WOYWW # 122

Right, I have to be honest my workdesk has not changed AT ALL since last week. What with birthday and anniversary celebrations not only have I not had a chance to tidy it (sorry Jane) but I have also not made anything either. Went to bed on Sunday night with a tickly cough & sore throat and woke up with a full blown 'I feel like crap' cold and chest infection.

Then to boot I went to the dentist yesterday. I am absolutely petrified of going and admit to not having been for about 15 years. We started a program of treatment yesterday which involved taking out a broken tooth and today I am blooming suffering. It is so sore and on top of the cold all I wanted to do was snuggle up on the sofa and watch tv.

So for WOYWW I decided to show you my ribbon storage. As I alluded to last week, my craft space is very small so if there is an available, useable space, it WILL get used. I loves ribbon, I love textiles in general but ribbon in crafting is one of those finishing touches that can make all the difference to a project. Living in Birmingham I am VERY lucky that I have the Rag Market as a fabulous source of ribbons and trims, most very cheap too so of course, every now and again one makes a small purchase...... Please do not start licking the screen or drooling on the ribbon OK.....

This is the view at the back of my door. (I told you I loved Ribbon!!) I have a couple of those shoe tidies that hold large rubber stamps and ink pads and various bits and pieces. I have 2 really strong hangers that are made out of rounded plastic. These hold the longer lengths of ribbons, lace, trims and shoe laces. The embroidery floss ring holds the shorter 'card length pieces'

Close-up of this ring shows there are are clips holding the ribbons on. I tend to group them by colour so that I can pull all the similar colours together and lay them on my card to select the one I want to use. If none of the small ones are suitable then I go on to the larger section.

The close-up above shows how my ribbons are held onto the hangers. I used either the small crocodile clips that you can get for hanging lightweight curtains on. I had a load from when I used to work in a curtain shop but you can buy them from Ikea too. Another method is to use a large paperclip and hang a small bulldog clip from it. This then simply grips the ribbons you have grouped together. You will also see there are a couple of bundles of shoe laces. These were a complete bargain from Poundland. I had 4 pairs of assorted length laces, 70cm - 120cm for only £1. They are a really heavyweight twill and is another example of crafters being able to re-purpose something from it's original intended use.

I previously had them all rolled up in boxes but found I didn't use them so much. I think I am one of those crafters who uses what I can see so the stuff I have out or at least within easy reach tends to be what I use the most. I'm also very touchy feely so texture is important to me and I try to use it in my projects a lot.

Thankyou Julia for allowing us to congregate in one place and have a mooch at what is happening in other people's crafty worlds :)