DIY Drink Stirrers

Ya'll know I love a good DIY.
My sister Laura's bachelorette party was the perfect excuse to flex my craftiness muscle!

I was so happy with the way that her invitations turned out.  They had a blue and orange color scheme.  The blue was a standard part of the invitation (ordered from Vistaprint) and I customized some of the text to make it orange -- a nod to Laura's alma mater, Clemson University.

Since a few adult beverages would be part of her celebratory weekend, I decided to make some drink stirrers to match the colors of the invitation. 

First step: gather your materials.  I used wooden cooking skewers, gingham ribbon, scissors, glue, and some small pruning shears. 

Disregard the small saw in the photo below; originally, I thought it would work well, but I ended up preferring the pruners to do the job.

Snip the pointy end off of the skewer with your pruning shears, and then snip the skewer in half.  This will give you small-sized stirrers.

Decide how long you want the tails of your ribbon to be, and then start cutting ribbon in the lengths you'll need to create the ties.

Fold your ribbon in half and place it behind the skewer.

Take the tails of the ribbon and feed them through the loop.

Before sliding upwards, put a little bit of glue on the top of the skewer.  Then just slide the ribbon up, tighten, and press into place.  This will ensure that the ribbon doesn't slide down.

I also decided to add a little notch to the end of the ribbons, which you can see in the top photo.

Next thing you know, you'll have a lot of cute stirrers that fit a small glass perfectly!

I'm sure this won't be the last time I make these.  The project took maybe an hour at tops.  I could see doing these in all pinks or all blues for a baby shower, in wedding colors to give to reception bartenders to stick in drinks, and at birthday parties too.

How would you style your stirrers?