Thursday, June 3, 2010

Ribbon Weaving


I promised I would be back to share with you how I made my ribbon woven panel - so here it is, my Really Reasonable Ribbons Tutorial. When you have beautiful ribbons, even if it is just a short piece, you want to be able to use them - and this is a great way to use lots of ribbons that you like at one time.

You will first want to gather ribbons with different widths, textures and finishes - but make sure you like the way they look together. I used some of the ribbons from last month's ribbon club and then added a few more. ( Pink velvet, Light pink gingham, Brown with pink stitches, dark brown grosgrain, sheer square print)
I knew I was going to make a panel to fit a card sketch that I was working on - and that I wanted it to be 3 x 5.5. I cut my vertical ribbons at about 7 inches, and pinned them onto my Bazzill Piercing mat. This made it really easy to line things up and keep them straight, since this board has inch markings on it. When you pin your ribbons down, lay them so the right side is facing down. On some ribbons, this won't matter, but like for the velvet, it would make a big difference.
For my horizontal ribbons, I cut them at about 5 inches long. Then I started weaving each ribbon over and under the vertical ribbons and then, would pin each ribbon down to keep it straight and taut. As I pinned the ribbons, I angled the pins away from the center.
I had a piece of cardstock cut to my 3 x 5.5 size. I covered the entire back with a large piece of scor-pal tape, and carefully laid it on the weaving. Then I added more tape around the edges, so I could fold the ends of ribbon over and attach them.
You can then treat this how you would any paper panel - add a mat to it, add embellishments ( I put a clear sticker on mine) or whatever your heart desires! You can try this method with different shapes, etc! I would love to see what you come up with.

2 comments:

Iris Wiechmann said...

Oh wow this is awesome Gini!!! What a fantastic idea! Thanks for the great tutorial!

Hugs,
Iris

Lilian said...

Thanks for the awesome tutorial Gini! Very nice card!