| How to Organize Ribbons Sep 15th 2012, 12:00 Ribbons have a habit of building up unawares when you use them often for craft, food, gifts and accessories. Rather than having them spill all over the place and get crushed or entangled, there are some really neat ways to organize them, many of which involve recycling or reusing items you already have around the home. Ribbon straw jar This is one of the easiest methods. It's suitable for just a few rolls of ribbon in each jar and makes a beautiful display piece as well as being functional. - Purchase or find tall glass jars used for holding straws. These can be found in kitchenware stores and in stores that supply cafes, stores and restaurants with cookware and food serving hardware items.
- Open the rod in the middle of the straw jar. Roll up each ribbon length into a neat circle around the rod. Attach a piece of clear tape (such as magic tape) to hold the ribbon in the circle shape.
- Arrange in any order that works for you.
- Place in storage or on display. Simply pull out the lid and rod each time you need ribbon.
- If you can't find straw holder jars, create a tall jar hack using a dowel or similar long item and attach to the lid. Use a jar lid that is smaller than the width of the jar to attach to the other end of the dowel (away from the jar's lid), in the same manner as the straw holder pole.
Ribbon drawer holder This is a great way to turn an unused or messily filled drawer into a very useful ribbon dispenser. It requires you to wind or purchase the ribbon on plastic or cardboard rounds (the ones you usually see ribbons on at the store). - Select a drawer in your home that can be put to use as a ribbon container from now on.
- Remove the drawer from the dresser, tallboy, chest of drawers, etc.
- Insert several rods at even intervals into the drawer. The trick to this is to find a way to ensure that these rods can be lifted out again whenever the ribbon rounds need replacing. Hence, use a method by which each rod can be easily spring loaded or unscrewed while remaining stable when in place.
- Align the rods high enough to allow for the ribbon rounds to turn around when pulling out ribbon.
- Arrange the ribbon rounds along each rod before attaching the rods in place. It's a good idea to keep like with like, such as having the larger rounds of ribbon kept at the back of the drawer, through to the smallest, thinnest rounds of ribbons at the front.
- Restore the drawer to its original place. Simply pull out the drawer whenever you need to cut some ribbon for your next project.
Ribbon shoebox or storage box - Find or make a suitable rectangular shaped box, such as a photo storage box or a shoebox. If using a shoebox, either cover with pretty paper or choose a pretty shoebox with a nice design. The box must be in perfect condition.
- Measure the box first. You need to be sure that your ribbon supplies will all fit into it before starting. The ribbons should all be on their original rounds; if not, make circular holders out of cardboard.
- Decide how many openings will be needed for the ribbons. Each ribbon that goes inside the box will need an opening.
- Purchase eyelets and an eyelet punch (often you can get both in an eyelet kit). Use small eyelets for small ribbons and large ones for large ribbons, as well as any needed in between.
- Mark where each size of eyelet will go on the box, along the longest sides of the box. The placement will correspond to where the ribbon round sits in the box, so be sure to have this already worked out.
- Note that if you have two rows able to fit in the box, that you will also need to measure, mark and punch in eyelets on both long sides of the box.
- Follow the instructions accompanying the eyelet kit. However, usually you would make a hole using a craft knife, small drill or scissors, then attach each eyelet with the eyelet punch.
- If you can't use eyelets, make thin, neat slits instead.
- Pull each ribbon through its respective eyelet so that it streams out of the box. Put the lid on top and it's ready to use as ribbon storage. Place in a suitable area in your craft storage for ease of access.
Ribbon plastic basket This is a nifty idea that makes use of the way that some plastic baskets are made. It's very similar to the method suggested in the previous section. - Find a plastic basket that is full of holes for its pattern. This is currently a common design found in many stores selling storage baskets or plastics.
- Align the ribbon rounds in two rows side by side inside the basket.
- Pull the ribbons through separate holes out to the other side of the basket. Do this for both sides.
- Place in your craft storage area, ready for use.
