Cheap and Easy homemade Ribbon storage!
Was sitting at my kitchen table the other day sorting out the mess my 2 year old had made of all the spools of ribbon I have. I was trying to create something a couple days ago, and she was happily playing "lets unroll every spool of riboon", so I let her have her fun! Now 3 days later I am trying to make a couple clips and my ribbon is a total disaster. UGHH!!
So had a quick brainy moment and decided maybe I should roll these up, and find some way better to store them. My version of ribbon storage is chuck them into a box and call it good. Well that's okay if they are still sealed from the store, but mine of course are not. So the loose end becomes looser and looser and then the two year old strikes!! Ribbon disaster!
I looked on line, and there are some totally awesome ribbon storage systems! Seriously! Those things can make any sane crafter drool and really think about blowing her budget! But thanks to my dad's genes, I am CHEAP!! Thank you dad! (seriously) So I headed up to my attic/craft room/ catch all the junk room and started digging around and this is what came to me in a stroke of cheap genious!
Easy Ribbon Storage!!!!!!
Yep! It is just what it looks like!! A shoe box from one of my kids pairs of shoes. It has a wooden flower stake ran through the box, and the ribbon ran onto the stake, and Tadaah....... Your ribbon is nicely contained! And I saved myself around $400.00 smackers!! So read on and you will see some easy instructions on how to wrangle your own ribbon into containment!!
Step 1: Collect your necessary items.
-shoe boxes to fit all your ribbon into (mine took 3 boxes like this and one man sized boot box! Yikes didn't realize I had all that! he-he)
-- wooden flower stakes, or small dowel rods, or even shish-kaboob sticks if they are long enough to go completely across your box. Basically anything you have that is a little longer then your box, and it will fit through the centers of your ribbon spools
-- scissors, or something to poke holes in your box and to trim the stakes or dowels if they are too long.
-- straight pins, or tape to secure the loose ends of your ribbon
-- a couple pieces of duct tape or really sticky tape
And that's it!! So go get your items and get ready!
Step 2:
- look at you ribbon spools and take one of the bigger ones and sit it inside your box on one end. You are going to mark where you need to poke your hole for the stake. Make sure you aren't crowding it into the front or back as this will not allow your spool to turn easily when you are pulling out ribbon. Also try to keep it a little to the front or back as this will allow room to store excess ribbon on it's side behind the ones on the stake. (see last picture to show this) I divided my spools first by color and then by size; small, medium, and large. All the large ones I took out and put them into a boot box since my shoe boxes where kinda skinny. Think they had flip-flops in them.
Step 3:
-- cut or poke a hole that is just a little smaller then your stake or dowel. Make sure it lines up with the approx. center of your spool. Becareful and don't jab your hand either! You want it to be a little tight so that your dowel won't go sliding out if the box gets tilted or dropped!
Step 4:
- Run your stake or dowel through the hole and straight across until it is touching the other side. Now just sort of eyeball the dowel until it is running straight through the box and poke a matching hole in the other side of the box. Again make it a little small.
Step 5:
- Now pull the dowel out of one hole and start to run your ribbon spools onto the dowel. Until it is nice and full and then stick the dowel back out both sides. I had to trim mine off a little so they weren't crazy long. I then covered them with a strip of duct tape to insure they wouldn't slip out during use!
