Signed, sealed, Delivered and MERRY CHRISTMAS!

So last week I shared with you all some of the tutorials I was using to make Christmas presents for teachers and day care educators. Well we have now delivered the presents and here are the final pictures. I am thrilled how everything turned out. Myself and the girls each made the presents and it was a lovely thing for us to do together. Probably a bit more work than I originally anticipated but fun nonetheless.

School teacher gifts ended up being Journal covers, coffee cozy's made by me, and reindeer noses made by the girls. For 2 of the teachers, my mother also made lovely knitted coat hanger covers. Unfortunately I forgot to photograph those.

Fabrics left: Golden Garden by Alexander Henry. Fabrics right: Circa by Sis Boom and Floral Bouquet by Amy Butler

Fabric left: Sanctuary by Patty Young. Fabrics right: Chevrons from Spotlight, Circa from Sis Boom, and Aqua solid  from Robert Kaufman

For the day care educators, we made lemon foot scrub and put them into mason jars. The girls both helped with the making of the lemon foot scrub and we even tested it and the girls were pretty impressed by the foot scrubs! I decorated the jars with fabric and ribbons, and I think they turned out pretty nicely even if I do say so myself :)

Mason jars purchased from supermarket, plain card from Spotlight, fabric scraps and ribbon from my extensive stash!

Close up of the finished product. Simple ingredients but delicious scents!

Christmas presents don't have to be expensive although that too can be lovely! This year we just wanted to try the handmade route and everyone seemed to genuinely appreciate the effort we made. And if you want to make any of these items, check out the previous blog post as I linked in tutorials to these items. Oops, except the coffee cozy, but there are LOADS out there on the internet. Head to the trusty Pinterest if you want to get some goodies!

To you and your families, I wish you a wonderful Christmas this season. I hope it brings some well earned time with your families and may 2014 bring you and yours peace and all that you wish for.

I will try to pop back in between now and Christmas and New Year but it may be a tad tricky as I will have 2 very excited girls bopping about the house.

Lots of love,
Sarah xx

Handmade Gifts 101

So, if you are anything like me, you like to give gifts to your children's teachers and day care educators. And this year I have tried to be a bit more organised than last year where I cheated and purchased handmade from other creators. This year I have opted to make my own and I thought I would share some fantastic tutorials I have discovered over on my beloved Pinterest (sigh). I have wasted far too much time searching and finally took the plunge last night so here goes.

1. Journal covers.
There are loads of tutorials on how to make your own journal covers. They are a fab way to personalise a journal or diary for a teacher. I was shared this tutorial by one of my lovely friends and I have tested it. http://bloomandblossom.blogspot.com.au/2009/02/journal-cover-tutorial.html
It probably wasn't my wisest move to start making it around 9pm last night but I can confirm that they were a simple but gorgeous make and pretty fast. And I know to read the instructions better in the future.  Here are some pictures of ones I made last night. I have a few more planned for the
weekend.

Fabric: Golden Garden by Alexander Henry

Fabrics: Linen from Spotlight and Golden Garden from Alexander Henry

The second image is missing the diary in the middle, but you get the general idea.

2. Body scrub

While surfing Pinterest the other night, I discovered this fabulous body scrub and as I had an 

abundance of lemons it seemed like a great idea. I am happy to report this is a great recipe, smells beautiful and works a treat. The girls even helped me to make so a great activity they can help with and as it is for their teachers and carers, it gives them something to boast about.  I used this tutorial and they even give you files to print. I cheated and got some labels from Spotlight as I wanted a Christmas 

theme. I will take pictures of our final ones once they are all packaged. 

http://www.iheartnaptime.net/lemon-sugar-scrub/

3. Sweet treats.

Yes, I know we can go overboard in eating at Christmas time, so I decided to go with 2 of my fav sweet treats from my favourite blog, Natural New Age Mum. The first recipe is for a Choc Hazel Bliss Balls Choc Hazel Bliss Balls and White Christmas Healthy White Christmas.

Enjoy your Christmas everyone. I plan to be a bit more regular in my posting in the new year. Chat again soon. 

Xxx

The stunning "Starflower" hair accessory pattern

When I officially closed my selling side of Izzy B Designs in August I was a bit devastated that I wouldn't be creating any more. Happily that wasn't the case and the opportunity to test patterns for some of the most talented handmaidens around came along. The last few months I have been able to learn new skills and fine tune some old skills through doing this which I have LOVED! I will share details on some of past exploits in my next post, but for today I just want to chat about the stunning "Starflower" pattern I recently tested for Lana from Oh Baby!

