Ribbon Tying Tutorial

There was some interest shown in how I tied the bow in this post, so I thought I'd try to put together a tutorial (my first!) since it's hard to explain in words. So here we go!

First, cut a piece of ribbon longer than the card you want to wrap around. Here, I could have made it shorter, and in fact trimmed some later, but I wanted to emphasize what's going on.
Next, cut another piece of ribbon after folding it into thirds to the length you want your bow to be.This next is an optional step and depends on the width of your ribbon. Since mine is pretty wide, I chose to cut a piece in half. Ordinarily, you won't have to do this.
Next, use your strip of ribbon to tie the bow onto the ribbon and tie it securely on the back. Because I cut this ribbon in half to make my strip, I had to trim a bunch of threads that came loose. Like I said, you won't ordinarily have this problem because you'll just be using a length of the original ribbon to tie the bow onto the main ribbon. Be sure to cut a long enough piece so that you have room to tie it and pull it snug. You can then trim off any excess. I've found that you don't need to tie it in a knot, which saves bulk. (The second picture below shows the back, as I'm tying the bow to the main ribbon.)
Finally, you flip it around, slide the bow a bit to make any necessary adjustments, and then attach it to your card by tacking the ends of the ribbon underneath a cardstock mat or around the edges of your card (I use my tape runner). Voila you have a beautiful bow!I pulled this card together pretty quickly to showcase the bow I made for this tutorial. I don't know what it is about me and monochromatic lately. I can't decide if I like it or if it's too dull.

The designer papers and stamps are from the Stampin Up Love You Much bundle (still available until January 31st at a 20% savings!). The card base is Riding Hood Red, with Very Vanilla for one of the mats and for the stamped hearts. I used a Build-a-Brad for the little birdie, which is punched from one of the stamped images in the set. The "lace" on either side of my center piece was made using my Martha Stewart edge punch. The scalloped hearts and the stamped hearts were punched out using Marvy Uchida punches. That gorgeous ribbon is no longer available, but it was good for demonstrating this technique, so forgive me for tempting you with something you can no longer buy.

I'm having trouble getting all the links to the new catalog and sampler, but I'll get those up as soon as the website calms down. I think there's a frenzy of orders going in today for items in the new catty. Mine won't be far behind!

Take care, and thanks for stopping by!