Decorative Packaging

It’s fun to share the love all year long.  This is a cute idea at Valentine season to put love notes in or a sweet treat.  I am a firm believer that we don’t need a special day to say I Love You to those in our lives that need to hear it.

Who wouldn’t love opening their lunch box or purse, or reach into a jacket pocket for something and pulling out a little token of love?

Choose decorative paper.  Fine grade paper or origami paper folds neat and easy but you can use any you have.  Just make sure it is not too heavy.  Double sided paper is also a great choice.

Tools and Materials

Decorative paper
Pencil
Ruler
Satin Ribbon
1. Find or make a heart pattern out of poster board or card board.  Whatever you choose for a pattern, make sure it is sturdy enough to trace repeatedly.

2. Lay a square template that is centered over the heart. Make creases along the four lines by lightly folding the paper. Smooth creases with a bone your finger; a ruler will help achieve a perfect line.

3. Fold in each side of the heart, and then fold down the top, smoothing each crease with your finger. Slip the point of the heart into the open top, making sure that it fits snugly before completing the fold.

4.  Seal the packet with a bow, make slits wide enough to accommodate a piece of narrow satin ribbon in the top and bottom creases of the square. Multiple hearts can be nested, as long as each fits within the center square of another when folded.

Are you a decorator?  Do you like restoring furniture to its original beauty?  We carry a complete line of vintage ribbon and trim.  Antique furniture if fun to restore but its useless to use the original ribbon to do it.  It will be too hard to work with and fray or fall apart.

Do you have old family photos?  Scrap book them using old ribbon styles and keep the antique feel of the picture.  Your great, great, grandparents pictures are precious and your kids wont know who they are unless you are creative with the photos. Select the pictures you want to display and then choose a vintage ribbon in their favorite color or maybe the color of the shirts or apron you remember them wearing then after you secure the photos in the scrap book, use the ribbon to border the image.  You can also make little bows or even trim the entire page with the ribbon.

Ribbon is a lovely accent to any card or invitation.

This cute baby shower invitation is adorable all by it sell but the ribbon just adds the frilly flair that a new baby girl is sure to bring any home.

Whether you use baby shower ribbon or polka dot ribbon it is very easy to add a ribbon bow to any card.

This card has been home made with scrap booking techniques. However, you can embellish any store bought card with a ribbon bow by adding a glue dot or hot glue dot to the spot and pressing the bow in place.

It’s the little touches that show you care when planning an event for someone special. The guest of honor will love all the time and effort you put forth to make every detail of their special day amazing.

As you prepare your wedding decorations and invitations, save some of the personalized ribbon you used for other things to decorate your wedding photo album.

My wedding photos are among the top ten things I would want to grab if I had to leave our home in a hurry.  Of course family members and pets would be first but things like baby pictures and wedding pictures are near the front door and some of the things you just can’t replace if there was a fire.

As you gather things for your wedding photo album and scrapbook, you will want to include samples of your wedding napkins, invitations, some ribbon and lace and any other special embellishments you used for your special day.

What is more precious than pictures of childhood memories? In some cases they have images of grandparents who are no longer with us or not in good health any longer.   Take lots of pictures of all your special times.  But the first thing you need to do is to date the picture and name the people!  You may think it’s a no-brainer to recognize a picture of your child with grandma but one day, you will forget where it was taken, and in a generation or two, they may not even know who is in the picture.

We love to go to the Zoo.  We have lots of pictures of the kids at the zoo.  This is just one example of an endless array of ideas for scrap-booking pictures from your family day at the zoo.  Embellish the pages with animal print ribbon trim or even ribbon bows.

Sports Ribbon can be used in so many creative ways. Besides using it for hair bows, and room decorating, many scrapbookers are stocked well with all sorts of decorative ribbon.

This birth announcement could easily be made into a book mark by adding a sports ribbon tail or add a tassel.   Whether it’s a birth announcement or a birthday party invite, you can embellish your announcement with sports ribbon.

Personalized ribbon would also be a great choice for adding bows and streamers your bookmarks.

