How to Use Ribbon to Decorate Your Christmas Tree

Today's tutorial is one that is hard to find - How to decorate using ribbon on your Christmas Tree.  I wasn't sure exactly how to do it "just right" and went searching online.  I could hardly find anything!  I tried using different search words - How to drape ribbon on a Christmas tree, Tips for using ribbon on a Christmas tree, and so on.  So my engineer hubby and I played around and came up with method and we love it.  Thought I'd share it!

First, choose 2-3 different wire-edged ribbons in colors that make you happy.  This year, we are doing a lavender/purple/eggplant/silver decor theme and found these ribbons at Sam's Club.  But don't forget to check online for coupons and ads to places like Michael's, Hobby Lobby, etc.  NEVER pay full price!  What isn't on sale this week WILL be on sale soon. 

You will need:

Ribbon - I used 3 different types, but you can use how many you choose

Floral wire

Small wire cutters/wire snips

Look at your tree and decide how many sections you will need.   We have a 7.5 foot slim tree and I had an idea how "wide" I wanted my ribbon trails to spread out, so we decided on 4 sections for the entire tree.  This will make sense as I go.  If you have a wider, fuller tree, you will need many more than 4 sections if you want to saturate with ribbon.  You may only want a little bit of ribbon - it is all personal taste.  

This is the BASE of my decor - I won't be using garland or any other "stringing" items.  This ribbon is my first layer.

I also knew that I wanted my ribbon tails to hang down slightly to the right, all the way around.  Not straight down.  If you look at the finished photo, you will see the tilt to the ribbon.

Take each ribbon end and fold in half to cut the edge, like so:

Decide what order you want your ribbon in:

After deciding the order, lay them on top of each other like this:

Let your ribbon form a circle - the wire-edged ribbon will do this naturally.

Put the ribbon in your hand as so, making a loop with a tail.  You can make this tail as short or long as you would like.  This tail will be at the top of the tree, so if you would like a long tail sticking up, make it longer.  We decided on this length for our tree.

Squeeze the center of the wire loop:

Cut a length of the floral wire to use to attach the ribbon to the tree:

Take this wire and wrap it around the crunched area of the loop:

Twist the wire around each other to secure it.  This is my husband holding the loop by the wire only.

Fluff your loop and twist and arrange the ribbon tails.

Now, attach this ribbon loop near the top of the tree with the wire.  You will do this repeatedly with how ever many loops you decide to use, so space them appropriately.

Now you will have your 3 tails streaming down the tree, loose.   To decide how much ribbon you need, let the ribbon hang down below the tree stems and add about 2-3 feet beyond the length of the tree, then cut.  You will need the ribbon cut off the bolts to continue.  You can always cut off ribbon if you have too much, rather than if you have too little.

First thing now is to form the first "loop".  You will alternate the loops with the "crunches".

After you make the first loop, crunch the ribbon and wrap a tree stem around it.  If you have a real tree, use additional wire to attach, or loop the ribbon around the tree stem. 

The trick to making it beautiful is to alternate your loops with crunches with each color.  Can you see in the photos that the loops and crunches alternate?

This is what it looks like at the top - so pretty!  You can continue to "fluff" the loops and tails to your liking.  This is going to look great with our tree topper items with these ribbon loops intermixed.

And here is how it looks full length view.

The tree is now ready for the ornaments and other items!  Those tutorials upcoming.  Enjoy!

I will be linking up the THESE Linking Parties.  Please visit them to see many more projects!


Have a glorious day!