DIY Thanksgiving: Decorated Ribbon Vase

It’s amazing how versatile ribbon is. In the last project we used it to transform a simple cardboard box into a fruit bowl, and this week we’ll use it to enhance the beauty of a plain glass vessel.

Materials:

• Glass vase 
• Two types of ribbons in complimentary colors. We recommend one thick in width and one thin. Be sure to choose colors that will match or enhance the color of the flowers you’d like to use. 
• Scissors 
• Tape

Instructions:

1. Before you begin, make sure your glass vase is clean without dust, inside and out. Then, you can proceed by taking one end of the wide ribbon and taping it to the center bottom of one side of the vase.

2. Keeping the ribbon flat against the vase, wrap it around the vase, covering all sides until you get to to the top. Once you get to the top, tape that end of the ribbon on to the back side of the vase so that no one will see it.

3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 using the thin ribbon, except when you get to the top of the vase, tie the ribbon into a bow instead of taping the end to the vase.

4. Pick a complimentary colored bouquet of flowers, fill the vase and you’re finished.

Like I mentioned last time, I’d love to see your version of these DIYs. Feel free to email them to my editor Karell@prestonbailey.com, or if you have your own blog, post them on your blog and leave me the link in the comments. Enjoy!

DIY Thanksgiving: Handmade Fruit Bowl

This versatile container is beautifully simple, made from cardboard and decorated just with ribbons. It can be used to accessorize your Thanksgiving table to showcase your fresh fruit.



Materials:

• Stapler
• Ribbon (In whatever color you’d like—we used purple here.) 
• Cardboard container (Dig around and see what you can find in your closet. We used a circular one, but you can use a square, rectangle or whatever you have available.) 
• Scissors
• Hot glue gun 
• Tape

Instructions:  

1) To turn our plain Jane box into something more spectacular, we’re going to cover the surface area with looped ribbons. To begin, cut pieces of ribbon into 4 inch strips. The number of strips you’ll need will depend on how large your container is, so you’ll have to guesstimate on the number of strips to cut. I would suggest 50 to start.

2) Take one ribbon strip and fold it over itself (without creating a crease) to make a loop. How full you want the loops to be will dependent on its relation to the size of your container. Feel free to use the pictures as a reference point. Staple the two ends together. Repeat with all your cut ribbon strips.

3) Starting from the top, glue one loop at a time all around the box. Work in rows. After you finish the bottom, move on to the row below it and repeat.

4) Once you’ve covered the entire surface area, fill the container with fruit. We used grapes, blueberries and raspberries to match our color theme. If your container is deep and you’d like to give the contents some height, you can cut out some foam in the shape of your container and put it inside your box before you put the contents.

 5) Place on your Thanksgiving table et voila! Don’t feel restricted by using only fruit. This can make a beautiful candy dish too!

I’d love to see any pictures if you decide to make this project. Please send any pictures to my editor: Karell@prestonbailey.com.