Lamp Shade Bow Holder

This has been such a handy and eye pleasing craft -- I am really happy with it!
This lamp doubles as a bow holder, and I used ribbon to match the colors in my girls' room - so it fits right in with the decor!

After seeing this post at This Present Life, I immediately kept my eye open for a lamp shade and lamp base that would work....

Tada!! 

Ugly, right??  I picked this beauty up at a garage sale for $1 - because it had just what I needed - a metal framed lamp shade.  These are actually rather hard to find in regular stores.  You might have to go thrifting to find one... 

After ripping off the fabric, it required a good long scrub with some steel wool to get the rust off, and then a couple of coats of spray paint.  The lamp base got the spray paint too, and some sand paper distressing:

The Present Life has a good explanation on covering the metal shade with ribbon.  I had wanted to put my ribbon on horizontally, but that does not work very well.  Best to keep the ribbons running vertically - but as you can see here, I used 3 different kinds of ribbon, and spaced mine pretty close together...

All these bows clip right onto the ribbon.  It makes for really easy access, the bows are really easy to see (in order to pick the exact right color!), they are easy to put back, and the lamp actually works if I want!

I have tried out quite a few different bow holders - and I really think this one is going to stick! ;)  It is working great!

Check out these parties I often link up to!