It's Tracey here to share a thank you card I created featuring Really Reasonable Ribbon seam binding and Wild Orchid Crafts flowers. I've included a tutorial for altering the seam binding to a crinkly, grungy, colored state so you can create a grungy bow like the one on my card.
Really Reasonable Ribbon Products:
Tips and Techniques
Can I just say how much I adore the seam binding from Really Reasonable Ribbon? It is so versatile. Bonnie carries a huge selection of colors. I have collected my share of them, but my go to color is white, and I had to buy an entire spool!! In my tutorial below, I show how to color, wrinkle, and grunge it up - so perfect for those shabby chic projects!!
Bonnie carries a wide selection of gorgeous
Wild Orchid Crafts Mulberry Flowers. Here I've used
Chrysanthemums,
Sweetheart Blossoms, and
Open Roses along with some hand crafted flowers using Spellbinders Bitty Blossoms and Carnation Creation dies by Donna Salazar. I dressed up the flowers by rubbing some of them with Denim Mix'd Media Inx and adhered Fairy Dust Glitter, which really makes them sparkle.
Another view of the flowers.
You can also see a little of my mixed media background here. In the top left corner I used a script stamp with Jasmine Mix'd Media Inx and coordinating embossing powder. I then misted with Smooch Spritz. In the bottom right corner I used a brass corner flourish stamp with Jasmine MMI and clear embossing powder, then rubbed with Petals MMI. Along the top and bottom of the card, I used more of the Fairy Dust Glitter.
Grungy Seam Binding Tutorial
Supplies
Supply List
Mix'd Media Inx, Jasmine
Mix'd Media Inx CHOX - Petals
Water in a misting bottle
Heat Tool (Darice)
Nonstick Craft Sheet (Ranger)
Tweezers (EK Success)
Step 1. Measure out the length of ribbon needed for your particular project. Remember there will be some shrinking during this process, so you will want to add some length to account for this. I used 23 inches of ribbon for the triple loop bow on my card. Notice how nice and smooth this ribbon is coming right off the spool. It won't be that way for long!!
Step 2. Rub ink color(s) of choice onto a nonstick craft sheet. This pink was a little darker and brighter than I wanted for my ribbon, so I also put down some Jasmine (white) ink to mix with the pink. You can use any color of water based ink for this technique.
Step 3. Spritz the ink(s) with a light misting of water.
Step 4. Rub the ribbon through the inks - blending and mixing the two together as you go. I didn't mix them together first, because I wanted the ribbon to be blotchy with darker and lighter pink areas and even some small areas that were left white.
Step 5. Scrunch the ribbon up and hold with a pair of tweezers. Don't over think this step and don't try to make it pretty - just randomly scrunch. Also don't worry if some of the edges get a little frayed looking. That's part of the grungy, shabby look I was going for. You could also do this with ribbon that is already colored to add wrinkles. Skip the coloring/ink steps and just spritz the ribbon with water and follow the remaining steps here.
Step 6. Dry with a heat tool. To get the center of the bunched up ribbon dry, you may need to take the ribbon out of the tweezers and bunch it up again to expose more of the damp section. Repeat until it is all dry. It just takes a couple minutes for this type of ribbon. Also if you overheat the ribbon, it will singe and turn a little yellow. Again, that was fine with me. If you don't want any yellowing, you could allow the ribbon to air dry over night scrunched up in the tweezers or keep the heat tool further away from the ribbon and keep it moving.
Here is a photo of the ribbon once it is dry. You can see the color variations and the wrinkles that result from this process.
I hope you'll grab your seam binding and give this a try.
~ Blessings ~
Tracey
