Craft Your Own Christmas... Cards

Its getting closer and closer to December and I am barely able to contain myself! I haven't started wrapping yet, but I (like a lot of people) have made many preparations. One of which includes making my own Christmas Cards. Now I did do this last year, and clearly haven't learned from my mistake, as I am again making more work for myself - I simply can't help it!

Feel free to check out my cards from last year here.

So... I thought I would share with you lovely people a few of the card ideas I have had for this year. There is nothing more personal than a handmade gift and I love browsing through others' creations so please share yours with me too.

I recently bought a couple of jars chock-full of different buttons and couldn't wait to utilise them. This gave me the idea for my first card, which I will briefly show you how to create.
I have seen buttons used many times for various projects, and thought a Christmas card would be the perfect opportunity to try out my own creation - a Christmas Wreath. There is something pleasing, cutesy and rustic about the use of buttons - which I'm guessing is why they are so popular. 
In case you hadn't noticed, chevrons are also very popular within the design world at the moment! So I wanted to include some on my card for a 'more modern edge' - please excuse the cliche design talk.

I started with a blank card. These can be picked up from most stationary and craft retailers - usually in a pack of 10. I then marked out where I wanted my chevrons to be and drew them up. There was no particular method for this. I just made sure they were evenly zigzagged and evenly spaced.
I believe that Christmas is the perfect time to indulge in a bit of gold and so I purchased a small bottle of gold acrylic paint. Using an extremely fine paintbrush, I painted the chevrons. FYI, this paint will probably make you consider painting EVERYTHING gold. I honestly think it should come with a warning.

Once the chevrons are painted and dried, its time to move onto creating the wreath. Using a compass, draw a large circle in the centre of your card. Then draw a smaller one within your first circle. If you do not own a compass, simply draw around any circular object(s) you can use as a template. Then pick out green buttons in different sizes and shades - I feel this adds a little more depth to the design. It may take a bit of playing around to get it looking right, so don't stick any buttons down just yet.

When you are happy with your design, use blu-tak to pick the buttons up one by one, blob some glue on the card, and place the buttons back down in position. I find using blu-tak makes positioning the buttons easier, as your fingers don't get in the way. I just used Bostik all-purpose, extra strong glue.

I have found that due to the weight of the buttons, the card held itself better when stood landscape. Its worth thinking about these things when choosing the media you want to work with.

Tip: Its very easy to knock your design out of place, so I recommend taking a photo of your design when the buttons are in place so you can refer back to it when sticking them down.

I finished off my wreath with a cute bow. I picked a pack of these up from Hobbycraft (of course!) and think they work very well. Another finishing touch I think would look rather good is replacing some of the buttons with small red ones to represent berries within the wreath!

Take a look at some of the other designs I have created this year. All have been made from left-over wrapping paper, magazine cut-outs, paint, and other bits and pieces I found lying around.

Christmas Robot

A fun one, created from spare gift wrap originally purchased from NOTHS, winter-themed papers, a 'Happy Christmas' label from Hobbycraft, buttons, and a Santa hat made from scraps.

Festive Weave

Created using strips cut from festive and plain paper, then simply woven together, and all stuck down with double sided tape. The blank squares were then finished off with hand-sketched Christmas trees and wreaths. 

Geometric Bauble

Created by drawing up a geometric design and filling in with acrylic paint. Finished off with a bauble cut from red paper, a 'Merry Christmas' label from Hobbycraft, and a tartan bow (also from Hobbycraft). 

And there we have it! I do hope I have inspired you to create your own Christmas cards this year. Don't be scared to experiment with colour and pattern. Have fun with it and don't be afraid to be quirky - why shouldn't a robot wearing a Santa hat feature?! Also, make what you can with what you already have. It doesn't have to be an expensive project.

If I have inspired you, I would love to see your creations. 

Tweet me: @ZibZobHandmade

But with only a week left until December arrives, you had better get a wriggle on!

Stay Merry and Bright my Lovelies.

Zo..x

Little Christmas Stockings Tutorial

Its getting to that time of year again, and so naturally (like I'm sure a lot of you have) I have been getting ready for the festive season a few months in advance.
I have a few ideas this year for cards, wrapping, decorations etc. which I cannot wait to share with you all! However, I thought I would sart this Christmas off by showing you how to create your own personalised Christmas Stockings. Enjoy :)

What you will need:

- Festive Fabric
- Red, Green & White Felt
- Festive Ribbon - Green & Red
- Tartan Ribbon (or any other pattern of your choice)
- Red & Green Buttons
- Cross-Stitching Aida
- Black, Green & Red Embroidery Thread
- Red, Green & White Cotton Thread
- Dressmaker's Chalk
- Stocking Template
- Sewing Machine (if you have one)

Start by taking your template and drawing round it onto both your festive fabric and red and/or green felt with the dressmakers chalk. The festive fabric you choose is for the back of your stocking. The felt is for the front. 

