Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Less Bulk

**For the Lil' Inkers January Release Blog Hop, please scroll down.**



Ribbon is one of my most favorite and most often reached for embellishments on my cards. Today, May Arts has joined with CardMaker for a royal ribbon infused Cardmaker Hop! You should have arrived from Jingle's Blog if you are following the hop, otherwise you can find all the details on the May Arts Blog!

I like creating backgrounds with ribbon but don't like the additional bulk of wrapping it around the base, so I've got a few quick pictures to show you how I achieved a clean and crisp look on my card. 

I started with the 3/4" Chevron Twill Ribbon in Green and Yellow and cut them to roughly the size of the panel I wanted for my card. My panel is a coaster...they are the perfect sizes for cards. I trimmed the coasters height down to fit five lengths of ribbon so I wouldn't be messing with four sides of the ribbon, just two. You want to allow a slight overhang, I cut the lengths to leave an eighth to a quarter inch margin overhang on both the left and right size.

To adhere the ribbon to the coaster, I used spray adhesive, and held the spray can about eighteen inches away from the coaster. This resulted in mostly a fine mist and avoided a lot of highly concentrated dots of glue.

 I then laid the ribbon on top of the adhesive coaster, being careful in placement as the more you lift up on the ribbon the less strong the adhesive becomes and then there is also the possibility of gumming up the ribbon. After the ribbon was in place, I took a Bic lighter and burned the edges. I was careful to not let the flame touch the coaster and used my fingers to roll the ribbon from the front to the back while it was still warm. This particular ribbon works well for this technique...some ribbons you wouldn't want to attempt (like silk!~believe me, I've tried!)

 The end result is a nice, polished edge. Since I didn't wrap the ribbon around the entire coaster, I redueced the bulk and the possibility of warping.

To finish the card, I adhered my ribbon panel to black card stock and then a matching yellow card base. I die cut a butterfly from yellow and white cards tock, wrapped some May Arts Baker's Twine in Yellow (removed the white strands first) and embellished with a black pearl and rub-on sentiment.

I hope you are able to pick up some tips and tricks today along the hop, your next stop is Lalo! For your chance to win four free spools of your choice, please be sure to comment at each stop!



78 comments:

  1. Absolutely stunning! Wow!! Love the tutorial too!

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  2. Gorgeous and great idea for reducing bulk! Love how the chevrons are going in opposite directions. :)

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  3. Beautiful. Love that ribbon background.

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  4. never thought to light ribbon. I can image silk going up quickly. The panel looks awesome!

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  5. What a great idea to burn the ribbons at the edges! Love this card, it's so fresh and bright and makes me long for Spring. :o)

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  6. This is so pretty! Makes me think of spring!

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  7. This is so bright and cheerful! Love it!

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  8. Love how you used the ribbon to create the background!! Uber creative :)

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  9. Great use of ribbon! Fantabulous!

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  10. Wow! This turned out amazing, Karen! LOVE the tutorial and your butterfly looks gorgeous!

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  11. wow so pretty..love how you made the ribbon background..very clever..

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  12. Love this card and your technique for creating clean crisp edges on your ribbon....you are just so clever!

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  13. It's a wonderful effect!! Love that you have kept it to just a simple butterfly on that beautiful background!

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  14. Love it!! So bright and cheerful!! The ribbon is awesome! :)

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  15. The ribbon background is fantastic topped with a butterfly? Be still my heart.

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  16. WOW! I love this Karen. Absolutely gorgeous. Great technique and the butterfly is awesome.

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  17. Great card and technique Karen! Love it!

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  18. What a great look. I love that ribbon background. Just super stunning.

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  19. Very neat-looking way to adhere the ribbon to the panel! Thanks for sharing! I love the twill also. Great texture and a fun background for your card!
    DeniseB

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  20. What a grand idea Karen, thanks for the tip and this pretty card!

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  21. Fantastic ribbon-pieced background and great tip about burning the edges!

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  22. Awesome idea. I love this twill and I will be stealing your idea, hope you don't mind???

