Speaking of stitch bands, I’m a fan of packages wrapped in plain brown paper (inside-out grocery bags), white butcher’s paper, or newspaper and then festively decorated with ribbons, origami, glitter, paper cutouts, wire doo-dads, whatever.
I’ve never done it for real, but I’ve had it in my head to stitch some elaborate ribbons to use on plainly wrapped packages. (I’ve played with a couple of experimental ones, like the one in the image, which was chopped into pieces for further experiments.) I envision using narrow stitch bands, grosgrain ribbon, and whatever else presents itself at the time. Or we could make bows with our embellished ribbons, ones that stay made and get tied onto packages.
These embellished ribbons wouldn’t be thrown away with the rest of the wrappings, but would be re-gifted year after year, traveling from person to person to person, and living a long stitchy life.
Aside: Since throwing my hat over the fence with this 24 Creative Gift Ideas challenge, I’ve been scribbling a list of ideas as they come to me. I have 16 as-yet-unused ideas on my list at the moment. I wrote 2 down as I typed this. As far as I’m concerned, derivative ideas are fair game. This right here–the ideas begetting ideas–is what sends me flipping, skipping, and tripping over the moon. I love idea generation.
Idea fulfillment is pretty satisfying, too; it just takes way-yonder longer.
So, does this idea do anything for anyone? Does it give you another idea (derivative ideas count for you, too) or make you want to try it?
Another aside: I keep wanting to say “execute the idea,” but that conjures images of sad craft projects lined up before a firing squad. To be sure, I execute my fair share of ideas, but I never set out deliberately to do that. I spared you the sight of my failed attempts to make embroidery floss tree tassels for this challenge. Oh, the carnage!
I still think it’s a good idea. The execution was poor–and complete.
Categories: Crafting
I think some of the most beautiful packages I’ve wrapped were brown paper with either a clump of raffia tied in a bow or a gold, deep green, or crimson ribbon, to which I added (glue gunned) bits of evergreen greenery acorns, tiny pine cones, etc.
why does the hat go over the fence?
@ Harriet…I’m more used to the sayings “throw my hat into the ring” or “throw my hat over the wall”, meaning to make a commitment. I love the origins of idiomatic expressions, and both of these are pretty cool.
One year at Christmastime I found some wonderful cutouts of black & white Holsteins. I have no idea what their intended use was, but to me they screamed out gift tags. So I bought plain red wrapping paper and white bows, and wrote on the back of the cows the to & from. Sorry, but you know me. Nothing homemade or crafty involved. But I loved the simplicity of the wrapped gifts with the Holsteins.
Your reusable ribbon idea really strikes my fancy. I definitely can see using them year after year. Can I have some? I’ll buy them in the blink of an eye, as soon as you have them available. Not in holiday colors only, please, but in a hug array of colors. About 50, to start out. How does that sound?
@Linda – That’s it exactly!
@Harriet – Expanding on what Shelly said, by “throwing my hat over the fence,” I have no choice but to go get it. So any action that forces you to take the next step is “throwing your hat over the fence” or “throwing your hat over the wall” or “throwing your hat in the ring.”
@Shelly – The Holstein project was creative and crafty. Period. Don’t argue with me. I’m right; you’re wrong. So there.
I’m excited that you like the ribbon idea! The sticky wicket, of course, is the time embroidery takes. As always, we’ll see…