Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Meg's Cheater Bow

I got an e-mail today from Marie asking what my secret was to tying a knot around a corner of a card. I thought about trying to answer her in an e-mail, but this really is more of a visual trick so I thought I would do a tutorial instead.

And before I start I want to thank Meg Shumaker (aka WAXYO on SCS) for sharing this wonderful tip with all Stampin' Up! demonstrators in the On Stage magazine last winter. As some of you already know, Meg is my stamping hero, not the least because of this little trick, which saved me hours of aggravation (without this technique I'm an absolutely horrible knot maker!)!

For this cheater technique you need two lengths of ribbon. One needs to be about 2 inches longer than the length of the area you want to wrap it around. the other can be shorter but long enough to form the knot ends when folded in half.

The first step is to take the longer cut of ribbon ad tie it into a simple loose knot. Try to make it as pretty as you can with both edges "curling" towards the knot. Do not tighten the knot!

Flip the knot over in your hand. the ends should now be curling downward, away from the smooth side of the knot which now faces upward. Insert the shorter length of ribbon into the loose knot until it passes all the way through. Make sure that the short length of ribbon curls in the same direction as the other ends (downward).

Now tighten the ends of the longer piece of ribbon and pull the shorter ribbon through so that the ends are equal.



Without applying any adhesive, fit the tied ribbon on your stamped image, finding the best place to add it to the card.

Remembering the corner that you want to tie the ribbon around, turn the stamped image over and apply SNAIL adhesive on both sides of the corner to about half-way down each length of the reverse side of the stamped image.

Wrap ends of the longer piece of ribbon around the edge of the image and press down so that the ribbon is adhered to the image with the SNAIL you applied earlier.

Add more SNAIL right over the ribbon and down each edge of the stamped image.







Turn the image over and adhere it to the card base.


Trim the faux knot ends with snips until they are both the desired length. You are left with a nice smooth knot and ribbon that lays perfectly across your card front.
I hope this technique helps some of you with your card making as much as it helped me. Thanks Meg for sharing this awesome tip!

12 comments:

Stampin_Melissa said...

This is a beautiful card and I had wondered how you kept that ribbon in place! Thanks for sharing this tip, I don't recall it in my On Stage, perhaps I should start reading a little more. ;D

Jules said...

Thanks for the tute!!!

tyrymom29 said...

Thank you for the tutorial I need all the help I can get for bows !!! lol

Melody (lacyquilter) said...

This is great. I missed that in on stage. Thanks.

Jackie said...

Thanks for posting that - I am SO lousy at tying bows and now I don't have to anymore!

Anonymous said...

Had always wondered how I could tie a nice bow with the wider ribbon since I'm ribbon tying challenged. Now I know! This is such an easy technique!! The pictures certainly helped too. Thanks for posting.

Diane said...

Gee thanks Diane!! That's a beautiful bow,I'm keeping the tutorial until I have it down path!
Thanks a bunch!!

Lisa Carroll said...

Ooooooh, neat-o! Thanks so much for sharing, Diane! I think this has to be the best method for tying those extra wide ribbons.

Speaking of Meg, as you know, I stalk her (SCS) gallery regularly. She hasn't posted much there, lately. I know she lives in IL... do you correspond with her at all? Do you know if she's OK? If you do, please tell her that her "fans" are wonderin' what she's up to. I miss her stuff! *sniffsniff* LOL :)

Michelle said...

Thanks for this tutorial, Diane. This is super! I can't wait to give it a try. I may just CASE your card too so I don't have to come up with an original idea, LOL ;)

Sincerely,
Michelle

Caroline LeBel, Stampin' Up!® Demonstrator said...

postively brilliant! :)

Erin said...

I know I'm late to the game but I just found this and can't wait to try it out. :)

Anonymous said...

please can I get a version to print out?
mazza9@vodafoneemail.co.uk