Scrap-booking is so much fun.  I know people who take pictures and already have a scrapbook page visualized for it. They already have their graduation ribbon, or baby shower ribbon chosen to embellish the page.   I enjoy doing it but it definitely takes more effort for me to do it.  In years past, it was remarkable when people actually managed to get the pictures in an album and not just in a stack or a box.  While for me, that would be a huge undertaking to get all my pictures in an album, I know there are others that would think its just lazy to not get them actually scrap-booked.

My main struggle is deciding what pictures to put in a scrapbook.  They are all precious to me and I don’t think I could cut any of them up.  Old school thinking is my problem or one of them… ha ha I enjoyed gathering all the pictures for Mandy’s graduation.  It took countless hours to get the album flow into and age progression but was such a feeling of accomplishment.

Polka dot ribbon is so fun. It comes in a variety of colors and the size of the pattern.  I love polka dots. I think that is because my nursery paper had pink polka dots.  I used similar wall paper for my oldest daughter’s nursery but in pink with white polka dots.  These cute dots don’t have to be limited to nursery’s I’m sure most remember the old song about the yellow polka dot bikini.

In the spring, many out fits will have polka dots on them.  Fancy hats with a polka dot ribbon band have been worn by many.  Little girl’s hair bows are so cute when they are made with polka dot ribbon.  Clowns are famous for wearing polka dots and nothing says fun like a clown.

Scrap-booking pages are perfect places for polka dots and other decorative ribbon.  I think these bulletin boards so easy to make.  They can be made in any size and shape.  Choose the size cork board and cover it with your desired fabric.  You can staple it to the back of the cork board or hot glue it because it will not show.   Arrange the polka dot ribbon evenly spaced on top and stretch tight by tacking one end to the back then the opposite end.  I suggest tacking all the ribbon in one direction first then weaving the second directionally ribbon in one at a time and tacking in the same way.  Making sure you get it tight.  Decorative push pins can be used at each intersection to add design and texture to the board and keep photos from sliding down.

Scrap-booking is so much fun. I have so many creative family members that spend so much time doing this.  They take a few favorite pictures, crop them, and add stickers, ribbon, bows and other fun things that tell a story.  I would love to send them my pictures and have them make books but it would be so much better if I took the time to do it myself since no one knows the story behind the picture better than the owner of the picture.

I enjoy it too but I have so many other hobbies that I don’t make the time I should to do it.  Most of my albums are just photos in plastic sleeves in somewhat of an order but I am so far behind. Our church camp has scrapbooking retreats, the have scrapbooking parties where they swap ideas, materials, buy new things; borrow tools and other ways to save money.  I could sit and look at these books for hours.  Each page tells a story.

Even if you don’t know any of the people in these pictures, the way they scrapbook them is so detailed that you know exactly what the theme of the event is.  Baby shower ribbon can be used to help embellish a page with highlights of your baby shower.

There aren’t any rules on how to do things, its anything goes but there are lots of wonderful hints that save you lots of time if you attend a party, or look it up on line.  There are certain materials to use that help protect your photos.

Have fun cropping, pasting and narrating your special days as you scrapbook.  Your family will thank you one day!

Valentines with Red Ribbon

Valentines with Red Ribbon

 Homemade valentines are so much fun. I remember my years of childhood with lots of construction paper, markers, doilies, stickers and lots of bows. Each one would be different, and mom always said they were her favorite. When I grew up, I wondered if she was just being kind or actually liked getting homemade valentines.

Well, as a mom today I can say that those are always my favorite ones. I may use card stock now and scrapbook paper, ribbon, and lots of nice embellishments that I did not have access to as a child but they are still homemade. Using ribbon on cards and invitations are gaining popularity.

 I love this style of invitations and greeting cards. Punch two holes in the top, thread the red ribbon through the front of the paper pulling through from the back. Feed ends in opposite holes and pull through. I love this scripture and think it is a very clever way to share our faith. Placing it on cardstock and placing a transparent tissue paper on top, punching holes through both pieces of paper and inserting the ribbon as shown.

 What a perfect way to share your love to someone. There are many ways to add ribbon to a card or invite.  Experiment to find the way you perfer.