Desigining Wreath Kits & Traveling Wreath Courses!!

Wreath Kits, Where Did It All Start & Why?

Simply Ribbons started 16 years ago in a Cattle Shed up near the Waterfall in Llanrhaeadr - rural Wales. From very humble beginnings the company and its products have grown and changed with the times.  

From simply offering plain coloured ribbons on reels, we now supply a whole host of products for every use you can imagine. We provide traditional wedding ribbons, cut lengths for book bindings, bag handles, ribbons for medical equipment, printed packaging ribbons and even hospital death tags!  

One of our largest areas of growth has been the development of ribbon crafting kits. This started around 2017 when one of our staff suggested making a ribbon version of a rag wreath. This is where traditionally you would tie scraps of material around a metal hoop to form a fabric wreath.  

With the combination of colours and patterns that we had available in the warehouse, we experimented replacing rags with patterned ribbon on a wire frame, this worked well and it was not long before we had a couple of extremely attractive designs on offer on our website.  

But would they sell, would people like them as much as we did?

Our worries were quickly put to rest and these new kits started to sel. We gradually introduced more options and designs, since the kits only needed a sharp pair of scissors to complete them, they appealed to a wider age range.  

Covid Help Us Focus On New Ways To Craft ! 

When Covid hit in 2019 we decided to offer a rainbow wreath kit, and this proved to be extremely popular due to its therapeutic creative process. Customers found it to be very satisfying to have created a beautiful object that could be displayed on front doors and fences to show support for the NHS.  Whilst giving them a focus on making something positive during the ample spare time that they had.

We had groups of people of all ages starting to form little online meetings via zoom with a wreath kit and making them together as a socially distanced craft group event! We were inundated with photos of people's creations which were fantastic to see and share.  

As times moved on and covid passed we were met with numerous requests by groups, Womens institutes, care homes and companies asking is we could run events for them using the wreath and garland making courses for social and team building sessions.  

This is something that the staff at Simply Ribbons relished and rose to the challenge and opportunity to leave the warehouse and travel around facilitating some fun events throughout the local counties.  

Travelling Courses & Fund Raising Events

Last November saw an event hosted by the Friends of Shrewsbury NHS trust for around 50, with the aim of raising funds for the Hospital by selling tickets to the course.   

This was very typical of the sort of event that we now get involed with running to help organisations and charities raise much-needed funds. It also gives those taking part a unique experience and a trophy of their personal achievements from the day by way of their finished wreath.  

We have hosted everything from small groups of ten friends meeting at a local pub, to residents of a care home with dementia, to large team building sessions for 200 staff. The beauty of this type of craft is that it can be adapted to the group. It can be made remarkably simple and straight forward, or more complicated. There is no right or wrong with the assembly of the wreaths and garlands. So long as you can tie a knot then you cannot go far wrong.   

We have recently launched some new additions to our wreath ranges, with the themes of Autumn, Halloween, and Christmas in mind. The new designs when compared to the ones we launched in 2017 have come a long way and look stunning.  

If you're looking for a unique way to raise funds by way of an event for your Group, School or Charity or just an idea for a social event for your friends, why not give us a call and chat with Jo, she can give you an idea of what we can do, and who knows, you might end up with your very own self-made Christmas Wreath Kit to display...