MFT DT Creative Chat - Ribbon Organization

It's time for the MFT Creative Chat. The My Favorite Things Design Team Creative Chat is a monthly feature, where we are challenged to explore our creative spaces and share valuable organizational methods, tools, and shopping strategies with you. You'll be able to peek into our creative spaces, ask questions, and share your own ideas in the MFT forum.  This month, we were asked the following questions:  

Show us how you store your ribbon.

What are your favorite types of ribbon?

Any tips or tricks on how to use ribbon on stamped creations?

Visit Kim's Blog for a full list of designers that have taken up the challenge and get ready to delve into the minds of our creative team.

To say I am a ribbon addict would be an understatement.  I REALLY love ribbon.  I even named my blog after my ribbon obsession.  Now THAT is a good word.  Obsessed.  I have quite the ribbon collection and have tried various methods of storage, but I have settled on what I think is the best way to find what you have, when you want it, and be organized too.  Organization makes me happy.  :)


I store my ribbon in Sterlite drawers from Walmart that are pretty deep.  They are sold per drawer and they stack together.  I am short a couple and had to put a small amount of my ribbon in more shallow drawers.  To be fair, that happened after I needed THREE drawers for pink and TWO for green.  In all, I have 14 large drawers and 10 shallow drawers with ribbon in them.  


I have toyed with many ways to store my ribbon.  I have tried wrapping it on "cards", sorting it by type (polka dots, stripes etc), but the way I do it now is by COLOR.  Not only that, but I put the vast majority of my ribbon in little baggies that zip seal.  Typically, I know what color ribbon I want to use, so I can go the "black drawer" and see every ribbon I have that is black.  I use things I might have forgotten otherwise.  A benefit to using baggies is the ability to dump out the entire drawer on the floor if you want/need to and simply stuff it back in after you have rolled in it found what you need.


Here is at look at my ribbon collection.

I love pink!  I needed 2 drawers for my light pink.

Here are my black and blue drawers.

Aqua/Teal and Red

I have two green drawers.  One can never have too much green ribbon or green Copics.  True story.

Orange and light brown.

Hot pink and yellow.

Dark brown and white/cream.

Fibers.  From 1980.  LMAO  Joking... from 2005... I hung on to these because you never know when you might need some.

Ribbon that cannot be properly classified goes in this drawer for rebels.

Twill, hemp, brown stuff.

Twill overflow.  Apparently I like twill.

Light gray and silver.

More gray.

Purple and I don't get along, but I have some anyway.  

2 drawers of it actually.  I should use more purple.

Twine.  I don't know WHY I haven't integrated my twine in with my other ribbon.  I should... but strangely, I like it by itself.  I'm weird.

More twine...

When I am stamping I will sometimes grab 5 or 10 ribbons to choose from when I am working on a project and wanted red ribbon, for instance.  When I am done with that paper/color combo, I toss all the ribbon on my desk in this tote.  When it gets full, I go put them all back where they belong and start the whole process over again.

Today while I was cleaning off my desk I didn't want to put away all these supplies I had pulled out a couple days ago because I wasn't tired of the paper pad and wanted to use it more, so I stuck the ribbon, paper, copics, ink pads, and card stock in some baskets and left it all neat and tidy on my desk.  Next time I sit down to stamp, I'll just get right to stamping with these supplies.  I even had some leftover embellies and stuck those in there as well.  

I decided it might be hard for you to gauge how big these drawers are, so I pulled out my two light pink drawers.

Then I dumped them out on the floor so you could see how many different light pink ribbons I have.  Wow.  I REALLY like pink, huh?  LOL

Here is my less-loved, but still appreciated orange ribbon collection.  Just for comparison.  :)

My favorite type of ribbon is YES.  I love ribbon.  I don't discriminate... well... not much anyway.  I  definitely have my favorites.  Grosgrain, polka dots, ruffled... YES, I love ribbon.


As for how to use ribbon on a card... I have a couple tips:

• Make sure the ribbon type matches the style of card you are making.  If you're making a colorful butterfly card in pink, red, and blue, don't choose metallic gold ribbon that is sheer.  That would be wrong.
• Make sure the color of your ribbon coordinates with what you are using it with
• I *try* to avoid laying ribbon on the same colored paper.  
• Use a Bow Easy to create bows.  It's easy to use and your bows will be cute.
• When in doubt, add a strip of ribbon somewhere...

Thanks for stopping by today!  Don't forget to go visit the rest of the team.  You'll find the links on the MFT Blog.