Even though I’m not Irish, I can’t let a good holiday go by without a little fun decorating (plus, it gives me an excuse to buy more chocolate). Today’s tutorial shows you how to make your own custom “printed” ribbon with stencil vinyl and fabric ink to use as a basket or bucket wrap for gifts or your own decor.
I started by opening my celtic border in the Studio software. My ribbon was about 1.5″ wide and needed to be nearly 2′ long to fit my bucket, but my design was only about 6″ long. To make matters worse, I only had only piece of stencil vinyl left that was 12″ long, so I decided to make two 12″ stencils to cover the whole ribbon. I ungrouped my design (arrow 1), pulled away the end pieces to save for later (arrow 2), and resized the border to the appropriate length and width (arrow 3).
Next, I duplicated the inner part of the design to fill the entire length of the border. To do this, click on your group of shapes (arrow 1), open the Replicate Window (arrow 2), and click Duplicate Right(arrow 3) until you can fill your border.
Replace the ends of the inner design to finish your stencil. Then create a second stencil by clicking on Duplicate Below in the Replicate Window. Cut your stencils using the standard Vinyl software settings in the Cut Settings Window.
Once cut, weed all of the intricate loops from your stencil and transfer the vinyl to your ribbon using transfer paper. I like to go over the vinyl a few times with the scraper tool to ensure the stencil is adhered well and no fabric ink can bleed underneath.
Dab your fabric ink over the stencil carefully. I wanted nice solid coverage and my ribbon was woven a bit loosely, so I actually gave it two coats of ink using a small foam paintbrush. One coat would have made for a pretty distressed look though!
Once dry, I pulled away my stencil to reveal my custom design. I layered my new celtic ribbon over some burlap ribbon with glue to create a rustic basket wrap.
After filling my bucket with a drink and gold nuggets, I decided to add a little festive pick. Usingclean cut fabric interfacing, I cut the shamrock out of some scrap green fabric and layered this over a circle of burlap (cut by hand). Then I pressed on my “Lucky” sentiment cut from gold glitter heat transfer material. After backing the tag with some green cardstock for stability, I attached it to bamboo skewer with hot glue.
Are you ready for St. Patrick’s Day?
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