No Time To Stamp?

I finally got back to my Sue’s Kitchen projects! And I had help on this one from Martha. I purchased a Martha Stewart Bag Set, but decided it needed a little spicing up (sorry, Martha). The set was on a 1/2 price sale at Michael’s the last time I was there (about 2 weeks ago) and it consisted of 15 of the square bottom cello bags with heavy DP inserts, pre-scored to fit (as you see in the bags), and narrow white grosgrain ribbon. Cute to throw together quickly — sure! But I KNEW we could do better!!! Here’s my finished product:

Aren’t they fun! And those are supposed to be delicious homemade cookies wrapped up in the tissue. I, of course, had no such thing on hand, but I know Sue will!!! Sue loves to make up gift bags of treats, so I made these especially with her in mind - not that I’m making up the entire set for her — oh NO — but I’m giving her the remainder so she can make them up herself, using these as inspiration and guidance. I hope she likes them!!!

The bottom of Martha’s bag was plain, so I personalized it with my JustRite font sets and Spellbinders Double Ended Tags die. I also added the lace doily, cutting it down a bit to fit in the bag perfectly. And the top of Martha’s bag was rather plain, too, so I added the scalloped white lacy border, using one of Martha’s lace border punches. I think it adds a lot! And, of course, I thought my 1.5″ May Arts Gingham Ribbon was a huge improvement over Martha’s narrow white grosgrain - LOL!!! And now that I’ve been a bit tough on Martha, let me say that I KNOW she would have had beautifully baked cookies in her bags, whereas I merely have mason jar rings wrapped in tissue under the pretense of being cookies — LOL!!! Seriously, these ARE cute little bag sets to pick upand personalize for your own needs, and I’m sure that was Martha’s intent all along!!!

From Sues Kitchen was done on the smaller of the Harmony Rectangle Stampers with Times New Roman Font, both Uppercase and Lowercase (in 25 point), except the S that was done with Special Occasions Font. I LOVE mixing up the font sets for an interesting look! The Times New Roman LowercaseFont is available from JustRite on 4/10, but you can get those sooner if you like. Check out this post on the JustRite Blog for a list of both brick and mortar and online stores.

Stamps: Times New Roman Lowercase, Times New Roman Uppercase, Special Occasions Font, Harmony Rectangle Stamper, all by JustRite.

Paper: White, Martha Stewart Bag Set from Michaels (bags and scored DP)

Ink: Versa Fine Onyx Black

Accessories: 1.5″ Gingham May Arts Ribbon from My Ribbon Saleabove my Blog banner, Double Ended Tags by Spellbinders, Martha Stewart Lace Punch, Doilies, Brads, 1/4″ Hole Punch, Glue Glider.

Super Simple Ribbon Treatment

I’d like to take a minute here today and show you how to do this type of bow. I get a lot of questions about bow tying. Many of you feel you aren’t able totie a decent bow. Well, this is the perfect ribbon treatment for bow challenged stampers!!! I know many of you are very familiar with this treatment, but for those who aren’t, here we go:

Punch holes in your card top. As I knew I wanted to use a 1.5″ wide ribbon today, I used a 1/4″ hole punch. The ribbon runs through each hole twice, so this is a perfect size hole for this ribbon treatment when using such wide ribbon. Cut your ribbon long enough that you have room to trim your ends when done. Cutboth ribbon ends at sharp angles tomake it easy to run them through the holes.

Run the ribbon through the holes to the card back, as shown. With both ribbon tails on the back side, now take one, cross it over, and run it through the hole to the front, as shown.

Now take the 2nd ribbon tail and cross it over and run it through the other hole to the card front. The 2nd photo shows what the card front now looks like.

Merely trim your ribbon ends in whatever fashion you like, and you are done!!! This ribbon treatment can have different looks depending on how far apart you punch the holes. You’ll note the pre-punched holes in my Martha bag were farther apart, giving one look, whereas I punched my holes closer on this sample, giving more the look of a standard bow. This is a perfect ribbon treatment for those who feel they can’t tie a decent bow!!! It comes out perfect, every time!!!

Thanks for stopping in again! Hope you are having a good weekend. We really got dumped on with a heavy, wet snow again. I just wish spring would come, and STAY!!! Leaving you with warm spring wishes!!!

I get asked all the time about tying bows/knots, and since I’ve had several requests again yesterday, I will very quickly and briefly address it here.

Val (Stampin’ Gal Val, 11Valerie11) has produced a very short, sweet and concise video on tying an attractive knot. Basically, it is left over right, right over left, but watching her do it is worth a million words. Here is her Ribbon Tying Video if you haven’t seen it yet.

I use a lot of much wider ribbon, and to save ribbon and, in my opinion, to make it a bit easier to tie with my clumsy fingers, I often (depends on card stlye) do NOT wrap the ribbon around the card, although it would appear so when done. I tie my ribbon in my hands, completely loose and away from the card. When I get my knot how I want it, I then attach it to the card. This gives me the ability to pull the knot from behind as well as from the front, to get the knot just right. And using wider ribbon, if the knot isn’t just right, it is much more noticeable than on narrow ribbon. And I know this makes no sense when you can’t see it — but I can’t photo myself doing this. I do have ladies coming tonight, so maybe someone will be patient and take a few pictures of me tying a ribbon. If so, I’ll get it written up and posted in the next day or so.

So, I know what I just said was no help, but trusting you will take a minute to watch Val’s video, which IS very helpful!!! Thanks, Val!!!

Editing: Val just let me know about another ribbon tying video (an actual bow) done by Talyor VanBruggen (tayloredexpressions) on her Blog. It’s a cute little bow done *bunny ears* style. Here’s the link to Taylor’s Video – but now I couldn’t seem to link that post directly — this link goes to her tutorials page, so just scroll down a bit, and you’ll see some other neat tutorials along the way!!! Thanks, Taylor!!!