Ballet pointe shoes with crossed ribbons and roses coloring page

Ribbon-Tied Ballet Shoes with Roses

Two pointe shoes stand toe-to-toe, their long ribbons looping above a cluster of roses and pointed leaves.

🎨 How to color it

Color the satin pointe shoes blush pink, the looping ribbons soft lavender, the roses deep coral, and the leaves sage green. Use sharp colored pencils for the narrow ribbon overlaps and rose spirals, then switch to light side-strokes on the broad shoe fronts. Try making each ribbon darker where it crosses behind another, so the woven loops look tucked and secret.

The story behind this coloring page

The Ribbon Nobody Saw — In the hush under Platform Nine’s iron roof, Sloane pressed a lavender ribbon flat in her pocket and listened for the tap-tap of the traveling ballet wagon. Read the full story →

In the hush under Platform Nine’s iron roof, Sloane pressed a lavender ribbon flat in her pocket and listened for the tap-tap of the traveling ballet wagon. She needed rosin before the station-clock rehearsal; without it, her shoes would squeak across the boards like mice in a flour bin. The ribbon was only a ribbon, unless you knew it had tied her grandmother’s first ballet shoes.

A gust smelling of rain and coal smoke rolled through. Near the luggage scale, a younger dancer tugged at a snapped shoe strap, cheeks hot, eyes shining hard. Nobody else noticed; everyone was busy with trunks and tickets. Sloane’s fingers closed around the ribbon. Rosin first, she thought. Then the dancer whispered, “I can’t go on.”

So Sloane stepped out from the warm wall, paid her small price, and tied the lavender ribbon into two strong loops. The girl ran off with silent feet. Later, Sloane danced on squeaky shoes and found the sound made her braver, not smaller. If you ever spot crossed ribbons beside roses, keep the secret: one of them may be holding up someone else’s dance.