It is important to remember that you will be losing around 1cm during the making of this stocking, so choose a template a little larger than how you want your finished stocking to look. I just chose a simple stocking outline off the internet and printed it off.
I wanted to add a white cuff to the front of the stocking. For this I created my own paper template - effectively just a simple rectangle! 
Then use this to cut out the cuff from your white felt.

To personalise the stockings, I used cross-stitch. Now if you've read any of my previous posts, you will know that I have some knowledge in this area! I love cross-stitch because it looks handmade, it looks personal, and this is the finish I wanted. These stockings were actually Christmas gifts filled with goodies for the girls at work, so each one had their name embroidered onto the front of it. Around this time of year, all craft magazines have festive patterns and ideas in them. I chose a simple holly design from one of them, along with a letter pattern for embroidering the names. 




Once stitched, you need to trim down the aida around your design ready to sew into the front of your stocking.

Before sewing the front of your stocking to the back of it, you need to add all of your decoration to it. On these particular ones I added a white felt cuff with tartan ribbon trim, the personalised cross-stitched square, and red & green buttons.
To do this, take your tartan ribbon, and cut it to size. Lay it across your stocking somewhere towards the top, but far enough down so that when your white cuff is put on over the top, you can still see some of the ribbon - giving you your trim. Sew this ribbon into place and then do the same with the white felt cuff.

You then need to prep your stocking for the cross-stitched design. Cut a square into the centre of the stocking that is smaller than the square of aida. Then turn the front of your stocking over, place your cross-stitched design face-down over this square and secure into place with a blanket or applique stitch. This can be done by hand or machine.

Once you have finished embellishing the front, it is time to sew it to the back. Make sure you sew it so that the 'right' side of the festive fabric and the embellished side of your stocking front are on the inside.

Once all in place, sew the front and back together. Although its quicker (and sometimes neater) to use a sewing machine, hand stitching these little cuties will also work fine!

After it has been all sewn up, turn the stocking outside-in and have a look at what you have created. I finished mine off by hand-stitching a loop of ribbon into the top corner for hanging. After all, a stocking isn't worth having at Christmas if you can't hang it by the fire!

Voila!

So have a go at making your own Christmas Stockings. They don't take long and you can experiment with a world of different fabrics, patterns and embellishments to make yours unique. They also make a lovely, personal gift!

Shopping List

White, red & green felt - www.amazon.co.uk

Festive fabric - www.myfabrichouse.co.uk

Festive ribbon - www.amazon.co.uk

Buttons (1 mixed pack) - www.amazon.co.uk

Tartan ribbon - ASDA Supermarket

Aida & embroidery thread - Hobbycraft

I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial and that I have inspired you to have a go. Get a wriggle on though, it'll be here before you know it!

Stay Merry and Bright!
Zo..x

Weekend Project

Hello everybody and Happy Sunday! We all live for the weekend, and when it arrives (finally) we each like to relax(ish) in our own little ways. I myself like working on little projects. This particular one was inspired by the creations in Kirsty Neale's book 'Hoop-la! - 100 Things To Do With Embroidery Hoops'. I purchased this little gem a few weeks ago and adore the creative ideas inside it. She really has thought outside the box - or hoop in this case! I thought I would share with you what I designed and made.

So after flicking through quite literally 100 things to do with embroidery hoops, I wanted to have a go at making my own. Knowing I had a spare hoop in my sewing box, I had a look through to see what else I had hiding in there. Deciding that I wanted to make it up as I went along, I just pulled out the key items I knew I wanted to use:

- Spare fat quarter of retro style fabric from 'Haberdasher's Hub' for the background

- Bright purple embroidery thread for covering the hoop

One thing that is explained in the book is different ways to cover your outer hoop to make the overall look tie in and more interesting. I loved this! 

I covered mine by wrapping embroidery thread around it, secured with double sided tape lining the inside of the hoop (as advised by Kirsty Neale). Although this was a little time consuming, the end result is so rewarding. I can't deny that it was also quite therapeutic.

