Decorative Packaging

Making your own award ribbons for your at home olympics is easy.

You will need:

Some satin fabric, satin ribbon at least 1″wide, scissors, tacky glue, cardboard and puff paints.

First, cut two small circles, the same size, out of the cardboard. Then, cut a larger circle out of the satin fabric. Place the fabric on one of the cardboard circles and smooth it out. Fold the excess fabric onto the back of the circle and secure with tacky glue. Make an “accordion” border for the shiny satin circle by cutting a long length of your satin ribbon. Glue one end to the back of the circle then begin folding the ribbon and gluing each bend of the fold to the back of the circle with plenty of glue. When you’ve made it all the way around, trim the excess and use your other circle to create a back for the circle. Glue it in place and hold until dry.

Finally, make some tails for your ribbon. Use your satin ribbon and cut tails at least 6″ long. You may want to cut notches out of the bottom of the tails for added detail. Then you can decorate your ribbon award with puff paint. Ideas: #1, Best in Show, Top Washer, Best Tan, Water Fight Champ. 

     Here’s an idea; have a week of “Summer Olympics” or a “fair” at home and make award ribbons for each event/project. Post a schedule of challenging ”events” for each day of the week. Pick things like washing the car, cleaning out clothes closets, perfect pancake making, pet grooming; and also throw in some truly fun competitions like laziest day, best tan lines or best water balloon ambush! In addition to prizes like coupons for free sundaes or a night off from chores, give the winners of each event award ribbons that I will teach you how to make tomorrow!

This is a kid’s craft the little ones will just eat up!

You will need: a plastic needle, thin satin ribbon, candies or other snacks with holes large enough for the ribbon to be threaded through or soft candy that you can poke a plastic needle through. As an alternative, you can use wrapped candies and tie them to the ribbon necklace with smaller pieces of cut ribbon.

 Cut a length of ribbon long enough to easily fit over your child’s head when tied.

Place a variety of candies (life savers, pretzel rings, fruit loops, marshmallows…) in a bowl and let your child string them onto the ribbon. Tie it at the ends, when finished, and bestow upon them their tasty and trendy craft for a snack/accessory they will happily enjoy!

Ever think you should take the time to journal your thoughts, but feel uninspired? What if you had a special place, all your own, to write them! It makes journaling more enticing when the book where you’re penning your thoughts is also an expression of your personality and creativity.

 You can easily create a ribbon-bound journal. use cardboard or some other heavy-weight material to create a front and back cover for your journal. Use stamps, patterned papers, embellishments, stencils, stickers or photos to decorate your cover. Use your imagination and be sure that it makes a statement about what you love or what you will say inside.

Then choose a paper for the inside pages. You can use a lined patterned paper or simple notebook paper. Just cut it down to size to fit between your front and back cover.

Use a pencil to mark off where you place holes down the side of your journal. They should be about 1″ apart. Punch holes in the top cover, then use that as a template to mark and make holes in the pages and the back cover.

Use a pretty ribbon to tie a bow through each of the holes to bind your book. You can even add a long length of ribbon to the top or bottom and attach a pen!

Finally, write down your thoughts about the day, your hopes and dreams or even your frustrations and prayers. Repeat tomorrow…

Anyone who crafts on a regular basis knows the mess that all those crafting supplies can create in closets, kitchen drawers, or wherever they take up residence. Here’s an idea that will help you keep at least one crafting item neat and tidy.

You can make a ribbon dispenser box out of a regular shoe box. Depending on how much ribbon you have and how big the spools are, you may need a small shoe box or full-size women’s shoe box. Once you’ve found a box the right size, you simply need to cut a straight slit along each long side of the rectangular box with an exacto knife. The slit should be about 1/2″ wide.

Place your ribbon spools inside so that there are two rows and feed the ends of the ribbon through the slits. Your ribbon will dispense easily from both sides of the box!

 Choose three colors of satin ribbon and cut a 12″ length of each. Hold them all together and find the middle. Loop the ribbon strands through the center of a metal key ring and tie a hitch not at the middle. You should now have six equal lengths of ribbon.

Divide the ribbon into three sections, with two ribbons each. Simply braid the sections together until you have a desired length, then not the end of the braid. You can also add small beads to the ribbon as you are braiding for some extra bling. 

Here’s an easy craft you can do with tweens and teens. Purchase a pair of inexpensive plain flop flops in a color you like. Then, go to the craft department and pick out two ribbons that compliment the flip flop. The hot pink and neon combo above is very cute, but you could also make a “classy” pair using black and silver and even add sparkly accessories.

Simply tie and arrange a bow by laying the two ribbons one on top of the other. Use hot glue to secure the bow so that it can’t come apart. To attach the bow to your flip flop you can use nylon thread and a needle or you can hot glue it if the glue will adhere to whatever material your flip flop is made of. You can even just tie the bow right onto the flip flop if you want to be able to remove or change it!