M is for Mother

Now as all of you fellow Britons should be aware... Mothers Day is coming up shortly. For those of you not aware its Sunday 15th March! You better get prepping!
Since catching the jewellery-making bug at the end of January, I have not stopped creating. To me, Mothers Day seemed like the perfect opportunity to put this newfound skill to use and thought I would share it with you all.

At my most recent jewellery-making class (Beadelicious) we learned how to create a necklace using wirework. I loved the intricacy of this, and that how at the end of it you had a pendant that you created completely by hand.

My First Hand Crafted Wire Heart Pendant Made in Class

Inspired by this new creation, and eager to try out some new wire-work designs, I decided to make two new necklaces for my Nan and Grandma for Mothers Day - as gifts from my parents. I wanted to keep them theme-specific and so used one of my own handmade beads to fit the bill.

The handmade bead is made from white FIMO clay that I moulded into shape and then baked until hard. I then hand painted it with a gold letter 'M' (for mother!) and little pink flowers. I just used acrylic paint for this. Once the paint had dried, I finished the bead off with a clear gloss. To compliment the floral 'M' bead, I incorporated small pale pink glass pearls into the design.

The pendant was created by forming some 0.8mm silver wire into a heart shape. Some 0.6mm silver wire was then wrapped around the heart pendant and after every few wraps, a bead was added. This technique was used to evenly distribute the beads around the pendant and also strengthens it due to the extra wire.

Once the pendant was complete, I trimmed some silver chain to size, attached a jump ring onto the pendant, and threaded it onto the chain. I then attached a silver trigger bolt clasp to finish.

And the Mother's Day deed is done!!

If you would all like a gander, I have worked on many other jewellery items including necklaces, pendants, bracelets and earrings. To view my range so far, visit my Handmade by ZibZob Facebook page here: www.facebook.com/handmadebyzibzob 

I would love to know what you all think! And I am constantly on the look out for new ideas to play with - so feedback would be very much appreciated.

Keep watching this space.
Zo..x



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

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

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

You Are Invited...

For those of you who have sent out any kind of invite, you will appreciate that it can be quite difficult to fit in everything you think needs to included. It's all about compromise - you don't want to overload the guest with information, yet you don't want to leave them asking questions.
When choosing our wedding invites from Planet Cards, I chose to just include the basics that the guest absolutely needed to know (this didn't ruin the design either):
- Date of the wedding
- Time of the wedding
- The Venue(s) and addresses
- Information on gifts/money - this was achieved with a lighthearted poem
- When to RSVP by
- How to RSVP
I just needed a way to include a little extra information for our guests. 

After a little research, I found there are a few ways to include extra details. Examples include:
- Pockets built into the invites to insert maps and RSVP cards etc.
- Loose information cards to match the invite
- Including a web link to further information on the wedding day

Built in pockets were not an option as I had already chosen our invites, and I didn't like the thought of loose cards for fear of them going missing. I did like the web link idea - however not everybody in my family (grandparents for example) have access to a computer. I opted for an information booklet - all of the information would be in one place, and it wouldn't need a pocket in the invite as my plan was to use paper clips. 

With this idea, the first hurdle was deciding what was to be going into the information booklet:
Hotel Info
Including room tariffs, room information, hotel/venue website and number.

Alternative
Including a cheaper alternative for somewhere to stay, the address, website and number.

Map
A map from the venue to the alternative hotel.

Taxis
Although the hotel will probably have a list of local taxi firms, I thought it may be useful for guests to know them beforehand for pre-booking.

RSVP
What details to include when RSVP-ing.

After this I used scrap paper to create various booklet prototypes. I didn't want to use more than one sheet of A4 paper for each booklet to keep costs and materials down. Trialing was necessary! The first prototype in the above image was an experiment on how to fold paper to create the booklet. The second prototype was created from half a sheet of A4 paper, allowing me to print two per page. Even though this appealed to me, the words and map were just a little too small. This is when I came up with the third prototype - made from one sheet of paper, big enough to read, and easy enough to make.

Even though I had found a design that worked for our invite, I wanted to use something a little less stark than white paper - especially as the invites have a lovely vintage finish. I opted for a pack of cream paper that I picked up from Ryman in town. In the photographs, you can see how the booklets look before they are folded. They are made up of two rectangular pieces, each split into 3 equal sections. Each of these sections is a different page of information. To create these templates, I simply used a Table in Microsoft Word and printed them off on a laserjet printer at home. If you have lovely handwriting, or don't have access to a printer then these could be done by hand no problem. However, it would take a lot longer as a lot of measuring would be involved!
Once the rectangular pieces have been cut out, they each need to be folded into a concertina-like state in order to form the pages. The 'Table' idea within Microsoft Word made it really easy for this part of the process. I simply folded across the lines that split the strips into 3 sections. 

The next part of the process is to put the booklet together. For this, any kind of glue/adhesive suitable for paper will do but my personal favourite is double-sided tape. The idea is to stick the 'front page' of the booklet to the first 'inside page'. As seen in the top photo on the right, this creates the first two pages of the booklet. The second two pages of the booklet are created in the same way - the 'back page' is stuck to the last 'inside page'. Once the two components have been made, they then need to be fixed together (using more tape!) to create the entire booklet. This is done by sticking the back of the second page onto the back of the third page. You need to make sure that they are perfectly in line with each other to get a clean finish. Once this is done, I close the booklet and rub a small piece of paper over it to make sure it is fully adhered. I use paper instead of wiping my fingers directly over the finished product to prevent smudging of ink and marking. After this, I open the booklet and 'read' through it to make sure it all looks okay. Each one of these booklets took me around 10 minutes to make and were easy enough to do whilst relaxing in front of the television in the evening. As with any mini project, if you start early enough, it doesn't become a chore and you can just work on it every now and again until it is done!

And here is the finished product! A four page booklet including all the extra information (hopefully!) guests may require when receiving their invite. As with everything I make myself, I stamped the backs with my 'Handmade By Zoe' stamp - one of my favourite investments to date.

And this is what each of my day guests have received! I tried to keep the paper and the font as similar to the invite as possible so not to compromise the overall look.

I would love to know what you think. Have you done anything similar with an invite to a wedding, party or shower? Would you have done anything different? Let me know your thoughts and ideas by commenting below this post.

Alternatively you can message me:

Twitter: @ZibZobHandmade

Facebook: www.facebook.com/handmadebyzibzob

Hope you enjoyed! And keep an eye out for the festive posts. I will be making Christmas cards, crafty gifts and sharing my pretty wrapping.

Keep watching this space!

Zo..x