The Long and Winding Road

Hidy Ho, crafty peeps!

So, I've been hermitted away in my studio for the past 3 days.

Creating?

No.

Organizing.

AGONIZING organizing.

Ribbons.

So, I guess that would be... 

Agonizing Organza Organizing.

And, since I did it without preservatives, additives, or wearing any makeup...that would be  

Organic Agonizing Organza Organizing. 

I am SO ELATED to be finished...that one might even say (now that I'm done)...it was  

Orgasmic Organic Agonizing Organza Organizing.

But, I digress.

I got the idea from my bestee, Jodi -- who (on many occasions) has led me down numerous "primrose-laden paths" over the years. This was no exception. What can I say? She inspires me ... like the Pied Piper. That, plus the fact that I got SICK AND TIRED of rummaging through my chest-o-ribbon to find the perfect shade to go with whatever my current project is at the moment. And then having several spools scattered about my studio waiting to be re-chested.

I had a 4-drawer dresser FILLED with spools of ribbon. Nothing obsessive about me. No siree. It's just every time I go to Michaels...there is this GIANT bin of ribbon outside their front entrance... beckoning me, like sirens call to sailors off the rocky shore. I can't remember when the last trip to Michaels didn't include at least one spool of ribbon coming home with me. Maybe I should open my studio as a home for orphaned ribbon.

Anyway, Jodi found this awesome idea for how to neatly store ribbon, so I thought I would tackle my Mt. Everest-sized pile of spooled ribbon. Sounded easy enough...all you need is:

• Foam core board (or mat board  or corrugated cardboard) cut into 2 x 2.5 inch pieces.
• small rubber bands (the ones for hair, or those kids' bracelet weaving ones)
• Something to store your ribbon in...(I chose 12 x 12 plastic scrapbooking paper cases by Iris--sold at Michaels--the same ones I put my patterned paper in)
• Box knife
• scissors
• pen
• ruler/yardstick (I actually used both)
• Strong hands
• Ibuprofen (you try cutting/winding a bazillion ribbon cards)
• Lots of time
• Mindless movies in the DVD player (I chose the Stargate SG1 series)
• Chocolate

I had NO IDEA that I had amassed SO MUCH RIBBON. When all was said and done, I had wound over 500 cards of ribbon. I'm not kidding. Basically, it works out to about 1 spool : 1 card (except for the really wide/bulky stuff ... and the rolls that had like 30 yards of ribbon on them --those took several cards).

500 STINKING CARDS

I measured and marked the foam core into 2 x 2.5 inch rectangles. Then I cut them all out. FYI, foam core REALLY dulls your box knife blade FAST. I went through 3 blades (and yes, I turned each around to use the other side). After I cut about 200 of these, my hands needed a break, so I switched to winding the ribbon (not much of a break is it?). This is how I transferred the ribbon from the spools to each card (notice how neatly and precisely I wound it). Let's just say I got REALLY good at winding this stuff by the end. I can now, confidently, go to China and get a job in a ribbon factory for 20 cents an hour.

Now, OF COURSE  I (roughly) arranged it all in rainbow order. DUH. How else would I do it? I ended up with 4 boxes total. Each box holds about 150 cards of ribbon. I have one for warm colors, one for cool colors, one for neutrals and one for multi-colored, metallic, and miscellaneous wide ribbon.

Here is the "cool colors" box.

Here are all the finished boxes. 

This is what ~600 spools of ribbon looks like.

 

So...does ANYONE have suggestions for doing something creative with 500 empty ribbon spools?  ANYONE???