My Craft Tip #1 - Recycling Ribbons

Never throw any sort of ribbons away!

If you look at some of the b'day cards and even crafts that I've made, many of the ribbons I used on them were what I've kept from scraps and gifts that I received. (or didn't receive - I take anyone's ribbons if they're about to throw them away). 
There's always something you can do with "second-hand" ribbons!
I even keep those little ribbons that you find on your clothes, that you're supposed to use to hang them up on (only the ones I don't need to remain on the clothes)...you know...these things:

Often these clothes ribbons are very pretty ones, and fit for any type of classy crafty project.

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My Craft Tip #2 - Identical Ribbon Tails

After making your bow:

Take the tails and bring them together below the ribbon, so that they match up side by side:

Hold the ribbons in place and then cut them both diagonally in one go:

And there you have it, perfect little ribbons! :)

I use Enmarc's Bow Master to make the actual bow, so I get perfect little bows every time.

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My Craft Tip #3 - Scrap Ribbons Storage

How to turn your scrap ribbon stash from this:

To this:

First, store your raffia in a separate container!
Then, if you're anything like me and you have tons of little ribbon scraps that you've kept from all over the place (and maybe ribbons that you've taken from family members when they weren't looking), here's an easy way to store them so that they're not so unruly:

I use paperclips, rubber bands, those little bag sealing wire goodies, and mini sealing plastic bags to neatly store my scrap ribbons.
This keeps them neater, prevents them from getting entangled, and you can better see what you have in your stash!

(while I'm updating my blog, let me also state here that this system of ribbons storage requires some degree of discipline in tying them all up again after usage....yeah.....discipline that I don't really have....hehe)

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My Crafty Tip #4 - Picking Up Small Embellishments

(I'm updating my blog - so please bear with me in the next few posts, as I'm reposting my tips here because I'm deleting "My Crafty Tips" tab at the top)

If you want to more easily pick up tiny embellishments, especially if you're going to be using a lot of them on a particular project, try this:

 

Add some Prestick to the end of a pencil or something, and then pick up your embellishment by dipping it into your container - I find it much less fiddly this way! :)

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My Crafty Tip #5 - Cutting Card Stock To Size For Card Making

Just in case you're wondering, Tips # 1-4 are over here.  But I'll no longer be posting them there - I'm re-organizing my blog, so I'll just be posting the tip's heading with a link in the My Crafty Tips tab from now on, kinda like a summary of all my tips in one place.

So on to tip #5!

For some reason, this is something I only thunk up quite some time after starting with my card making addiction...and doing this something saves a lot of time and schlepp.  So just in case you're still doing it the old way (hehe), let me show you what I discovered...
When you need to cut a piece of paper to the exact size of the card you're making...instead of measuring your card and then drawing the measurements onto your fancy paper and cutting it out, just glue your card to the paper and then cut off the excess around the card afterwards!

 

 

And voila, no more measuring! :D

Laugh all you want, but I was so glad to figure this out, hehehe! :)

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