RIBBONS, RIBBONS & MORE RIBBONS!

Craft supplies organization seems to be THE hot topic every new year.  I am always looking for a better way to store my tools and sort my pretties.  I want them out of the way until I need them but I don't want to forget what I have.  If you've ever made an unintended duplicate purchase, you know exactly what I mean!   

Ribbon storage has been a problem ever since I started using it to adorn my projects.  First I had it stacked on a shelf and that worked great for the wide ribbon that I use for floral bows and such.  When I started purchasing thinner ribbon for paper crafting, I threw that in a plastic bin.  Look at the mess I created!  Boxed ribbon, carded ribbon, loose ribbon and spooled ribbon--just thrown in the bin or stacked on the shelf. 

I had to do something because I couldn't find the ribbon that I wanted and was spending way too much time digging and putting back.  Plus, I was running out of room and I love ribbon!   So this is my solution, at least until I come up with something better.  I've been using this system for a few days and it works for me, right now.

Six stacking Sterilite shoe drawers came to the rescue.  The ribbon is sort of organized by color--one for black, white & nuetral ribbons, one for red to yellow ribbons, one for blues and greens, one for holiday and special occasions/sentiments, and one for lace and the miscellaneous stuff that didn't quite fit in the other categories.  The sixth drawer was empty so it provided a home for my paints.  I left most of the ribbon on the cards and spools that they came on.  I picked up a couple of packages of old timey clothes pins to wrap the loose ribbon around and will wrap the carded and spooled ribbon when it becomes necessary.  The cardboard spools waste space so I'm balancing a wrap time vs space issue.  Most of the 3 inch wide ribbon is now in the original, before, plastic bin in the closet with all my other floral supplies.

Once the ribbon was organized, I needed to do a layout with ribbon!  So here's one that I did for my Fiskateer's Liftateer circle of friends.  The title is "busted!"  and the journaling reads "C. found the best hiding place ever.  Well it was the best until he was . . ."

Products used include:  Plain Kraft and yellow cardstock, DCWV orange textured cardstock, Imagine That patterned paper, Heidi Grace chipboard hearts, Cloud 9 Raindot alphas, ColorBox yellow and orange pigment ink, Sakura Gelly Roll white journaling pen, Offray ribbon and JoAnn's rik rak, Zots glue dots and Tombo adhesive tape runner.

Tools used include the XL Round and Round squeeze punch, Hearts and Threading Waters border punches, paper crimper, #5 microtip scissors, 12 inch desktop trimmer--all Fiskars. Plus a little sandpaper to rough up the edges of the large circle so the white journaling ink wouldn't look so stark.

Do you use ribbon?  How do you store it?  Until next time, have a wonderful crafty week!