A Ribbon Flower!

Aloha, all!

When I go back into my archives looking for ideas for my Throwback Thursday posts, I usually find something I can easily duplicate with current Stampin’ Up! products. But for today’s post, I spotted a card that I liked, but wasn’t sure what I had in my stash to duplicate its main feature – a ribbon flower. But after staring at my ribbons long enough (and they’re all out in the open) I finally spotted one that I thought might work. And it did!

A Card From Fall 2009

While I made this card in October of 2009, it really isn’t a seasonal card. I’m trying to recall why I chose to make a ribbon flower. Maybe it’s just that those were in style back then. Or maybe Stampin’ Up! was promoting its Silicon Craft Sheet. Whatever, I decided I had to give it a try.

Hmm, let’s see: I no longer have the ribbon, the circle punch, the scalloped circle punch, the leaves, the striped paper or the brads. Let’s get started!

Making a Ribbon Flower – Without a Glue Gun

The first thing I did was try to remember where I’d put my glue gun. Nothing. I tried to remember when I last used my glue gun. The only thing that came to mind was a project that I made in our former home – a house that’s now under 40 – 50 feet of lava. I’m thinking that’s where the glue gun lies, melted into oblivion. So now what?

Stampin’ Up!’s Tear & Tape Adhesive to the rescue! To make the ribbon flower without hot glue, I turned to that very sticky adhesive. I punched a 1-1/2″ circle, tied the end of my ribbon into a knot to start, and began my twisted ribbon flower. Note that there are dozens of YouTube videos available if you want to learn how to make these flowers. Most use hot glue. You know better than to rely on that now!

The 2020 Card

First of all, this obviously is not a fall card either. This week I’m in the mood for making Christmas Cards, so that’s what I did with this card. I made the ribbon flower with the Mossy Meadow 3/8″ Diagonal Striped Ribbon.

This ribbon has a light and dark color in it, so it makes a nice design when it’s twisted. You can actually see the edges of the ribbon as it circles around into a flower. The flower is only 1″ in diameter. I cut off the unused part of the punched circle backing when I was finished.

I chose the Heartwarming Hugs Designer Series Paper for this project as that’s the set of printed papers that is in the same suite of products as the ribbon. Sure enough, there’s Mossy Meadow color throughout the pack of papers. I chose two for this card. The first is the Mossy Meadow polka dot pattern that I die-cut with the larger of the two Layering Circles Dies that I used for the backing of the flower. The smaller circle is Pear Pizzazz Cardstock, another color in the paper set. Finally, I accented everything with Real Red Cardstock, another color in the paper set.

Can You Cut Paper on the Bias?

But which sheet of paper was I going to use as the background? My first thought was this sheet of striped paper. But (another “but” in this whole design) it had to be used as either a vertical stripe or a horizontal stripe. This print is not diagonal. Oh. Wait. This is my paper, right? Who’s to tell me that I can’t cut a diagonal rectangle out of this paper? Those who sew cut their fabric on the bias get to do that. Why can’t I cut my paper on the “bias”? Done. And, with the diagonal running parallel with the diagonal strip in the ribbon, it pulled everything together beautifully.

The Finishing Touches

The original card had a sentiment in the lower right corner of the center rectangle. But I wanted that paper to have some texture. I tried to stamp a sentiment and then texturized the paper. But then you couldn’t really read the words. Instead, I tucked a little sentiment up under the circle element. With the sentiment gone from that area of the card, I changed the placement of the embellishments vertically along the right edge of the center rectangle. I was able to space them perfectly by placing them just inside the little dots made by the embossing folder.

The Bottom Line

If I hadn’t been looking around all those old stuff in my files, I’m not sure when I’d even have come across that ribbon flower. It really has been years since I’ve made one. But now that I look at my ribbons, I can see some that would be perfect for this. I’m looking at my ribbons in a while new way. So the bottom line for me is that it’s not just fun to look back at old stuff. It’s actually a useful tool to get me out of my designing comfort zone. I highly recommend this Throwback Thursday idea!

Happy Stamping, whether you’re using new ideas or old!