Tiered coat hanger - Find a coat hanger with several tiers on it, such as those usually used for skirts or suits. The bigger, the better.
- Attach the ribbon rounds. Here you have two options, depending on the type of coat hangers you've found:
- If the coat hanger tiers undo, simply thread on the ribbon rounds.
- If the coat hanger tiers are fixed, you'll need to improvise. Save some toilet paper rolls. Make a fine slit and attach each roll across the tiers until all tiers are full and tape up the slit. Wind the ribbon around these rolls.
Bowl This is a lovely method for displaying both a favorite bowl and your lovely ribbons. - Find or make small cardboard rolls. Roll each ribbon onto these rolls tightly.
- Find a favorite bowl. Fill it with the rolls of ribbon. It's a little like ribbon candy!
Mason jars Too many Mason jars around the house? Use them beautifully! - Find as many Mason jars as you have ribbon needing storage. Clean them and ensure they're dry before using.
- Insert the ribbon into the jars. It doesn't have to be neat; the beauty of this method is that you can just let the ribbon drop in and swirl about in its own way.
- Try to keep like with like rather than mixing up too many different ribbons.
- Place on display. These storage containers are too pretty to hide away.
Embroidery container makeover - Use an embroidery container with plastic or paper card inserts. Instead of winding floss around the card inserts though, wind the ribbon around instead. This method only works for finer, small amounts of ribbon. It can be a bit of a pain if you have to replenish it regularly.
Basket - If you have a basket that you really like and it's not doing much, fill it with your ribbons. Wind them onto card or leave on their rounds and simply add to the basket in a nice pile.
- Alternatively, leave the ribbons loose in the basket. This will look pretty. However, the only issue with this is that the ribbons may become entangled.
- Don't put anything else other than ribbons in the basket.
Ribbons as display art - Show off those ribbons rather than simply storing them. Another approach to storing ribbons is to flaunt them as well as storing them. Here are some suggestions:
- Tie the ribbons onto a dressmaking mannequin. Make them look like clothing!
- Tie the ribbons onto a jewelery hanger or a coat hanger and hang on your wall.
- Thread ribbons onto an iron bedstead or bedhead to beautify it.
- Weave ribbons onto any item in your craft room that is either never used or rarely in use, so that they can inspire your creativity each time you're in there.
Old wooden boxes with many compartments Remember all those times browsing at local flea markets, antique stores and charity stores and wondering just what good use you could put a lovely old wooden box with many compartments to? Wonder no longer––possibly it can be a ribbon holder. - Look for wooden boxes with distinct compartments that you think would permit rolled up or folded ribbon to fit. Good choices include old jewelery boxes, printer's lettering holders (provided the ink has long dried off), sorting boxes from mail rooms and the like of old, etc.
- Clean the box well to remove dust, grease and anything else that might have accumulated through the years.
- Experiment with adding your ribbons to the compartments. This might require some playing around until you've got the right organization. Once done though, it should look fantastic and work really well. It's also very easy to shift ribbons around as they're used up and as new ones come in.
- Place on display. Antique boxes and ribbons are a great combination and definitely something worth putting on display. If you're concerned about dust, display behind a glass cabinet.
== Card collection containers == - Leave the ribbon as it is because you won't need to
take it out. - Orginize the thiner spools and thicker spools. For the small storage space in the container, put several thin spools or couple thick ones.
- Be aware that any ribbons kept on open display risk fading if they're in direct sunlight. They can also be subject to dirtying from dust, insects and general curiosity if they're not covered.
- To stop ribbon unraveling, always cut at an angle.
- Ribbon can be taped into place to stop unraveling but always use a soft tape, such as magic tape, so as not to cause it to rip or fray.
- To remind yourself of the names and place of purchase of your ribbons, get used to either keeping a digital spreadsheet of them or make a chart and attach it to the storage box, updating it as needed. Be sure to leave plenty of rows or columns for updating over the years.
Edit Things You'll Need - Crafting tools for making the ribbon organizers
- Ribbons
Edit Related wikiHows | |
No comments:
Post a Comment