I love scrapbooking with ribbon but storing it has proved challenging. When I only had a few rolls, I kept them in a plastic shoe box, but I very quickly out grew that. Next I hung them on dowels so that I could just unroll and cut off the amount I wanted. My cat loved that! I soon got tired of finding my ribbons all unrolled! They also got dusty.
Next I placed my scrapbook ribbon in the top of my sterlite sewing bucket. That worked pretty well, but again I quickly outgrew it.
Recently I found a very inexpensive plastic ribbon box that you assemble. You put the ribbon rolls inside on little dowels, then stick the ends of the ribbons out through holes in the sides. It is very compact and holds quite a few rolls. Plus it keeps the dust off better than the open dowel system I was using.
It is a bit awkward getting the ribbons in initially, but not too bad. Overall I like it, but it isn't very strong - I wouldn't stack anything on them. You could actually make one out of a shoebox, but it wouldn't be very strong either. Its not something I would want to take to a crop as the lid will come off easily and dump all your hard work.
I did some searching and found a couple of options that look promising. First is the Cropper Hopper Ribbon Revealer. It looks sturdy and the drawer slides into it's case making it unlikely to dump your ribbons. It hold up to 36 rolls too, which is more than the one I have holds. I like that the ribbons stay organized and won't get tangled. You can find it at Scrapbook.com. Just click on the store tab, then do a search for ribbon organizers and it should come up.
For my ribbons that are not on spools I rolled them up and put them in one of those divided plastic boxes you can find in the fishing tackle dept. Although it's a pretty good and inexpensive solution, it does have a drawback for me. Everytime I want to use a ribbon, I have to spend a little time rerolling the ribbon back up to replace it in the box and I have to roll it just right for it to fit in.
In searching for ribbon organizers, I found another solution also at Scrapbook.com. It is a ribbon purse organizer and comes in black, pink, purple and blue. It looks like you just throw your loose ribbons in and thread them through to the outside. I think I am going to get me one of these. I like the handle too so I can just grab it and go.
It also comes in a preloaded version with 50 yards of ribbon (now that's a lot of ribbon!). If you are just starting out and need a nice assortment of ribbon, this just might do it for you.
I will try to post more tomorrow if I can find time to do a little more organizing.
Happy Scrappin!