Once this was finished, I picked out my favourite part of the fabric to display inside the hoop. In case you are not familiar, embroidery hoops are made up of an inner and outer hoop. To display fabric, you take your inner hoop, place it underneath the part of fabric you want to display, and then place your outer hoop over the top of the fabric. You then use a screw-driver to tighten the screw at the top of the outer hoop, which then pulls the outer hoop in and traps the fabric between the two. You then trim the excess fabric.

As you may have seen from previous posts, I love cross-stitching and so I wanted to incorporate a little embroidery into my design. I picked out certain parts of the pattern and followed them in corresponding threads using either back-stitch or satin-stitch. The photo above shows satin-stitch being started on the center of one of the flowers.

I then wanted to add a pop of colour and came across some fluorescent pink felt in my sewing box. Seeing as this was just a fun little decoration, I thought I would add my initial. I drew up a 'Z' template and then used it to cut out a pink felt 'Z' shape. I really feel that the pink works so well against the dark retro colours of the fabric. What do you think?

I could have removed the fabric from the hoop and machine sewn the 'Z' onto it. However, I was having fun just hand stitching and thought I would keep this consistent. So I back-stitched it on by hand instead. I really like the texture and detail the finishing touches add to the fabric and am so pleased with how its turned out. 
To finish off, I lined the inner hoop with some more double sided tape (to the back of the decoration) and stuck down the excess fabric to keep it looking neat.
The best thing is, this is something you can knock up in a weekend and is so fun to do. The design possibilities are endless too. I would love to see some of your versions!

Ta Dah!

Thank you Kirsty Neale for your wonderful inspirations! I cannot wait to get crafting me some more of these.

Next time you all have a free weekend, give this a go. It would be great for the kids as well I suspect. 

I usually find that some of my favourite items are those that I've made up as I've gone along - happy accidents if you will. This way of working is so much fun. Do you have any Happy Accidents you would like to share? Tweet them to me @ZibZobHandmade. I would love to see them!

I hope you enjoyed the read and that I've inspired you to do some crafting next Saturday.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend... Keep watching this space!

Zo..x

Inspiration: Living Area

I cannot believe how long it has been since I have last had a chance to sit down and type up a new blog post! Since the last time I was on here, I have got married - and all those handmade and handcrafted items have fulfilled their destiny and played their part in our special day!

Now that its all over (booooo!), I have been able to focus on my main passion and interest in life. I have been able to think about interiors, furniture, and how I would like our first home to look. I know my favourite room to design will be the Living Area, so I couldn't help but look into this first. And (if you're interested) I thought I would share my ideas with you lovely people.

Now because I have had the colours in my head for a few years now, I started with the palette first. I wanted to see how my choices actually looked together. I am very happy with my selection!

I knew I wanted the base colour to be grey and a few contrasting brights for accents. Over the past couple of years, I have developed a strong liking for mint tones and have decided this is the colour my sofa NEEDS to be! Based on this, I scoured many paint supplier websites until I found my perfect palette. It is worth remembering that just because you have taken inspiration from paint colours, it doesn't necessarily mean its all going on your walls! Use some of them them to just find objects of that particular colour.

I do not like shying away from colour. It makes me happy and I feel it is so important to experiment with it - just to see how it will look. If done in the right mixtures and quantities, it can really work.

My next task was to choose the kind of furniture, accessories and overall look for my future living area. Since joining Pinterest in early 2012, I have managed to build up a collection of items ready to create a concept board. So many people use Pinterest to gather their thoughts and ideas, and with most websites now giving you the option to 'Pin' images from their pages, it is so easy to build up a collection whilst browsing.

I love interesting items, those that make you talk. I would say my taste is quite eclectic - but with a strong mid-century influence. Creating this concept board really helped me to visualise how the items I chose would look together. I strongly recommend you do this when re-designing a room - whether it be on Photoshop or through cutting and pasting snippets from magazines. Its fun to do and so helpful!

So below, is my first concept board. I would love to know what you think. And if you love the pieces as much as I do, I have noted where I found each of them.

1. Cinnamon String Lights by Cable & Cotton. These would look great draped over a mantle or mirror, or even dangling from the ceiling in the corner of the room. Perfect for adding a bit of fun.

2. Hanging Terrarium Kit from Hammersheels on Etsy. Becoming very popular. Well aware that our first place may not have a garden, this would make the perfect alternative!

3. Enamel Pendant Light found on Two Sisters Home. You can find originals with characteristic imperfections from antique shops for around £20-£40.

4. 'Dancing Bird' Print & 'Fox' Print by artist Ewan John. Available from a range of suppliers. I had mine from Of Cabbages & Kings.