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  23. So now we need a lighter in our craft room too? Just wait til my hubby hears this one! LOL Beautiful card.

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  24. This is really cute! I'm not sure about the lighter though!

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  25. Excellent idea & I love those ribbons!

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  26. Thanks for sharing the great tip on how to put ribbon on a card so nicely!

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  27. Love this sweet card Karen! I really am not much for chevrons usually, but this ribbon is so bright and cheery and reminds of fruit-strip gum from my childhood :) Thanks for explaining how you got those edges so perfect - I want to try this technique!

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  28. Fabulous card Karen and thanks so much for the tutorial - I have had the warping problem in the past :)

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  29. this is great, love the ribbon background and the directions for doing it without the extra weight. TFS.

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  30. Very cheery colors and thanks for sharing your ribbon technique.

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  31. Beautiful card and a great inspiration on how to use your ribbons to the utmost. Thanks for the idea.

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  32. clean, no bumps, no specs, no mess. exquisite card.

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  33. Love your card! Thanks for tips and inspiration!

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  34. Love that ribbon and I love what you did with it.

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  35. Love your card and the great tip to remove the white strands of twine!

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  36. Great technique and one of my favorite ribbons

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  37. Gorgeous card, love the colors of the ribbon. Mary L Schreiber

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  38. Super cool idea, Karen! Gotta get my spray adhesive out of the closet.

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  39. Cool tip for the coasters!! I love it and will give it a try soon - gotta use up all those coasters I have been saving. ;$

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  40. Wow! This is so striking – absolutely gorgeous. I adore those colors :-)

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  41. Genius! I know I've been outta sight for a while...but your heading caught my eye from blogroll! Look forward to seeing more as I catch up!

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  42. Thank you for explaining your method of putting the ribbon on the card! Very clever!

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  43. This is gorgeous! I love the tutorial too!

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  44. Stunning card. looks so CAS. (using a butterfly did not make me biased at all, though i have made that sort of my signature!)

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  45. great texture and pattern on the ribbon background.

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  46. I love the card, great tutorial. Thanks.

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  47. Love this, totally going to use this technique.

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  48. What a creative use of the ribbon, very pretty, thanks for sharing!

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  49. Their Chevron Ribbon has always been my fav!!! I love how you used it here with a coaster! So cool!

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  50. I don't like wrapping my ribbon around the card. This is a great tip for getting clean, finished edges without wrapping. thanks. Great card.

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  51. Great tutorial/tips, love how this turned out!

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  52. Love this ribbon and your take on it! I really appreciate your step by step so that I can stamplift you. :) Lovely card!

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  53. You're a genius. Less bulk also = possibly standard shipping! :)

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  54. Wow! The angles of the ribbon look awesome. I love the popped up butterfly, too. Thanks for the tutorial on how you adhered the ribbon...it's always a struggle. ;)

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  55. Great technique. I will have to do it when hubby isn't home so he doesn't freak out!

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  56. love the ribbon background!

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  57. This is amazing, Karen! You lined up those chevrons so perfectly!

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  58. Hey Karen... Happy New Year my friend... hope everything is well for you and family...


    BEautiful card!!!! I miss coming here...hugs...xoxo

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  59. love the ribbon background - sounds like you have a story to tell us about ribbon burning

    thanks for sharing

    Barb Housner

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  60. Love the ribbon as background& you made it sound so easy.

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  61. Awesome card - I want to try that idea!

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  62. Such a clever and fun idea! LOVE those ribbons!

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  63. Wow! Gorgeous!!!! Love seeing how you did this!! Thanks for the pics!

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  64. love the finished edges without the bulk. thanks so much for the tips and the tutorial, Karen!

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  65. This is brilliant, Karen! I'm not sure I have the dexterity to handle it, but it is so stunning that I'm going to give it a try. Thank you so much for this wonderful tip which I'm pinning. I just love how you then matted your coaster and the single fluttering butterfly, mmmmmmwah!!

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  66. WOW, I was burning edges of paper for my son's treasure map this week, but never thought to burn my ribbon! Fabulous tip, Karen, and it looks so great on your card!

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