I don't know about anyone else, but during my busier times, I end up getting so involved in making items, that my craft supply storage area gets pretty messy. Spools of ribbon seem to give me a hard time with storage. For some of the stuff I make, I need to be able to easily access the entire spool of ribbon instead of just cutting off a measured length from the spool. This ends up eliminating a lot of ribbon storage possibilities, since the spool isn't easily accessible in many of them. Additionally, many of the ribbon storage solutions are pretty pricey, and like many other crafters, I have a lot of ribbon, so those expensive options become extremely expensive when you have to buy several.
After looking for the ideal storage, I came up with a simple solution. The whole project cost less than $10, and I should be able to store almost all of my ribbon! Plus, it took less than 15 minutes of actual work (not including the time for the glue to dry). Here was my solution!
In order to make these, here's what you'll need:
- Dowel Rods (I bought 0.25" diameter - 10 for $1.19!)
- Wooden Plaques (I bought 3.5"x5.5" from the wood section at the craft store - $0.57 each!)
- Wood glue
- Drill
- Drill bit the size of the dowel rod
- Paper towels (some dry and some dampened with water)
- Tape (optional)
- Scrap piece of wood to use as a drilling surface (optional)
To start, I took a trip to the craft store to get all my supplies. I bought a pack of 10 dowel rods and 10 wooden plaques in order to make 10 ribbon holders. Here are some photos of the dowels and plaques I bought. There was quite a large selection of plaques available, but these seemed to be the nicest looking for the price (I wasn't trying to get too fancy!).
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| Dowel Rods: Pack of 10, 0.25" diameter, and 12" long |
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| Wooden Plaques: 3.5"x5.5" |
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I marked the center of each of the wooden plaques. I did this by placing a ruler from corner to corner and marking an "X" at the center.
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| Wooden plaque with center marked |
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| Where I placed the ruler to mark the center of each plaque |
After marking the center, the next step is to drill a hole where it's marked (the same diameter as your dowel rod). I did this with the help of my dad, since he's super good at this stuff - I knew that it would take me much longer than it would take him. :) It was also helpful to have a second person to help make sure the drill bit was completely vertical to avoid drilling a crooked hole. A crooked hole would make the dowel rod "lean," causing your ribbon spools to also "lean."
We didn't want to drill the whole way through the base of the plaque (just a preference, drilling the whole way through would work, too!). In order to avoid drilling the whole way through, we placed the drill bit next to the plaque and placed a piece of tape on the drill bit at the depth we wanted to drill. This "marked" where we needed to stop when drilling our hole. This is optional! Just make sure that the portion of the drill bit below the tape is not longer than the height of the plaque, or else you'll drill the whole way through.
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| Drilling the holes - note the piece of tape that told us where to stop |
After drilling the holes, we filled each hole with wood glue. Then we placed a dowel rod in each hole. The excess glue will leak out the top, but we'll easily fix this later. It's important to make sure there's extra glue in the hole, as opposed to not enough, to make sure that all of the inside surfaces have glue. You can even carefully turn the dowel rod once it's been placed in the hole to make sure every surface is covered with glue.
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| Pouring the glue |
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| Inserting the dowel rod (and carefully turning a bit to cover all surfaces with glue) |
Next we have to take care of the extra glue. First, wipe off the extra glue with a dry paper towel to get rid of as much as possible. Then finish wiping the remainder off with a damp paper towel to ensure a clean surface.
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| Remove excess glue with dry paper towel |
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| Remove excess glue with damp paper towel |
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Now that everything is assembled and cleaned up, the ribbon holders can be left out to dry overnight (or however long is specified on your wood glue packaging). After the glue is dry, you can apply any finishes that you'd like (stain, paint, etc.). I decided to leave mine just the way they were, since I was looking for something very simple!
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| Drying ribbon holders |
Once everything has dried, add your spools of ribbon, and you're done! I hope you've enjoyed this tutorial!
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| Finished ribbon holders! |
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