FRIDAY FOCUS - Silk ribbon

Hi, it's Sue here to show you the gorgeous silk ribbons that are available in the Funkie Junkie Boutique. I fell in love with this ribbon some time ago and it took me ages before I could bring myself to cut it, it's that beautiful ! It really adds that extra special touch to your projects.

 The above photo shows just some of the colours that are available. What I'm going to share with you today is how you can use the ribbon in different ways to embellish your projects. I know that alot of people have trouble with making bows for their projects so I'm going to show you 2 very simple ways of making them.

First of all make two loops with the ribbon and hold one loop in each hand as shown above. Then tie a knot with the loops.

Once the knot has been tied put your index finger and middle finger through the loops and then you can tighten up the centre knot with your other hand and make sure you're happy with the size of the loops.

When you've decided that you're happy with the size and the tightness of the knot, remove your fingers and just arrange the loops. You're then ready to add the bow to your project !

The second method of making a bow is also good if you want to add different threads or buttons or charms.

This time you're going to make 2 loops but you're going to cross the ribbon over itself as shown above. Then you need to make sure you have your length of twine or string, or whatever you're going to use to tie your bow together, to hand.

 For my thread I used some of the Natural Jute Twine and I separated the strands and just used one. You then need to gather the centre of your bow and hold it in one hand, with the other hand you need to put the twine around the centre and tie a knot so it holds the bow together.

Before you finish tying your thread into a bow or a knot this is when you can add a further embellishment of a button or a charm or whatever else you have in your stash.

This ribbon is also gorgeous when it's been stamped on, but make sure you use an ink such as Archival so that it doesn't smudge and is permanent.

 The stamp that I've used is the gorgeous lace stamp from the Wendy Vecchi set called Sentimental Art and I've stamped it using Coffee Archival ink.

The ink sinks into the ribbon and you end up with the pattern on both sides, which is perfect for using for your bows.

Here are one or two projects that I've used this gorgeous ribbon on:

For this last example I made a rose bud for the centre by folding the ribbon in half and holding it together with double sided tape. I then rolled the ribbon for form the bud and I hand stitched a running stitch around the edge of another piece of ribbon and gathered it to make the collar.

Make sure you take a visit to the Boutique and check out these beautiful ribbons and don't forget that as it's the featured product for Focus Friday there will be 15% off too, not just the silk ribbon but all the ribbon in the Funkie Junkie Boutique!  What could be better !