A Tale of Woe and Ribbon

Posted by Khris in Crafting Advice

I’m in the final push to finish up the projects for DIY Bride book #3 this week. You could say that it’s manic panic in the Casa de DIY and you wouldn’t be exaggerating!

About 6 weeks ago I ordered some big spools of ribbon and tulle from JKM Ribbon. According to their website and my receipt “It takes about 10 Business Days before we ship + approx. 5 day(s) to get to your area.” That should’ve been plenty of time to get the ribbon and put the projects into production before deadline. No problem.

5 weeks later after the order was placed: no ribbon! I shot them an email asking when the order would ship; a few hours later I got an email stating the order went out that morning. Calculating the transit time, I knew that it’d be unlikely that the order wouldn’t be here before my production deadline so I went in search of replacement ribbon and placed orders at other vendors with fingers crossed.

The JKM Ribbon order arrived – minus the white ribbon (a very critical component of my project) because it’s on backorder. At no point in the ordering process was this mentioned. I didn’t find out until I got the incomplete package yesterday. (My projects are due at the end of this week/early next.)

Luckily I had ordered from other vendors who were WONDERFUL to work with and had those orders in my hands before the incomplete JKM order even arrived. I wanted to give a huge shout out to PaperMart and C.O.D. Wholesale for their super-fast shipping and excellent service. I loved PaperMart’s ordering system that told me that certain ribbons were out of stock BEFORE I placed an order. The quality of ribbon (double-face satin) from both vendors is very good and the prices were quite competitive. These two companies saved my butt this week and deserve some praise for being so awesome to work with. If you’re in the market for bulk ribbon, please do give PaperMart and C.O.D. Wholesale some consideration. They have my highest recommendation.

Ranunculus Bouquet

Posted by Khris in Bouquets + Flowers, DIY Projects & Tutorials

For this bouquet project I wanted something easy, ultra-feminine and delicate. I chose ranunculus because it’s one of my all-time favorite flowers and, sadly, is underused in weddings. It’s my new mission to give it some high profile flowerly love.

The ultra-wonderful team at FiftyFlowers (a DIY Bride advertiser) provided these beauties. I had not yet worked with ranunculus in a project setting so I was a bit unsure what to expect. Ranunculus turns out, are pretty easy to work with. Unlike many white flowers their petals did not bruise easily and they stayed fresh and vibrant for days. (Tip: Be sure to check the care instructions provided by FiftyFlowers before you place your order. It’s helpful to be prepared on delivery day with proper tools and containers.)

If you’ve never worked with flowers before, a simple “all the same flower” bouquet is the best way to go for most.

Step 1: Remove leaves and stray offshoots from each ranunculus stem. Place the stem back in water to keep it hydrated while you work through your bunches.

Step 2: Once you have 40 – 60 stems prepared take 4 flowers in one hand, at an even height, to create the center of your bouquet. Holding the center bunch in one hand, begin adding flowers around the center, one by one. You’ll be creating a dome shape as you go along; each row lower than the next. Depending on how big your flowers are and how big you want your bouquet, it’ll take 3 – 6 rows to get a standard bouquet size.

Step 3: This is the toughest part of the process – place a rubber band around the stems to hold them in place, about 3 inches below the blooms.

Step 4: Wrap it up! I used 1.5″ velvet ribbon to wrap the stems. I tucked one end of the ribbon under the rubber band and wrapped the ribbon around the stems, moving from top to 1″ from the bottom of the estimated length of my bouquet.

Step 5: I then secured the end of the ribbon with a long floral pin and trimmed the ends of the stems to a uniform length.

The final touch was to add DIY Floral Pins (new from FiftyFlowers). They’re much shorter than regular floral pins which makes them super for decorative use. I have a post coming up to show you some ways to use them to make all sorts of pretties.

The flowers in this project were provided by

Where To Find: Ribbon

Posted by Khris in Fab Finds Friday

Along with my paper obsession comes a nasty little addiction to ribbon. Seriously, I have hundreds of yards of the stuff and I’m pretty confident I’ll never use it all up in this lifetime. I tend to buy in bulk because, you know, I just might need that peacock blue silk shantung 3/8″ and that 100 yards of cute 1.5″ chartreuse polka dot ribbon some day. Yeah, I’m kinda sad in that way.

Anyway, since I’m always on the prowl for nifty new ribbons I thought I’d share my mega list of great ribbonerie resources with you. Beware: some companies require a minimum order (either dollar amount of bolt/cut size). All are open to the public; some have wholesale/bulk pricing if you’re a qualifying business.

• Angela Ligouri
• Artistic Ribbon
• BB Crafts
• EA Ribbons & Bows
• Fancy Nancy’s
• Hyman Hendler & Sons
• J Caroline Creative
• JKM Ribbon
• M & J Trimming
• Masterstroke
• Mokuba NY
• Of The Earth
• Paper Mart
• Paper Source
• Raffit Ribbons
• Really Reasonable Ribbon
• Renaissance Ribbons
• Ribbon and Bows Oh My
• Ribbon Bazaar
• The Ribbon Factory
• The Ribbon Jar
• The Ribbon Place
• Ribbon Shop
• Romantic Flowers
• Strano Designs
• Tinsel Trading
• Twice as Nice
• Vintage Vogue

Ribbon Favor Bags

Posted by Khris in DIY Projects & Tutorials, Favors + Gifts

One of my favorite craft projects is coming up with favor and gift packaging. (I especially love the holidays just because I can make and wrap boxes. It’s sick, I know.)

Finding nice favor packaging that’s not generic and that doesn’t cost more than the gift itself can be the Holy Grail of wedding favors, can’t it?

Well, dear readers, I have an easy-yet-beautiful favor packaging that won’t break the bank.

Crochet Organdy Ribbon Gown

Posted by Khris in Attire + Beauty, DIY Projects & Tutorials

This one’s for you, my crochet-savvy friends. Behold this lovely vintage gown created from crocheted organdy ribbon. If any of you endeavor to make this: please send pictures! I’m dying to see it (but am not crochet-friendly myself by any means, thus I won’t be making it).

Project Directions From The Fabulous Me Did It