5. 'Angie' by Little Greene. Colour inspiration.

6. 'French Dark Grey' by Little Greene. Colour inspiration.

7. 'Banana Dream 2' by Dulux. Colour inspiration.

8. 'Drizzle' by Little Greene. Colour inspiration.

9. 'Marine Blue' by Little Greene. Colour inspiration.

10. The Binic Table Lamp created by Ionna Vautrin for lighting brand Foscarini. I fell in love with this little gem when I was introduced to it by Contemporist in 2010. Available from a number of suppliers in various colours. I purchased mine in Petrol Blue from Haus.

11. Air Plant Pod from ThriftedandMade on Etsy. I love the burst of neon pink and its another way of bringing the non-existent garden indoors.

12. Concrete Topped Stool from Cox & Cox. I also get drawn to fairly industrial materials. Never have I ever wanted to purchase a stool so bad!

13.Pinched Porcelain Cup Planters by Ebenotti on Etsy. So cute, and love the colours together.

14. Mid Century style Oyster Table from Urban Outfitters. Adore the simplicity of it.

15. Poncho Cushion from ohhdeer. Like a moth to a flame, I was drawn in by the bright colours and bold print!

16. Hooper Storage Coffee Table in Walnut from Made. The slim legs and curvaceous shape attracted me. I love the idea of being able to store/display things within it too.

17. CAT POT by Mirubrugmann on Etsy. As a cat lover, I couldn't resist. And its so quirky.

18. Seagrass Basket from Joss & Main. Perfect for storing blankets in and keeping next to the sofa. When it gets chilly, you can just grab one and wrap up.

19. The Margot Sofa in Pistachio Dexter's Linen by Sofa.com. Beautiful design and the fabric is gorgeous. When you order samples from these guys, they come in the cutest little box!

20. Retrospector Cushion from ohhdeer. Again, attracted to the various colours and unusual pattern.

21. My favourite. I have always wanted an original 1960's sideboard. In fact, I want my Nan's! However, this particular one was found on Etsy on FunkyJunky's shop.

So that is my concept board and list! I do hope you enjoyed the read and appreciate the beautiful pieces as much as I do.
I also hope I have inspired you to create your own mood/concept board for your next project. I would love to see them.

For more of my inspiration, visit my Pinterest page.
You can also follow me on Twitter - @ZibZobHandmade
Or visit the Handmade By Zibzob Facebook page for images and info on my work.

Happy Decorating.

Keep watching this space!

Zo..x

Flower Jars

Hello everybody and Happy Easter!!

A couple of weeks ago, I started working on doing up some old jam jars to fill with spring flowers for the wedding. However, I think they are also perfect for Springtime celebrations - especially Easter Sunday. So instead of showing you how to work on an egg-themed project, I will be talking you through the process of how I made these simple 'vases'. They will look lovely on an Easter buffet table filled with daffodils.

 

Knowing that I wanted to use them for the wedding, I have spent the last year collecting jars of various shapes and sizes (with the help of my Mum and dear ol' Nan). For this project I had a rummage through them all and picked out my favourites ready for up-cycling. Once the jars were washed, I set up a 'station' outside ready to get working. I wanted to incorporate the colours of the wedding into the decoration of the jars, and so I decided to spray paint them. I only sprayed each jar approximately a third of the way up to add a bit of colour. I felt that doing the whole jar would compete with the colours of the flowers. Spray paint works better than brush painting as it gives a smoother finish. To do this, I bought three small cans of PlastiKote Fast Dry Project Enamel spray paint from Wilkinsons for £3.45 each. They are supplied at various other stores as well - see for yourself on the PlastiKote Website.

To achieve a clean line when spray painting, I used masking tape. Using a ruler and a CD marker, I marked about a third of the way up each jar all the way around. I then followed these marks with the masking tape to ensure I would get a clean, straight finish. I then worked my way up the rest of the jar with masking tape so that no other part of the jar would get marked with spray paint.

Then the fun began! 

Now for health and safety reasons, (which our wonderful country seem oh so fond of nowadays!) I would advise you do this in an open space (preferably outside) and even wear a dust mask. Start spraying the paint directly onto the glass jar - making sure you get an even coat all the way round. Another reason for doing this outside is because the paint gets EVERYWHERE! I came in dusted with paint in my hair, on my clothes, on my face, on my camera.... Once I finished spray painting each jar, I put them on a separate newspaper-covered table to dry. I repeated this method until all of them were done. The paint takes a few hours to fully dry.

