Ribbon Holder Tutorial

Hi everyone! Today we are bringing you our very first tutorial by our own Ann Cutts! She has come up with a fun way to make a ribbon holder to store ribbon. I want to note that I added the US measurements in parenthesis after Ann's metric ones. They aren't exact, but very close to it. I just thought it would be helpful to those that don't use metric. So, sit back and enjoy our first tutorial for The Pink Elephant!

To create my ribbon holder I used a clear set of stamps called ‘Zoophabet’ by Penny Black, but you could use any alphabet stamps or die cut letters to make a great gift for a crafting friend. If you do use a different size of letter it’s a good idea to plan things out on your cutting mat to make sure you know what size of card, etc you will need to use. As you can see in the picture laying my pieces down on my cutting mat with a space in between for the ribbon really helped me to work out the size of card needed.

The stamps I used were perfect for stamping onto the 4cm x 5cm (1.5" x 2") scalloped rectangle from Spellbinder’s Nestabilities Classic Scallop Large Rectangle Set so all the measurements given in this tutorial are meant to work with stamps or die cut letters which would fit in that kind of area. To make the base of the ribbon holder you need cut a piece of card measuring 7cm x 30cm (2.75" x 12"). Then mark the card at 5 cm (2") intervals along the top and bottom of the whole 30cm (12") length. You should end up with 5 evenly spaced marks.

Then using a circle punch cut semi circle notches at each of the marked points on your card. As you can see in the photo my Woodware small circle lever punch can be turned over and has marks on it that allow me to line up my pencil mark with the arrow on the punch to ensure that each circle is where I want it to be.

These half circles form the spaces for the ribbon to be wound around. After punching all ten semi circles your ribbon base card should look like this.

I have used white card in the pictures to hopefully make the tutorial clearer but for my ribbon holder I used a pearlescent blue card to make the letters of the alphabet pop out more.Next you need to cut out 6 scalloped rectangles using the 4 x 5 cm (1.5" x 2") scalloped die. If you haven‘t this particular die you could cut plain rectangles.

Then stamp out each of the letters needed to spell the word ‘RIBBON’ on to the rectangles.

These can then be coloured and decorated to match the colours of the ribbon you intend to use. I added gemstones to mine - a little bit of bling is always fun. After decorating add the rectangles to your base card leaving a 1cm (3/8") space for the ribbon where you have made the notches.

Finally to finish the ribbon holder wind about 1 metre of 1cm (3' x 3/8")wide ribbon around each of the notched areas of your holder. This can be fastened at the rear of the card with a little bit of tape.

And here is Ann's finished ribbon holder.

I think these would be cute if you made multiples of them to store all of your ribbon and put them in a clear box standing up. Have the one that spells 'Ribbon' in the front so it can be easily seen and then just do plainer ones for behind it. It would sure free up alot of space that those ribbon spools take up!

We hope you have enjoyed Ann's tutorial. We are going to start doing 2 tutorials a month on Thursdays, so be sure to check back in two weeks for the next one!