. You are so organized. I think you have every color ribbon ever made! I am curious though... why do you take the ribbon off the rolls and store them on the cards? And I'm also wondering where you buy your twill tape and seam binding in all the colors? Thanks.

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  19. Wow... thanks for sharing the way you organize your ribbons. I think you have every color made! I'm curious though, why do you take the ribbon off the rolls and store them on the cards? And, could you let us know where you buy your twill tape and seam binding in all those pretty colors? Thanks.

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  20. Barb, thanks for sharing your methods -- love your DH's storage!

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  21. Hi I LOVE your behind the door ribbon holder.. Is there ANY way possible you can give the dimensions?

    It looks like its maybe 2-3 in wide? That is my I guess biggest question.
    Thanks
    Fran
    franb63 (SCS)

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  22. can you share what you need to make the behind the door ribbon holder ?love it . i have tons of ribbon and been looking for something like this one .. TY

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  23. Can you share where you bought the behind the door storage unit? Or did you make it?

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    Replies
    1. The paragraph directly above the photo clearly says it was made by her husband. "here’s a fabulous rack my DH built for me..."

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  24. The pictures are not showing

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  25. Barbara, I know this is a very old post, but none of the photos are showing up. This page keeps popping up all over Pinterest and I'd love to see what it actually looks like.

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    Replies
    1. I lost a ton of photos last year and I haven't gotten them put back up. I will try to get this one page done soon. Thank you!

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  26. I just stumbled across a FB memory of this post. So sad to see the photos are missing. We are building me a craft room and it’s time to be thinking about the storage I will use.

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  27. Hi Barbara! I was on Pinterest and saw the beautiful photo of your behind the door ribbon storage. When I came to the website all of the photo's are missing. I'm in the process of re-organizing my craft room and would love to be able to see your amazing photo's. Thank you for all of your wonderful posts!!

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Thank you for your kind comments--they make my day and I appreciate every one!