If you’ve been following my posts for a while, you’ll know that I’m practically obsessed with making my own embellishments.  Not only are they are a lot cheaper than buying the ready-made embellishments, I got a lot of satisfaction from making everything from scratch.

I’ve bought flowers over the last few years, but nearly all of them are still sitting in my craft cupboard.  One type of flower I particularly love is the ribbon flowers.

I’ve seen a lot of videos on the net about making your own ribbon flowers, and have even posted some on this site.  The one that helped me the most was created by Christina from Card Making Magic.  However, I was totally unable to get the flowers to sit flat, and usually ended up with flowers the extended upwards instead of being flat.  You can see what I mean in this close-up:

These were my first attempt, and I was determined to conquer it.  But alas, I did not.

In the midst of trying to learn how to make these beautiful flowers, I took a ‘ribbonry’ class.  And totally by coincidence, they taught these flowers.  What I didn’t realize at the time was that I was ‘rolling’ the ribbon instead of ‘tucking’ it underneath.  Once I understood that part of it, things began to come together.

I practiced on cheap ribbon over the next few days, and finally I was happy with the result, so began using quality ribbon. (I’ve found satin ribbon is the easiest to use, and seems to give the best result.)

Here’s a close-up of that ribbon rose. As you can see, the base is totally flat.

The large red rose in the centre is the large version of this technique, but I also made some rose ‘buds’ which can be seen on each side near the bottom of the card.  These are actually a bit harder to do because there’s not enough size in the flowers to make them flat.  But they’re still effective.

Here’s another card I made using this same technique – as you can see, this card is totally different:

Learning this technique can open up a whole new world of cardmaking.  I know that sounds a bit crazy, but it’s allowed me to make so many different types of cards, just by knowing how to make these roses. They make a beautiful addition to any card, or can be the focal point, as can be seen above.

The ribbon I’ve used in the above cards is approx 1/3 inch wide Satin Ribbon (approx 1.1 cm).  Play around with the widths and type of ribbon you use, and you’ll see you can get a wide variety of results.  Also try using patterned ribbon, and ribbon with writing on it. (i.e. Happy Birthday, Merry Christmas) as this gives you a whole new look.

And last, but certainly not least, here’s the video showing you how to do this technique:

I would love to see your efforts! Feel free to upload them below.

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