Faux ribbon and a few cards

One of my favorite "go to" techniques is this faux ribbon one, which I learned from Kate Vickers on the Inspired To Scrap forum. I used it on this card for my daughter's baby shower (the general design is from the book that came with my Cricut "Graphically Speaking" cartridge. Don't you just love that cute little baby carriage?)

Here's a quick how-to for the faux ribbon:

You will need a hot glue gun; tape runners and wet adhesives tend not to work well with this technique. Plug it in before you start so that it's good and hot when you need it. 

First, cut a backing strip of paper in the length  that you want your completed ribbon strip; cut the width a little smaller. Then, cut a strip from your patterned paper, two to three times the length that you want for your final ribbon strip. 

You can ink the edges if you would like; Ranger Distress Ink works well because it will react and "run" just a bit when you do the next step ..... which is, to spritz the strip with water (or glimmer mist, if you like) and wad it into a ball. You want it to be wet enough to crumple well and so you can manipulate it easily, but not so much that it disintegrates in your  hand. It should be somewhat "soggy". 

Un-wad your paper carefully. Now, apply a bit of hot glue to your backing strip, adhere the end of your patterned paper strip, and start pleating. I use kind of a box pleat method, but you can also accordian pleat your paper. Adhere with the hot glue as you proceed. Give the paper a little push into the hot glue (careful though! I've burned myself once or twice when I've been in a hurry) to make sure the pleat "catches".

I'm not very exact during this step. I like the effect of "messy" pleats. You can add as many or as few pleats as you like. When you're finished, you can add a little spritz of glimmer mist; I have a clear sparkle one that just adds a bit of shine, and I like to use that.

Here's my completed faux ribbon strip, up close:

When it's all dry, adhere to your project; I do use my tape runner for that part.

Once again -- thank you, Kate, for posting this technique on Inspired To Scrap!

I've been in a card making mode the past week or two, and digging into the remnants of past kits. That fits in nicely with the January "Scrap Your Stash" theme of the Blue Plate Special challenges on Cookin' Up Creations. And then there was the one hour sketch challenge last Saturday on My Sketch World's forum. Five card sketches were unveiled at 9 pm eastern time, and we had one hour to make as many cards as we could using the sketches, then another 20 minutes to post. I completed three (and threw away a fourth because it just didn't work out) Here's what I came up with:

My mom and my oldest daughter had birthdays earlier this week (my daughter missed being born on Mom's birthday by one hour and 25 minutes)I created this one for my daughter, using the same faux ribbon technique:

And for my mom"

This week, we're looking forward to the beginning of The NEXT CROP CHEF competition at Cookin' Up Creations. It's a non-elimination contest with six challenges over three weeks. The person with the most points at the end of the contest will be named CROP CHEF and will win a prize package, plus the opportunity to be "Chef of the Month" and join the challenge team in presenting challenges, layout of the week and question of the day in March. Come on over and sign up!

Thanks for looking -- have a great week!