Once dry, I carefully peeled off the masking tape.

And there we have it! Pretty, colourful jars ready for displaying seasonal flowers. Have a go at creating some fun floral jars for your next spring event. Its cheap, cheerful and so simple to do (and who doesn't like that?). I would love to see your take on it.

For the actual wedding, I would like to add some ribbon or lace as well. When they are all set up on the day, I will make sure to take some photos to share! 

I hope you enjoyed. Have a wonderful Easter and as always, keep watching this space!

Zo..x

You Are Invited.... Chapter II

Just a quick post this time - well more of a progress update really. I have finally finished and sent out my Evening Invites!

You may remember the post I did on my Handmade Save-The-Dates. The theme was very 'English Country Tea'. Well, my evening guests didn't receive a save-the-date, and seeing as though the evening part of the wedding will be an English Country Tea (bunting and all!), I made the evening invites in exactly the same way.

The evening invites look the same on the front as the save-the-dates do. The layout inside is also very similar:
- Pretty paper backgrounds
- Main info on bottom page
- Further info on the top page
- Information mounted onto pearlescent paper

I then used the information from the day invites to help aid the wording in the evening ones. I also made some more of the 'Extra Information' booklets for the inside (as found in my first You Are Invited... post).

I used the same paper for the invite wording as I did for the information booklet - I felt this created a link between the evening and the day invitations.

I am so pleased they are finally all finished! Now that everybody has been invited, it is like a huge weight has been lifted. And I can't wait to crack on and finish all of my other little (or not so little) crafty projects.

Keep watching this space! I have recently completed my table plan board and I can't wait to share the process with you all.

Happy Crafting,
Zo..x

Handmade Bath Essentials

I keep finding myself back inside my new favourite gift shop that opened in my hometown fairly recently - Luna Blue. 
Its a brilliant go-to for birthdays, new babies, or if you simply fancy treating yourself. I think that its important to support shops like this as you don't see them around that often anymore. They are stockists of gift items from Dora Designs, Frith and Disaster to name a few names. Luna Blue also do framing and framed my lovely piece by Gemma Austen beautifully.
I have noticed, that one thing I have invested in time and time again from here is bath bombs. Although sold by Luna Blue, these particular ones are made by Bomb Cosmetics. They pride themselves on supplying handmade, natural and beautiful bath bombs and bath melts. 

Through following a certain pre-wedding 'beauty regime', it is apparent that Sunday night is my bath night and I have developed a liking for sinking into a lovely warm, scented bath. Funnily enough, this is something I never used to enjoy - now I look forward to it every week! After buying many of these as gifts for friends and family, I decided to visit Luna Blue and treat myself this weekend. The image above shows a range of bath creamers by Bomb Cosmetics. The creamers are handmade and filled with cocoa and Shea butters - leaving skin delightfully soft. They also contain essential oils and perfumes, allowing the bath to smell gorgeous.

Almost too beautiful to fizz away in the bath, here is the Harajuku Girl Bath Creamer and the Rosie Heart Creamer. 

I love picking a selection of these to display in boxes as pretty gifts. They look so appealing!

Here is the Blackberry Bath Creamer, the Flower Bazaar Bath Creamer and the Feel the Love Bath Creamer. I can't wait to try these out and see how they smell. To find out what is in each one, and for a description of their scents, I suggest visiting their website for a full description on each. There is a vast array of bath essentials to browse through. 

I also bought what Bomb Cosmetics call a Bath Mallow and used it straight away. It looked like a delicious tiny cupcake good enough to eat!... but don't. Also containing cocoa butter, they're great for leaving skin silky soft. Bomb Cosmetics blend many ingredients and scents together in their mallows to create a beautifully fragrant bath.

Alongside Bath Creamers and Bath Mallows, Bomb Cosmetics also create what they call Butter Loops, Cocoa Swirls, Bath Tulips, Bath Buttercups and Bath Brulees - delicious!

I also adore bath bombs that colour the water. My most favourite coloured bath so far has been created by a cone-shaped bath bomb by the more well-known Lush - who also pride themselves on creating 'fresh handmade cosmetics'. It turned the water this gorgeous bright pink and smelled absolutely divine! 

Now there is a point to this post! I am actually going to add 'attempt to make my own bath bombs and melts' to the ever-growing list of things to do after the wedding.

