Colored Rhinestones and Fringed Ribbon – Tutorials

I am going to revisit this card I showed you yesterday because I want to explain a couple of the little techniques I used on it.

To see a detailed explanation of how I made the central image, please visit yesterday’s blog post

http://mnfroggie.blogspot.com/2011/08/emerging-colors-sunflower-tutorial.html

This post will cover how I made the fringed ribbon and colored rhinestones.  Rhinestones first (they are easiestJ) and then below that I will cover the ribbon.

Tutorial for Coloring Rhinestones

1.  Stampin’ Up!’s Basic Jewel Rhinestones can be colored easily using Sharpie markers. For this card I used a brown marker. Fine Point (the larger ones) works best.

2. While the rhinestones are still on their original sheet, color all over the outside of them. They take on the color easily, just scribble across the top and sides. It is best if you do this before you add them to the project so that you don’t get Sharpie ink on your cardstock.

3. They will dry very quickly, almost instantly and are ready to transfer to your project.

Tutorial for making Fringed Ribbon

1. I like to do this to the wide striped grosgrain ribbon, when I need to create a ribbon that is narrower. For this card I used the 1 ¼” Cajun Craze Striped Grosgrain. Cut a piece of ribbon to the desired length, and then cut along the stripe to get a straight line. If your line is not perfect, it will not show, as long as it is almost straight.

2. If you want fringe on both sides, cut along the stripe on the other side.

3. Tease out the strands of the ribbon that go down the length of the ribbon, and once you can grasp them, pull them off the length of the ribbon completely.

4. You will be left with a ribbon that has fringe along the side like this. I always do this planning to make the fringe where the white stripe was. If you make fringe where the colored stripe was, you will pull out all the color because the colored strings in the ribbon only run the length of the ribbon and the strands underneath them are white.

5. Repeat step 3 on the other side if you have cut the ribbon on both sides.

Once you have created the fringed ribbon, attach it to the card. If you are tucking the ends under your project, you do not need to do anything more. But if you are tying a knot so that the ends of the ribbon will show, those ends will fray. To make this look right on your project, you either need to singe the ribbon to hold it intact, or fray it intentionally.

To singe it

6. Trim the end of the ribbon straight.

7. Pull out one thread from the end. This will leave a little fringe behind

8. Heat only the very end of the ribbon to melt the little fringe on the end. This takes a few tries to get it right, so I suggest you practice it before you do it on the final project.

An easier option is to just go ahead and fray the ends of the ribbon.

9. To do that simple tease the treads going the length of the ribbon apart.

10. Continue to do that down to the knot and remove all the loose cross threads.

11. Your finished project will look like this.

Thanks for reading my blog. I love comments, so please leave one if you enjoyed this post!

All products used here are available from Stampin’ Up! I you would like to purchase these, or any other Stampin’ Up! products, please visit my business website at http://www.trina_kuriger.stampinup.net/