Tutorial: Christmas Ribbon Stamping (and a winner announcement)

I don't know about you, but sometimes it feels like I accumulate stash at an exponential rate. I definitely buy more stuff than I use, and yet two things remain true....
1. The lure of buying more stash never gets less. I have never once used the excuse of 'but I have so many things I don't need any more' to stop me buying something,
and
2. It's way too hard to throw stuff out. Give stuff away and give it to the kids I can do, but there's still sooooo many things that are in the "that's too pretty, I'm sure I'm going to use it someday" pile.

One such "too pretty to throw away" product that I've been hoarding for years is this seam-binding ribbon. I have no idea where I got it from or what my initial plans were, but for at least the last couple of years this little collection has been sitting inside that jar and biding it's time. Well today is the day I'm going to use it all up!

Pulling out some new products to pair it with is a great trick to reinvent some old stash, so I'm going to use my new Kellie Stamps Joy Clear Stamp Set to motivate myself!

My idea here is really simple - all I want to do is stamp a design along the length of the ribbon to jazz it up a level. But seam binding ribbon is by it's nature wrinkled and crumpled, that's part of its appeal... but not very conducive to straight stamping. So I moistened the ribbon with a few spritz of water and then ran the iron over it to flatten it out. I think it's quite pretty like this as well because now you can more clearly see all the gradations of colour in it.

I chose a couple of sentiments from the Joy Stamp Set which fit nicely within the width of the ribbon and used my StazOn Ink to stamp with. Choosing a waterproof ink is really important because if you want to crumple the ribbon again at the end you'll need to dampen it and scrunch it up in your hand... and I can just imagine what mess that might make otherwise!

So I just started at one end of the ribbon and stamped each sentiment until I reached the other end! Nothing hard about that! But it's got a completely different look now doesn't it? Gone is the shabby-chic appeal of the scrunchy seam binding, and welcome instead the clean and graphic appearance of typography ribbon!

This will do nicely for some present wrapping :-)

I also tried out the re-scrunched version on this quick layered tag I whipped up.
Obviously this is a really quick and simple technique to try out, but I just think it adds a new level of design detail to some otherwise pretty (but plain) ribbon.
Plus I'm quite chuffed that I'm going to be using up all that old stash this season ;-)

On a completely different topic, it's about time I announced this...

My winner (chosen by random.org) is
Joanne
SC username: jazzyjay

Yay Joanne! I've already forwarded your details onto the powers-that-be at Studio Calico, so I've got no doubt they'll be shipping out your Underground Scrapbook Kit real soon.
Thankyou to everyone that joined in on the fun of the Blog Hop, it certainly was inspiring wasn't it?

Happy Scrapping,
xx