Curly Grosgrain Ribbon Decor

First, before I go any further I just want to say Happy 100th Post to The Idea Attic. I can't believe we're already to 100. Debbie messaged me yesterday and instantly I thought, "We should have a give-away or something" and then my kids started fighting and I started unpacking and I totally forgot about a special something for our readers. So, if you'll forgive me on this one I promise I'll drum up something good for the holidays. We really do appreciate your comments and words of encouragement and look forward to the next 100 posts.

And now, for our regularly scheduled program. Ribbon! I never thought I'd be that kind of girl. The one who likes ribbon. I grew up with two brothers and no sisters and led a bit of the tom-boy lifestyle...a boy crazy tom boy. My brothers used to tease me that I would have to beat up a boy to marry me. They weren't laughing when I beat up people who were picking on them (yes, even my older brother). But little did we all know that as I grew older I would love pink, glitter, bling and ribbon!

Lately I've seen these cute little curly grosgrain ribbon hair bows...you know the ones at Gymboree...and they're too expensive for my taste. I can make that, right? Right!

(Please excuse the low resolution pictures from my iphone. Nice camera is in a box somewhere and I haven't gotten to it yet. When I find it I will replace with nicer pictures....but you get the idea, right?)

This project is so super easy that I did amidst unpacking the kitchen, painting a new entertainment center, cooking dinner, and helping my son with his California Landforms project (not to mention playing a few of my friends in "Words with friends") all after work!

So you'll need some dowels. I chose the "yellow" tagged ones at Michael's. Cut them to fit your cookie sheet. Then wrap the ribbon around the dowel securing it with some clothes pins.

Then pre-heat your oven to 250. Place your dowels on a cookie sheet and spray them with water. Then put your slightly damp dowels in the oven fo 20 minutes.  Then remove them and let them cool...they are hot. After they cool,  release the ribbon and nudge it off the dowel.

For the green bow shown, I cut 6 sections from each dowel. (I'm going to be showing you both the black and the green...but the green turned out cuter because the ribbon was skinnier). Then seal the edges with a candle or some anti-fray stuff so the ribbon doesn't come apart.

Next, you just sew them up the middle like this and after it's sewn together, I glued them to the hair clips like Debbie did in this post.

I also used these cute ribbons (on the hair clip) to decorate my no-carve pumpkins from last week. I also cut a vinyl bat to decorate my larger pumpkin.

Do you see the cute "pumpkin" hair clip? Don't you think it looks like the little white pumpkin is wearing an orange pumpkin costume? I think it's cute. Of course, I've turned into a big softy.

Today I linky-ed up to the following:

Sew Much Ado
The Thrifty Home 
Someday Crafts 
Blue Cricket Design