Organization: Ribbon

Last week I gave myself the assignment to finish entering my stamp sets on the app Evernote. If you have decided to organize your stamps this way too, you probably won’t be done yet. It does take time but it is really worth it.

I forgot to show you how how I keep my stamps. I use plastic drawers. Each drawer is about 7″ high. I lay some non-slip shelf liner along the bottom of the drawer to keep the stamp envelopes from sliding around. They are in the drawers in alphanumeric order. I plan on getting some contact paper and covering the front of the drawers to make them more decorative.

Today, I am going to talk about ribbon. I have spent the last day or two searching the internet for ribbon organization ideas.

In the past I have tried a couple of different ways to keep my ribbon organized.

Something similar to this…

And, this…

These ideas, while perfectly good, did not work for me. So, I ended up with this…

A jumbled mess or hidden in a drawer.

In my search, I found 2 ideas I really liked. The first one is my ideal ribbon storage.

They even give you instructions to make your own. Click here to check it out. I like this idea because the spools sit on a shelf rather than having a rod run through them. Using a rod really makes it hard to change out empty rolls or grab a particular roll to use somewhere other than your craft space. Plus, sometimes, when you grab a piece of ribbon you can start unrolling all the rolls and your ribbon collection becomes a mess.

My problem is I do not have the wall space to hang an organizer like this. Also, I am organizing on the cheap. I decided to use some white plastic baskets that I already had. The baskets are the perfect size for medium to large ribbon spools.

Not perfect but it works. See that jar to the left? I have a few of these and I plan on grouping my small scraps of ribbon in color groups and storing them in these.

Here is the second idea I liked. My friend, Barb has done this with her ribbon. She uses ribbon cards. I also saw someone using embroidery cards they attached their ribbon to. I checked a local store and did not see any embroidery cards. We live about 40 minutes from a Hobby Lobby or Michael’s and I will not be headed that way any time soon so, I got to thinking. I decided to try using safety pins and a hanger. I have a fairly large amount of ribbon rounds but I keep them in a drawer so I never end up using them.

I started unrolling my ribbon and here is how it looks.

I folded each length of ribbon in half around the pin in the same manner, with the length hanging down the same side as the opening on the pin. The closed end of the pin will be the side that rests on the binder ring. I tore off the top of one of the empty ribbon round spools and added it to the ring so I can see what color these ribbons are. A lot of my ribbon rounds include discontinued colors so the label will be helpful. Then, I attached the ring to a hanger. I saw online the idea to use a binder clip in between your rings to keep them from sliding into each other.

I only unrolled a few rolls because I only have 2 binder rings. I’ll go shopping this week and get some more plus I may try to find some pins that have a larger hole on the closed end of the pin. I think it would be better if I could slide the binder ring through that hole on the pin. But, either way I think I am going to like organizing the ribbon this way. I even added a pair of scissors to the hanger!

Back to the empty rolls…

I searched “crafts with empty ribbon spools” and lo’ and behold there were a bunch of ideas! How did I never know about this? And, to think of all the empty spools I have just tossed in the garbage. To shame!

My absolute favorite idea is this wreath. It only links to a partial picture on photobucket but it looks so fun.

Inspired by pinterest, here is what I made.

Gift bag decorations!

Definitely don’t throw those cardboard spools out! I will definitely be saving mine to make a ribbon spool wreath! Or, those plastic ribbon round tubes! Years ago I made a holder for my liquid glass to keep it upside down. They are great to hold candy as a fun hostess gift or for a child’s birthday party too.

This week’s assignment: Organize my ribbon so it is easily accessible and in order. If you are joining me in organizing feel free to comment on how you organize your ribbon. I would love to hear your ideas.

~Lisa Marie