Bias tape

I love ribbon. And I love vintagy stuff. So I was excited by the little treat my mom bought for me recently at the local Goodwill. She said "I got you a bag of ribbon for a dollar." Well as it turned out, it was a bag of bias tape, made from some very neat vintage fabrics.

What is bias tape used for? I should know, I took a home ec sewing class in high school, and I do a little sewing still, but I don't remember what bias tape is for. Seems like it is for strengthening seams or hems. I think it would make some really great welting (piping) for pillows.

This weekend I used a little of the red on a Christmas card:

The tree is a new stamp I got at the Enchanted Cottage, a local stamp and scrapbooking store. I embossed it with the new white fine detail embossing powder from PTI on white cardstock. Then I inked over it with PTI Spring Moss. I stamped directly on the bias tape with a dot stamp from Inkadinkado's Tree set and sentiment from PTI's Take a Bough. Ink and small buttons are from Joann, PP is from K&Co, cardstock from paperandmore.com, and bigger button from the flea market.