Making a ribbon shaker for children

This idea came to me when I looked at a web site that sold a variety of craft items. I saw how this piece of wood was shaped and realised what I could do with it.

I use what the catalogue from Craft Depot calls 3 1/2 inch shaker pegs. I then cut up lengths of ribbon used for gift wrapping also known as narrow florists ribbon. The first time I made them, I measured them against a particular store leaflet I received every couple of weeks, because they had used that size for many years, only for them to change the size of their leaflet immediately afterwards. However, they were about 2 ft (60 cm) long.

I glued them around the indented edge of the wood. My first attempt used paper glue, but this did not prove to be very child proof, (they managed to pull off the ribbons). Next time I used some stronger glue. This was harder as it was more liquid and had to be left until tacky so the ribbons would stay on. Having an elastic band wrapped around the handle ready to be pushed up to hold on the ribbons while the glue set proved very helpful.

There are various ways of placing the ribbons, especially for one that represents fire using red and yellow ribbons. You can use one layer red and one layer yellow or alternate red and yellow around the peg, with the next row having the other colour on top.

Once the ribbons have been stuck on, a piece of ribbon is wrapped around the area where the ribbons have been stuck on to make it look tidier.