This may be a dumb question, but here goes!
I was wondering if their was a machine our PTO could purchase to make ribbons for track and field day and other things. They are getting expensive to buy. As much as we need ribbons, we would be better of making them ourselves.

Thanks,
KSP

KSP- Wow! Neat idea! I don't know if there is such a thing either, but if there is, I'd love the info too!

I do not know if this will help. May be too time consuming but... I do not see why you could not purchase and cut down to size ribbon. Then have a rubber stamp made for whatever you want on them. (Maybe school logo and let the color of the ribbon indicate what place) The stamp and fabric paint may cost at first but you would have the stamp forever.

I have a friend whose 12 yr old daughter is in a small, private school. For an arts festival every year they give hand made "ribbons". They consist of paper cut into a "ribbon" shape (rounded on top, straight sides going down to 2 pointed ends). They have a nice design going down the sides (kid's design, computer generated, whatever...), school logo on top. Then they laminated them & handwrote the specific information, probably w/ a "Sharpie" type pen. They looked REALLY nice, not cheap looking at all!! I was impressed & thought it was a great ideas. They make sure every kid gets a ribbon, so they make up the categories accordingly ("Best original use of color and texture", etc....).

I believe the process is called "hot stamping" and the imprint machines use heat and pressure to apply foil designs to an item. It can be used on ribbons, books, napkins, matchbook covers, etc. I checked into it once, but it wasn't worth the time and effort for that particular (work) project. As I recall, the machines are $1200-$2000. If anyone checks this out further, I'd love to hear details. Two of my top questions would be the cost of the supplies (ribbons, foil, dies, custom artwork)and how many ribbons could be produced in what amount of time. I don't have any first hand knowledge of the machines or who's best, but here are a few links to sellers of the equipment:
http://www.jasonsystems.com/ http://www.thriftyimpressions.com/hotstamp.ht http://www.howardimprinting.com/ http://www.officezone.com/foilfaq.htm