Fantastic Ribbons Design Team Christmas Home Decor Project

Welcome to this months design team project on Christmas Home Decor.

I decided to make a Christmas card holder to hang in my hall.

You will need: Ribbons  and twine, needle and thread (sewing machine would be good too), a lolly stick, some thick wire (I used 0.6mm), wire cutters and round nosed pliers.

I started by stitching the top of the two ribbons I had chosen to create a gap for the wooden stick. I took the stick out when I was using the sewing machine, but you can see the amount of space I left, about 1 inch.

Next I needed to make 7 paper clip like swirls to attach to the holder which would display the cards. To do this I cut a 3 inch length of wire, wrapped it around a smooth sided pen, then took it off, flattened it back and using the pliers bent the top into a loop I could stitch through. (I know you can buy these fancy paper clips some places, in fact I'm convinced Ikea had some recently, but I can't see them on their website, but if you can't be bothered making them even normal paper clips would do!)

Using a standard card as a way of measuring I went along the length of the ribbon and attached the clips by stiching through the ribbon at approx 20cm intervals.

At the top of the holder I wanted to use a pokey tool to make a hole in the stick but I soon realised it was just going to split the wood, so instead I used a pen knife and created little channels on either side of the stick which would stop the twine from slipping off.

Next I made the main bow. There are loads of tutorials on youtube how to make bows, but I watched this one, which was specifically for making bows with ribbon which was patterned on one side.  I had stitched the gingham ribbon onto the red side of this satin ribbon (which is a gorgeous brown on the other side), so this was important for me. The ribbon was about 1m long to make this bow. I had a box of paperchase jingle bells which I have hoarded for about 4 years and use very sparingly. I added 3 to the centre just to finish it off.

Here's what the holder looks like without cards. Its about 2m long.

And here it is with cards.

I hope you have enjoyed my little tutorial. I think these make a lovely change to just putting cards on the mantle piece and they are pretty easy to make, and with the ridiculous price of this ribbon at the moment you could make this for about 50p, I kid you not! 

Make sure to check out what the rest of the design team has made over at the Fantastic Ribbons blog!