Storage ideas

My ribbons and lace used to be a nightmare! Some were on spools, others were in boxes, others were crumpled up in packets and I was fed up that I could not see my stock at a glance and I sometimes the ribbon was too creased to use on a card.

I found this fabulous idea and implemented it immediately. It started off as 1 hanger and has progressed to 2 as I sorted through the piles. You take a plastic hanger, select a sturdy good quality one as they get surprisingly heavy. I tore a white towel into strips about 1 inch wide. Glue the one end to the hanger and use a peg to keep it in place, then wind the strip around the crossbar using glue to secure it until you reach the other end of the crossbar, glue the end of the towel well and peg it until the glue is dry. Remove the pegs the next day. You need large safety pins for the next step, take your strip of ribbon and hang it onto the pin, if the strip is long, fold it in half and put the pin through the fold so that you have loose ends to cut ribbon from. I store my ribbon by colour, each pin contains 1 colour and the ribbon is about 1.5 metres long. The hangers hang on a large cuphook in the side of one of my cupboards but you could easily hang them behind a door. I made large plastic bags to protect them from dust with heavy duty plastic and a bag sealer.

When I am working and need a specific colour I simple unclip the pin and take it to my desk to choose the ribbon and snip the piece off. I no longer have crumpled ribbon and have to look for ribbon in numerous places which was a huge frustration for me as I use ribbon/lace on most of my cards and have a big collection. I also never buy less than 3 metres at a time because I may want to use it for a large swap and there is nothing worse than having too little!

I hope this idea will help you if you are struggling with ribbon storage. Have a great stamping day!