Have you been following all the buzz around the first annual Country Living Blue Ribbon Blogger Awards? It was super exciting when the winners were announced last week and each flown to New York for a special award ceremony at the Hearst Tower, home to Country Living magazine.

Here are the winners and their categories- a really dynamic group of women and a great list of blogs to bookmark!

• Crafts: Rachel Garza of Always A Project
• Decorating: Wendy Hyde of The Shabby Nest
• Collecting: Beth Styles of Secondhand With Style
• Gardening: Linda Ly of Garden Betty
• Lifestyle: Aimee Carpenter of Crafty Farm Girl
• Food : Sydney Kramer of Crepes of Wrath
• Pets: Melissa Caughey of Tilly’s Nest

Each winner was presented with their own customized blue ribbons in a beautiful glass cloche.

Photo courtesy of Rachel Garza of Always A Project

I thought you might enjoy a little behind the scenes of the ribbons themselves and how I made them for the event.

For the rosette centerpieces, I designed the text images with each winners’ blog name and printed them to paper. I sprayed each sheet with Krylon Clear Satin Finish. I then ran them through my Xyron Create a Sticker machine to give each sheet an adhesive backing.I trimmed each graphic out,

and adhered them to button badge forms. The forms came from the party section of Michael’s. I simply disassembled each, removed the existing graphic/paper and replaced it with mine.For the rosettes, I started with royal blue satin fabric strips. I folded and pressed them lengthwise and stitched them into pleats on my sewing machine. I used my European stapler to attach the pleated satin around a disk of cardstock.For the next layer of ribbon, I printed out circles with position lines on them. This helped me with placement of each ribbon petal.I took even cuts of blue satin ribbon, folded each over and pleated at the bottoms to create the petals. I then stapled each around the disk, centering at the lines.I cut tailpieces from two different widths of satin ribbon and layering them with the other pieces, hot glued everything together. I finished the backs with a fabric covered cardboard drink coaster. Before adhering the back on, I tucked in a ring for hanging made from the round end piece of a gold-filled toggle clasp used for jewelry.And finally, I used a piece of clear tape to remove all signs of hot glue threads.I made one extra (above) for archival purposes.

Congratulations to all the Country Living Blue Ribbon Bloggers!!