Flourishes Friday - Cool Tools

Hey....this is my 500th post!  Cool hey?

I have a cool post for you today too....the Flourishes Design Team is giving you all kinds of creative ideas for the Tools of the Trade Section of the Flourishes store.   Things that you may have over looked in the store.  Today I'm going to focus on a few of the tools I use and like.  One is our Ribbon Organizer , and Spooler , and also Scor Tape ....I have a special project I've created today for one of my best friends.  We're going for lunch on Friday to celebrate her birthday.   So here's where the project started... (lots of pictures to follow - sorry night shots so a little orange ...)

If you're anything like me....ribbon storage is an issue for you.  One thing that I absolutely LOVE about Flourishes is that I can get beautiful ribbon at a fraction of the price by purchasing it by the yard.  That way I only buy what I'll use, and then I can get more ribbons to sample!  But...then to store ribbon by the yard was becoming a serious issue for me.

When ribbon arrives for me from the store it usually looks like this, delicious ribbon, but not super functional and a little messy to store like this.

So, this is one of the nifty tools I bought  - the Ribbon Spooler and also the Organizer tray that I'll show you in a jiffy.

Here's how it works... feed your ribbon through the slit in the ribbon spooler (up to 7/8 inch wide ribbon), put on a provided divider disk and rubber stopper to hold the ribbon in, and then take the length of ribbon and feed it up along the handle (next photo).

Then put your thumb on the ribbon on the handle (to hold it to the proper tension) and wind the handle!  Works for lefty's or righty's too

Then just push the little ribbon off either onto the divider tool, or just in your hand holding the end. 

Then, the great part, pop it into the little divided holder, leaving the loose end out so you can pull it to cut when you need it!

Below is some blue satin finish cotton (some of my current favourite styles of ribbon we have).  I usually buy about 2 yards at a time, and that's the perfect length to fit on the spool with some room in the case still....

Here's a whole LOVELY row of Satin Finish cotton and Linen cotton ribbons.

And here they are below all in the tray....now I could have pulled all my ribbon ends in nicely so it would look a little neater, but let's just be honest this is how it normally is :)

It holds six rows of six ribbons.  I'm just waiting for a new tray to arrive so I can load it up too. It stacks nicely in my stamping cupboard, and it's easy to pull out.

The only con is that it only takes ribbon up to 7/8 inch, and I have ribbon that is wider that I have to organize differently.  If it took wider ribbon widths, I'd do this to all my ribbons.  I can see what I have, or what I need and it's easy to pull out and cut.

So, here's what I made with my ribbons and also a great new product to Flourishes, Scor Tape.  I've been using it a long time.  It's really superior for sticky-ness and sturdy-ness and comes in a variety of widths (3 sizes in store).  I was SO excited to see it in the store!!!

I cut a box 6 1/2 x 6 1/2 out of textured Pink Pirouette paper and then a bottom 6 1/4 x 6 1/4 inches.  I scored at 2 inches all the way around (both sheets), cut slits on opposing ends on the inside of the short squares (to make the pieces you fold in to make the box), and added Scor Tape to the fold in squares, and patterned paper (Memory Box Jubilee) to the outside panels on the box lid.  I notched out little 1/2 circles with my circle punch. Then fold in.  

I had colored up an image from our gorgeous Spring Bouquet Set  with copic markers, and then trimmed it out and added it to the box top, overtop of some beautiful ribbon.

So...embarrassing moment...my inside box was too narrow and they didn't hold together how I wanted, so I had to get creative with my embellishing.  I wanted to show off lots of ribbon anyway....

I used the Scor Tape all around the box and added ribbon as well, some pleated (which stays GREAT with Scor Tape), and then some just adhered.

Here's a closeup of the coloring and the beautiful glitter that I added with Spica pens after coloring.  I know the photo won't do it justice, it's super shimmery.

Now to find a pretty present for IN the box and we're set!

Head on over to the Flourishes Girls playing today in the Cool Tools episode.  Julie also has a feature on the Flourishes Blog too!  Dawn, Cindy, Laura, Julie and Leslie

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Flourishes Friday - Cool Tools