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!