Our family spent our fall break in Park City, Utah, and while we were there, I noticed that many homes and businesses had these cute ribbons hanging in their windows or on their doors. The prize ribbons were apparently given by the Park City Museum to homes or businesses that won awards. They were all different colors, and I found myself looking for them as we were out. These ribbons reminded me that I had seen a photo on Pinterest of some prize ribbons that someone had made just for fun. My wheels started spinning and I knew I had to figure out a way to make these festive awards!

I discovered that there is an actual “ribbon maker” that you can buy on Amazon. It took quite a bit of trial and error, but once I got the hang of it, I could make them quickly! Now I can say that I am slightly obsessed with making these! The color combinations, the ribbon types, the pieces of trim used, all of it makes these so much fun to make! Since it is Christmas time while I’m sharing this craft, I decided to use these ribbons as tags for my presents this year! And as an added bonus, the recipient can then hang it on their Christmas tree as an ornament! You can also add a pin to the back and make it wearable! I’ll share all my tips and tricks below!

Materials

For the complete list of products I purchased from Amazon, you can click HERE.
Ribbon Maker. I found this three pack from Amazon, and I thought the sizes were great. I bought a smaller one separately, and I found it difficult to use.
Ribbon. You’ll need a lot of ribbon! I found that I preferred ribbon that was 5/8”-1” in width. I tried smaller ribbon, and it was also a bit difficult. I also found that traditional grosgrain, satin, and organza worked best in the maker. If you want to use a thicker ribbon, I would recommend not using the maker and trying the non-maker method. You can find a few of the ribbons I like on my Amazon list, but I also bought ribbon from Michael’s, Hobby Lobby, and Walmart. The ribbon doesn’t need to be expensive!
Wood Circles. I wanted to make the center firm, and I wanted to make my life easier by buying pre-made circles. You can always use cardboard as well. These are the circles I used, and it comes with other sizes as well for other projects. I mostly used the largest and second largest sizes.
Fabric. I glued fabric to the wood circles to add more pattern. You can always paint the circles if you would prefer. I have a collection of fabric that I have purchased from local stores, but I also bought this sampler pack of fabric from Amazon that comes with many colors and patterns.
Felt. I like a firmer felt for this project, as this will be on the backside and you want that to stay fairly structured. Color doesn’t matter, but I like adding cute colors when possible. This pack will give you plenty for future crafts too.
Hot Glue. I always say how much I love this cordless mini glue gun! It’s so nice to not be tied down to an outlet!
School glue. I only use hot glue in this tutorial for times sake, but I would recommend using school glue to glue the fabric to the wood circle to avoid any bumps under the fabric.
Trims and ribbons for the tails. I honestly used ribbons and trims from my scrap jar for most of the ribbon tails. I would recommend having a larger width ribbon for the bottom layer of the tails - something like an inch or 1.5” ribbon.
Embossing Label Maker & Neon Tape. I looooove my embossing label maker. I honestly use it any time I need a gift tag. Something about that little embossed label makes a gift all the more fun. Here is a link to an embosser and to neon tape, which is just so fun. You may need to hot glue the labels to the fabric, depending on the strength of the adhesive, but it’s still worth it for the cute label.

How To

This project is an easier one to watch than to try to explain, so I have a little video showing how to use the ribbon maker. Feel free to give this a watch to see the whole process from start to finish.

You can view the video directly from YouTube HERE.

A few tips and tricks:

Use the maker that makes sense for your ribbon. The largest maker is best for large ribbon. The medium and smaller makers can use a variety of ribbon sizes, but you’ll probably need to start a thinner ribbon halfway down the maker to ensure that it covers the plastic tabs in the center.
Flip all of the tabs so that they are overlapping in the same way. Bottom right corner should be under the tab to the right. This is VERY important as it keeps the pleats facing the same way.
Grosgrain, Satin, Organza, and Faux silk all work well. Don’t use anything too thick.
Avoid wired ribbon.
Don’t use velvet ribbon with the ribbon maker. It is too thick and sticks to itself making it hard to feed through.
Make sure you have enough ribbon for the ribbon maker. It does take quite a bit of ribbon to make these. You’ll probably need about five feet or so to be safe.
Be careful not to get hot glue on the maker! I made this mistake the first time I tried it, and I couldn’t remove the ribbon from the maker. It was totally ruined and I had to throw both away. Make sure all of the ribbon in the center is covering the plastic tabs and that no glue touches any of the plastic.
Your center circles (both the wood and the felt) need to be big enough to hold all of the ribbon in place. If you use a circle that is too small or if you don’t use enough hot glue, you may not hold all of the pleats in place and it may come apart.
Carefully push the ribbon through the center of the maker to avoid breaking the maker. If any pleats did happen to miss getting glued, you can carefully try to fold them back into place, then add a little glue to the felt and wood to secure.
Hot glue your labels to the fabric to ensure that they stick.
To add a piece of yarn for a hanger, add some hot glue to the felt on the back, stick your yarn or ribbon ends in the glue, and cover with another piece of small felt.
I would recommend giving the maker a few practice runs to get the feel of pushing the ribbon through each slit. Your fingers will get the hang of it after doing it a few times!
If the maker really isn’t wanting to cooperate, just use ribbon and hot glue! you can make pleats around the wood circle and glue it into place. This uses far less ribbon, so it is a great option if you have smaller lengths of ribbon.

I really can’t get enough of making these prize ribbons! They were almost therapeutic in a way, as I was able to be thoughtful about which colors, patterns, and textures went well together. I think this is a project that I will keep making all year!