If I could create something that looks good enough to eat, turns the water a beautiful colour, smells great, and doesn't leave you with a burning rash(!) then I will be one happy bunny.
Is this something any of you have thought about doing? If so... have you ever? And how did it go?
I need to do some research - maybe look into classes or invest in a couple of books. But it would be brilliant to make something by hand that would make an ideal gift. I would love to know your thoughts on this.
Next time you plan on taking a nice hot bubble bath - make sure you have a pretty bath mallow to hand - its so worth it!

Keep watching this space!
Zo..x

Handmade Christmas Cards

Hello my lovely people and welcome to 2014! I know this is probably not the best time to publish a festive-themed post, but (to put it simply) I have just not had the time to sit down and type away!
I have always been one of those people who isn't happy unless I am so busy that I want to cry. That is why this Christmas I decided to make my own Christmas cards. When I told people about this idea, they mentioned how expensive this process could be. Now seeing as I am trying to look after the pennies, I made it my mission to do this as cheaply as possible. I already had some blank cards and envelopes, so this was a good start! 

To make the above cards, I simply rummaged around my bedroom to see what I could find. I managed to find use for the following items:
- Blank cards and envelopes (5x7") by Papermania - available at most craft stores
- Black and white paper from old sketch books - sketch book paper is very good quality and lovely to work with
- Leftover Christmas wrapping paper found in the loft
- Christmas ribbon left over from last year's gift-wrapping
- Buttons from my sewing box (accumulated over the years)
- Festive Washi Tape (I admit this was a new buy, but was used for this year's gift-wrapping originally)
- A range of patterned papers from inside craft magazines
- Tissue paper
- Stamps and ink
- Cat biscuit boxes used as cardboard for mounting and backing
- Paint charts
- Festive-themed templates (stockings, bells etc.) I printed off from the internet



We are all guilty of hoarding a little - whether it be hanging onto glittery wine bottle bags to re-use on your Aunt's next birthday, or keeping hold of that pair of jeans you will fit into again one day. 
My point is, if you are thinking of making your own festive stationary next Christmas then have a mooch around to see what materials you can find in your own home. 
For example, the background to this card on the left is left over wrapping paper. The black paper is from an old sketch book. The brown paper is left over gift-wrap and I used my stamp set to spell out 'Merry Christmas'. Both the Christmas tree and its background are made up of colourful papers that I ripped out of craft magazines. Mags such as Craftseller usually include tear-out papers that are great for card making and other projects. They also include many card-making ideas for inspiration if you're not sure where to start.
I put it all together using double-sided sticky tape and finished off with some festive Washi Tape. To give a little depth to the card, I adhered the Christmas tree using 3D foam adhesives (a must have for card making).
It is always worth cutting out bits and pieces and having a play around first before sticking everything down. This way you can see which arrangement looks best for each card. 
Don't be scared to go bold and colourful! As you can probably see, I love mixing patterns and for some of my cards, I wanted to go a little less obvious on the colour scheme. 






With this card I went a little more traditional in theme and colour. I also played with different textures, incorporating ribbon, fabric, card and paper. 
The background is made up from robin themed wrapping paper. The central panels are made up of sketch book paper and brown parcel paper. All of these components were secured with double-sided sticky tape. To make the bauble, I drew around a template onto cardboard from a cat biscuit box! In-keeping with the bird theme, I mounted some scrap fabric from my sewing box onto the bauble shape. The bow was also in my sewing box. I think it fell off some clothing a few years back. I finished off the look with some Christmas ribbon I saved from the year before. I mounted the bauble with the 3D foam adhesives. To stick down the fabric, ribbon and bow, I used Bostik Glu&Fix all purpose extra strong glue. This can be found in most craft and stationary shops.

On this card, I used more wrapping paper and papers from craft magazines. I stuck with my stamp kit to spell out a seasonal message - I just love the playful charm stamps add to a craft project! The denim tree has been cut out of an old magazine and the button baubles are from my sewing box.

This design is one of my favourites purely for how simple it is and how well it worked. I had an old Sanderson paint chart in one of the drawers under my desk and from it, I collected up a range of the paint sample squares in green hues to create a Christmas tree. 

To top it off, I added a large star in a contrasting pattern and colour. 

The beauty of this project was how little it cost. It was so satisfactory to hand make unique Christmas cards from everyday items and them hand them out to family and friends.

If you have any questions on how any of them were made or have any general feedback, please feel free to post a comment below. I would love to know your thoughts. 

I love handmade cards of any sort so please share your crafts too!

For images of each of my finished Christmas cards, visit my Facebook Page.

I hope I have inspired some of you to make your own seasonal stationary and that you enjoyed the read.

Keep watching this space!

Zo..x