Ballerina and a Ribbon Crossing Tutorial

Hello Ribbon Loving Crafters!  It's Tammy Louise here today . . .  Your grateful February Guest Designer!  Here to share some more of my ribbon ideas with all of you!  I've loved the hop and challenge projects so far, but today's project is one of my favorites!  I want to share the tutorial and some sneak peaks of the project with you all today, but for the whole project and tons of more photo's, stop by my blog and take a gander!   I have a 5 year old niece that collects tea party doilies and hankies and I wanted to make something special for her to keep these delicates safely in.  The image is by Mitzi and can be found here.  The box is paper mache and the Dp is French Kiss by Glitz design.  I added some pearls from Prima, Shapeology Whimsy dies and BG Serenade design paper too.  A full list of products on my blog.  Here is the best part!   I wanted to make sure to share with all of you:   The method to my criss cross madness!

So . . . yes this is time consuming, however, simply wonderful in the end!  I scored the lid paper to match the paper mache box.  Then 1/2 inch apart, I place an eyelet on the top of the lid then a matched position eyelet in the side/lid section.  Yep, all the way around!

Then I placed score tape on the inside of the design paper and assembled the flap of the lid inward.

 Start at any eyelet hole, go upwards from the bottom through one of the top eyelets.

Then pull the ribbon through and your next move is into an eyelet one back and lower from the outside of your project inwards.

 Then from the inside, you put your ribbon up through the eyelet that is directly above the hole you just went through in the step above.

Lastly you pull your ribbon through and then move one hole forward and down from the outside inwards.  You've completed your X!  Congrats!  Then I used one stitch more, adjoining one X to the other, but this is not a necessity!  The ribbon I used was 1/4 inch multi colored Tiny Sheer Pink/Orange floral organza!  It was a delightful match to the DP and just the right size for the eyelets.

The entire DP on the lid was Criss Cross sewn then glued down to the paper mache box lid.

 I added the Parrot Green leaf ribbon by May Arts all the way around the edge of the box to coordinate that stunning color in with the design paper and image.  This also adds loads of texture to the project sides.  Since the top of the box carries most of the embellishments, I felt the sides would need more decoration.

 The edges of the box were distressed with Vintage Photo Ink from Ranger, two bows created from three different ribbons ; Sheer Organza White w/Ivory, Sheer Iridescent Peach, and Tiny Sheer Pink/Orange Floral placed together on the top left and bottom right corners top off the crystal dangles that add that girlish sparkle to the project.   The beautiful Ballerina image can be found here.

I hope you've enjoyed the tutorial, I absolutely adored designing this perfect little treasure box!  I'll see you one more time soon this month! Thanks for visiting,