Easy Ribbon and Bead Bracelets – Video Tutorial

Good morning!  I’m trying something a little different today as part of the craftyhangouts.com team, and I’ve got a fun, fast patriotic project craft-along video to share with you today!  You can learn how to make these ribbon and bead bracelets sponsored by The Ribbon Retreat.  I was sent a stash of fabulous ribbon to create this tutorial for you – take a look at what I’m going to show you how to make!

Let me back up a moment and say, if you haven’t heard of Crafty Hangouts, it’s a group of bloggers working with themed supplies, all showing you on video how to make a series of projects.  If you enjoyed tuning in with me and Tara for Crafty Hour, you’re actually going to love this – it’s really similar.  Instead of tuning in live with Q&A on Friday nights (a night we discovered many of you were quite busy), they’re pre-recorded on Google+ and available on YouTube.  I’ll be sharing my project here with you today, but all week long, you can go to craftyhangouts.com to catch tutorials from other great bloggers going up throughout the day, all week long (6-16-6/20).  You don’t have to tune in live; you can check out the series anytime that’s convenient for you.

I think this is actually a great collaboration – because how many times do you buy a new crafty item for one project and think, “great, but now what do I do with all the rest of this?”  Well – you can get TONS of inspiration straight from the brains of other talented ladies.   You don’t need much to make today’s project, and your kids can even help!

For this project, I am using 3/8″ ribbon (but any width under an inch will work well).  I used about 40 inches, though this will vary on the size of your beads and the size of the wrist you’re making this for.  Let me advise you to cut it long; you can always trim it off if you get too much.  The beads you choose should have a large hole (like pony beads, or these fun sparkly beads) – aim for a 3mm hole.  Then, you just need scissors.  Let me show you how – this video is only about 6 minutes long!

And yes, if you tuned in just now, I did say I quit my job and I’m working from home now!  (That’s been lots of fun.  I don’t think I truly realized how stressed I was at my old job until these past few days without it.  I feel fantastic, inspired, and full of ideas.)  I love sitting down in front of the camera with you guys for a craft-along, it’s great to craft and share what’s new with me.  What’s new with you?

When you’re out on social media, you can say hello to The Ribbon Retreat on Facebook, Twitter, or search the hashtag #ribbonHOA to find great how-to videos using ribbon from The Ribbon Retreat!  They are also offering a coupon code good for your order placed before 9/30/14 – just visit their online store and enter code CH10 for a 10% discount!

Let’s hang out again soon!