Creative Chat - Ribbon

It's time for the MFT Creative Chat. The My Favorite Things Design Team Creative Chat is a monthly feature, where we are challenged to explore our creative spaces and share valuable organizational methods, tools, and shopping strategies with you. You'll be able to peek into our creative spaces, ask questions, and share your own ideas in the MFT forum. This month, we were asked the following questions:  

 

Show us how you store your ribbon.

What are your favorite types of ribbon?

Any tips or tricks on how to use ribbon on stamped creations?

Visit Kim's Blog for a full list of designers that have taken up the challenge and get ready to delve into the minds of our creative team.

I store all my ribbon in glass containers that sit on one of my shelving units. Each piece of ribbon is wrapped around a wide popsicle stick.

I have four main styles of jars, the are all a slightly different size, but they all work well together. The one on the far left is from Walmart, it's a little too short but I still use it. The second style of jar I found at Safeway just before Christmas. The other two jars I purchased at my local dollar store.

 
I have my ribbon sorted in a couple of different ways, by color and by style. This first jar is where I store all my twine. I have twine from both the Twinery (MFT) and Divine Twine, as well as a few random ones. Each of these popsicle sticks have 45 yards of twine on them. I don't secure the ends of the twine as it is a bit of a pain to do so! LOL I find it doesn't really unwind that much.

 I also store all my Seam Binding in one jar. For some projects I will decide on the type of ribbon I want to use and then I find a color to match the project. Other times I will decide on the color first.

I have four of these larger glass jars. These jars hold a ton of ribbon! This jar holds all my striped ribbon.
Here's a quick peek at the top of the jar. Each of these popsicle sticks have 10 plus yards of ribbon on them. Some of the larger ones have over 40 yards of ribbon.

This jar contains all my polka dot ribbon. I really love polka dot ribbon!

This jar contains all my patterned ribbon. I have a crazy amount of patterned ribbon which is really weird as I very rarely use patterned ribbon! I think I went on a bit of a patterned ribbon buying spree without actually thinking about where I would use the ribbon! LOL

This jar contains all my stitched ribbon. This is one of the jars that is a touch too short for the popsicle sticks. The popsicle sticks are on a bit of a slant but the jar matches my other jars so I decided to keep it! LOL It's all about the matching!
This is the other short jar. I use it for all my DMC floss. I don't have a sewing machine so all the stitching I do on my cards is done by hand using DMC floss.

This is one of the jars that I have that doesn't match the rest of the jars! You know there had to be at least one or two that didn't match! LOL This jar holds all my wide ribbon that doesn't wrap around popsicle sticks very well.

The rest of my ribbon is sorted by color. Greens
Blues
Pinks
Purples
Yellows and Oranges

Reds and Burgundys
Blacks and Greys

Ivory
Browns

Whites
My final jar is full of lace and crochet trim. As you can see, this jar does not match the other ones.

I am on the look out for a few more jars that match my collection. Some of my jars are really full!  I would also like to separate my gingham ribbon into a different jar. This is actually one of the reasons that I love this type of storage, I am able to expand the storage as my collection continues to grow. Yes, my collection is still growing. Next on my list, MFT's new Ribbon!

There is one major draw back with this type of storage. I do have to iron some of the ribbon to get the wrinkles out. It can be a bit of a pain, but I love being able to see all the ribbon so I live with it! LOL

Most of my ribbon is from May Arts. I love the quality of their products. The rest of my ribbon is from Stampin' Up! and American Crafts. As far as picking a favorite style of ribbon, I can't do it! Some cards just scream for seam binding, and others for twill. It all depends on the project. 

The best piece of advice I can give for using ribbon on your projects is to play with the ribbon until it looks the way you want it to. Bows don't always turn out on the first try. The other piece of advice is to get yourself a good, sharp pair of scissors! Keep these scissors exclusively for ribbon.

 

Be sure to check out Kim's Blog, she will have a full list of all the designers participating in today's challenge! I can't wait to see how the rest of the girls store their ribbon!