Ribbon Bookmark Tutorial with a Card

Hi everyone!  Its Katie here with you on a wonderful Tuesday morning.  All I have to say is "what the heck!"  Its the middle of April already... that means its practically Christmas... ok... just exaggerating a tad, but you all know its true.  Time is whizzing past.

Anyway, I wanted to share a little project that I ran across on (guess who?) Martha's site.  Do I need to add her last name?   The project is a great reason to buy ribbon by creating super simple, but fun ribbon bookmarks.  My Mom is an avid reader and I thought I would make a couple for Mother's Day, but in all honesty these would be an awesome gift for anybody at anytime.  You seriously can't have enough book marks laying around.

Ever since Lori started carrying ribbon at the store I was in heaven.  What isn't better than being surrounded by glorious ribbon in every color, size, texture, shape, and the list could go on and on.  For today's project, I used several of my favorite ribbons in a variety of styles and colors.

Here are the basics that you will need and then feel free to add any and all sorts of embellishments to enhance your bookmarks.

My Mom tends to read paperbacks for the most part so that is what I based my ribbon length on.  I also wanted the book mark to hang out of the book from the top and bottom so I ended up working with about 12" of ribbon.  I created slits in the ribbon every 1 1/2".

You will need a wider ribbon to be your base and your complimentary ribbon will be the one woven through and should be smaller.  All this is literally based on your preference :) -- so easy!

I chose THIS RIBBON as my base and THIS RIBBON as my accent for my first bookmark.  After I cut my length I marked it about 1" in on both ends because I wanted to create a fringe.  Then I laid the ribbon down on my Scor-mat so I could see where I would be cutting.  In the picture below, I've already made one slit.

The easiest way for me to create my slits was to gather the ribbon at the desired distance, fold in half and cut.

Then its just a matter of weaving your accent ribbon through the slits.

The fringe can be done a couple of ways.  Snipping and then pulling out the cross hairs works out great or if you can catch the right thread, it should just pull out.  Its kind of like those bags of dog food or rice that theoretically you can pull that one thread and voila the bag is open within nano seconds.  Me on the other hand, is piecing out each individual thread or just cutting the silly bag open.  Ooops... digressing here.

You can find the ribbon I used for my 2nd bookmark HERE and HERE.  The texture of the green ribbon allowed me to use a craft knife, but you need to hold the ribbon taut to ensure a relatively straight cut.  I wasn't able to get it straight enough by folding and cutting.  Could have been the scissors I was using too.  Its always good to experiment just a tad before starting.

For this bookmark, I created slits 1" apart.  I have to add that all the satin ribbon like this green one is just heavenly.  I finished this the same way as the first by weaving my accessory ribbon through the slits.

And of course, I had to create a card to go with my Mother's Day bookmarks.  I decided to use the March Flower of the Month stamp as my focal image.  I used Versamark and gold embossing powder and then watercolored my image with markers and a waterbrush.  I also used the same green ribbon to accent my card as well as those fabulous nesties (label 4). 

Here is the inside of my card and as you can see, I added self adhesive pearls and buttons to my bookmarks.

A closer view of the bookmarks.

And actually being "used".

 

I have some future ribbon tutorials for you so consider this a teaser (lol).  I just couldn't fit it all in at once.  I hope you get a chance to get your ribbon out and create some of these for yourself or your friends. 

One more final note.  If fraying bugs you, you can apply Fray Check and that should take care of it for you.  I know that some ribbons are more likely to fray than others.  You can also sew your edges down as well either by hand or machine (that is why I had a needle and thread in the first picture).  I just didn't end up using them this time around.

Don't forget that all Ribbon is 10% off for the month of April.  Use this code at checkout:  RIBBONS10
Lori has an awesome collection of ribbons and the best prices so make sure to stock up this month.

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful Tuesday!

This is Katie signing off for Clearly iStamp.

Comments

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[StampinCathy]

WOW! Fabulous and inspiring bookmarks. I just love both of them and the details you added. Your tutorial was so easy to follow. Thanks

[Candyf]

Great gift idea!

[Cassie]

Gorgeous card and bookmarks, Katie! Great tutorial :D