Actually, I don't have any idea what that broad ivory ribbon I used to bind this box is made of, but “ivory satin” sounded good. (Come to think of it, the ribbon almost certainly isn't satin, but it is a very pretty off white fabric, as opposed to plastic, ribbon.) This is a fairly early example of what I think of as “flowers sticking up” designs. Only, this flower didn't really want to stick up. I tried inserting a piece of heavy (16 ga?) wire in the stem, which made it rigid; however when I glued it to the box the flower promptly flopped over.

It should be obvious to anyone who's read very much on this site that engineering is not one of my strong suits. However, I finally got the flower to more or less stand up straight by making a spiral on the other end (bottom) of the stem. This provided surface area and a stable (e.g. wide) enough base for the hot glue to actually hold the flower in place. Kind of. Long enough to get it to its recipient, anyway.

One of the things I like about gift decorating is that I don't really have to concern myself about the durability of the technique, a major issue, say, in beadstringing.

Materials: ivory and white wedding paper, fabric and curling ribbons, silk flowers, one reinforced with copper wire, a wire and gauze butterfly, netting, paper leaf. Tools: hot glue gun, scissors, pliers, ribbon ripper.

Unless otherwise noted, text, image and objects depicted therein copyright 1996--present sylvus tarn.