HAPPY HANDY HIPPO DAY - WEEK 20

Hi Everyone

Happy Handy Hippo Day to you!

I hope you had a good weekend.

As promised last week here I am with yet another Valentine's Day make .. .. and one that is a "little bit different" to what you normally see from me.  But I just "love it" and was so pleased with the end result.  I think this might be Hubby's Valentine from me in a couple of weeks time

I also promised to do a little session on things I do with ribbon .. .. well I started putting some ideas together and it just got longer and longer and longer .. .. so I am going to spread this out over a few sessions with this week being Part 1.

But to begin with here is my share for the day:

Below you can find the Handy Hippo magic button .. .. and if you click on it you can see all the lovely goodies I used to make this little project.  Everything I have used has been automatically added to a shopping basket and as always you can remove anything you do not need (or add anything else you can't resist). 

I wasn't too sure how I would get on with a black distress ink pad .. .. but now I am struggling to put it away!!  I love it!!!  I also stamped with the distress pad too so that I had a more "uneven" stamped image.

Cupid, the Heart and the Arrow are all from the same Sizzix Die.

So now round to what I do with my ribbons .. .. .. Part 1

This first picture shows you one idea for using up those pesky little bits of ribbon.  Not long enough to tie around anything but too good to throw away!!

Here I am simply threading ribbon through
the holes that were formed after using
an edge punch

But you could just as easily thread the ribbon
through holes made with an eyelet punch
or even a standard office type punch.

The thicker the ribbon the more
difficult it is to thread and tighten up.

This looks extra funky if each piece of ribbon is a
different colour 

To attach your ribbon simply
fold your scrap of ribbon in half and
thread the fold through the
hole of your choice.

Then thread the tails of your ribbon
through the loop.  Tighten by pulling
gently on the tails. 

I quite often don't tie my ribbons around the whole of my card .. .. sometimes it seems such a waste .. .. so let's say this is the finished look I want to achieve.  It looks as though I have used one continuous piece of ribbon and simply tied it around the cream card.  But in reality it is two scrappy little bits.

Here is how I achieve this look

I start by taking my length of ribbon .. .. wrap it
around my card and secure it with a
couple of pieces of sticky tape

Next I add double sided sellotape
all around the edge of my card - making sure that
I secure the ribbon well .. .. .. I don't want
the ends of the ribbon to be able to
work their way loose!!!!

Next turn your work  over and
thread a second piece of ribbon underneath
the band you have just attached

Then simply tie this ribbon.
I always cross the ribbon from the
left over the front  .. .. and then take it
over and through as below

Pull the two ends to tighten it  up

Move the ribbon you are tying to where you
want your knot to be and trim the
end up and there you have two
scraps of ribbon that look like one
continuous length

Just like this

If you would rather your ribbon looked like a proper bow .. .. like the one below then that is just as simple.

You do exactly as you have above but use a longer second piece of ribbon and do not cut the ends off once you have tightened the knot.

So you have tightened up your knot and now
have two long lengths of ribbon left.

Make two loops (or bunny ears as the lady
who owned the dressmaking shop where I used to have
a Saturday job called them)

I cross the right hand loop over the left hand
loop

Push the loop under and through

Then pull the two loops to tighten up your bow.

It will look completely rubbish at this
point .. ..  but don't panic LOL!!!

Just like this .. . tee hee

But work on the bow by pulling and twisting
the tails and straightening out the
loops.  I usually find hooking my
finger into the loop helps.

I promise that this is the same "rubbish" bow
you saw earlier .. .. but a bit of love and care
transformed it.

I simply cut the ends of the ribbon where I wanted
but this time in a fish tail shape rather than at
an angle.

Sorry about the photograph overload.  I hope it all makes sense and that you all have some fun using up your scrap ends of ribbon.

I will post some more ideas for using up your smaller lengths of ribbon next week.  I am sure you will have had enough for this week LOL!!!

Until then have a good week.

Love

and all the lovely friendly people at Handy Hippo