Being fifty-something, I’m nothing if not persistent.

The horror of my near-death-by-scrapbooking experience is slowly fading. So much so that last weekend I climbed back into the crafting saddle … boots and all.

Inspired by the lithe young gymnasts at the London Olympics, I resolved to attempt a gymnast’s ribbon wand as a gift for my Great Niece, Miss E, for her third birthday.

In fact, I decided to triple up the fun and make three ribbon sticks so Miss E’s siblings, 4-year old Miss A and 1-year old Master S, didn’t miss out on the fun.

I checked out some online DIYs, and it all seemed easy enough, so I took a deep breath … and gathered my materials.

Wooden dowels, ribbon (3 metres for each), screw-in eyelets and “spinners” – I upcycled mine from some old swipe card clips. You can also source spinners at fishing tackle suppliers.

I sprayed the dowels (each about 30cm long) with silver paint. No such thing as too much bling.

For each dowel, I screwed in an eyelet, split the ring on the spinner to attach it to the eyelet before threading the ribbon through the other split ring and stitching it firm.

I sealed the long end of the ribbon by holding it a few centimetres above a flame, for just a few seconds.

Tadah! Three ribbon wands, not quite of Olympic proportions, but certainly fun enough to entertain three little cuties for a few hours. I added a book and sweet little notelets, a hand-made card and I was satisfied with another crafty gift, wrapped and in the bag.

Well, not quite satisfied.

I was feeling pretty comfy in the saddle so I risked another project (without dismounting). Remember all those vintage Fowler’s Vacola jars my sister K presented my with? I upcycled six of them into Candles in the Wind … one for each of the ladies at the birthday celebrations, each complete with personalised leather initials/motifs.

That’s six Fowler’s jars down. Ninety-four to go.

The ribbon wands were a hit with the little-uns at the recent family birthday gathering.

Even Master S got in on the act to give us a ribbon wanding performance.

Not all went perfectly to plan. Seems the girls had caught some of the fencing competition during the Olympics broadcast … because there was a little light-hearted hit-me-with-your-ribbon-stick action. No one was hurt. Yes, there were tears.

And one of the eyelets kept finding its way loose under the pressure of all that twirling. Miss E got very adept at just twisting it back in and getting on with the show.

Some of mum’s “good” glue would fix it for good.

A little crafter in the making.

I think she got it from her mum (my niece E) who created a fabulous birthday cake for event. How clever is she?

Here we are (me on the far left) blowing out the candles with my fellow birthday buddies at our annual August/September birthday celebration.

That’s fifty-three down … and many, many more to go.

(And if you haven’t got “Hit me with your ribbon stick” playing in your head all day long, I have failed. Hit me. Hit me.)