Making a pretty thingy

I mentioned in my previous post that we were going to a scrumptious store full of crafty & decorative things.

It was definitely all I had imagined it would be. ;)

In one of the aisles full of fun spring-timey things we found a fluttery-ribbony-hangy thing(y).
I thought it was festive and pretty, and both boys like touching it.
Mimi had the idea of making one instead of buying it. And since we WERE in a store full of craft supplies, we headed right over to pick out our ribbon.

This is how things went from there, and how you can make one of your own:


You will need at least 24 yards of ribbon. We chose 3 different colors. One solid color would also be pretty.

We used a clean empty plastic yogurt cup to anchor our ribbon to.
Cut off the bottom of the yogurt cup, leaving about a 3/8 inch lip. A craft knife works well.

Then cut out the middle of the bottom, to make a ring:

Now it's time for the ribbon.

For a ring the size of a yogurt cup you will need about 24 3ft lengths of ribbon.

After the ribbon is cut grab your partner and glue gun and start gluing.

Bring the tip of each ribbon through the hole and glue to what was the inside of the yogurt cup:

After every few ribbons, turn the ring over and glue the ribbons down to the top (which was its bottom before you cut it off and flipped it over) and the sides.

This was the tricky part to me. Getting the angle of the ribbons right on the underside so they hung nice and straight and covered the sides was harder than I had anticipated. It took some overlapping on the underside. I was glad the hot glue was forgiving enough that I could do some adjusting before it set.

After all the ribbons are glued on, cut a piece of ribbon for a hanger - the length will depend on where you plan to hang your new pretty. Anything from 6-12 inches would work nicely. Glue each end of the ribbon to an opposite side of the ring - on the outside, like the handles of a basket.

Now to finish it off (and hide the fact that my ribbon left big gaps of yogurt cup exposed) cut another length of ribbon to go around the outside edge of the ring. This also covers where you attached the hanger.

Once the glue is set (which doesn't take long with hot glue - yay!), hang up your new fluttery-ribbony-hangy-thing(y).

Since these pics were taken we moved ours outside under the awning. It is so pretty in the breeze!