Tomorrow night sees the launch of One Thimble, (www.onethimble.com.au) the brainchild of the amazing Jen Kennedy of Ainslee Fox fame. This is going to be an e-zine (online magazine for you old school people!) with a difference. Different because it will be based around the world of handmade, and will feature PDF patterns by a number of Australian creators and designers including Jen herself. And can I just say I haven't been so excited about a magazine launch in a long time,

Over the weekend, an opportunity came up for me to test the pattern for the talented Lana Schijvens who is creator and designer of Oh Baby! fame. Oh Baby! specialise in the most gorgeous hair accessories and Lana's bows are one of her signature designs which are absolutely amazing. I have made bows myself over the years but mine just can't compare to her beauties! They are of course just one of the things she makes and now I am thrilled to say that one of the patterns included in One thimble will be her Starflower pattern. If you have been around Izzy B for awhile, you will know I started off making hair accessories. And although I ended up moving more into clothing, I have continued to make my daughters' hair accessories.  This was the perfect pattern to get my creative juices flowing again for hair accessories. Although I have been making hair accessories for awhile I learnt some great new techniques which is always good. The pattern is sufficiently challenging to get someone like me excited, but also simple enough that a beginner could pick it up by carefully following the pattern to a T.

Some of my favourite things about the pattern was that it used a sewing machine as well as hand stitching. Too many hair accessories these day claim to be handmade when in fact all the person has done is glued part A to part B. To me, the fact that they are sewn by hand and machine means that the hair accessory will have durability and survive the toughest little kid and won't be a 5 minute pretty. The pattern is well illustrated and worded. My first Starflower, although pretty, wasn't quite what I wanted and that spurred me on to want to make a few more.

Lana has created something really gorgeous and unique in the world of hair accessories which I know it is going to be a hit!

Not only has Lana been working on this pattern, but she has also been preparing for her Christmas market. She has her own website www.ohbabyaustralia.bigcartel.com, so keep an eye on her
Facebook page www.facebook.com/ohbabyaustralia for further details.

In the meantime, I want to take the opportunity to thank Lana for the opportunity to test, wish her, Jen and all of the contributors of One Thimble the best of luck with what I know is going to be a massive success,

Here are some photos from my testing.

Test piece 1 using Veranda by Verna Mosquera and a Circa by Jennifer Paganelli

Test piece 2 using Yellow Valentina and Rosetta by Jennifer Paganelli

Final test piece using Little Yellow Bicycle and some cute red/white polka dot. Necklace made by IsAvA Designs

A new chapter, a new beginning

Gosh, it feels like forever since I was here last. Things have changed, evolved and now it is time for a new beginning. Izzy B Designs is no longer a selling tool, but I have decided to reopen my Izzy B Designs Creative blog and Facebook page to share with people about all things handmade whether it be crafty or cooking goodness. The last year has seen so many changes that it meant it was time to revaluate things and I am now super excited to be sharing with you all my musings. So hope you stick around to read.

The first instalment coming up will be on my recent pattern testing for the very talented Lana from Oh Baby. Not too much for now, but this will be hopefully up tonight.

Over and out for now!

Give and Take - musings my dear:)

So I didn't get to the zips last week. Oh dear! It seems life got a little busy last week.

But I am very excited to share with you some absolutely amazing goodies that landed on my doorstep today! So some of you may have heard about the first Give and Take (a kind of secret santa being hold NOW via the wonderful blog Yes, Dear). When I came across this from the lovely Jeni of Handmade Love fame, I thought this sounded like fun. So I emailed Ange from Yes, Dear - answered a short questionnaire about my style (or maybe lack of it - hehehe), and gave very vague answers. This was then sent over to Ange who had to "pair us up". The brief was to purchase handmade goodies based on the questionnaire from our partner from Australian and NZ creators and inject a bit of cash into the handmade community. Win, win all around I believe.

So I had much fun when the lovely lady I had been paired with introduced me to some wonderful handmade businesses I hadn't come across before - Sally and Jane (gorgeous handmade clutches), Molly Dag Made (handmade games for children) and am now big fans. It was a wonderful shopping experience. If you get a chance to do something like this again, I recommend it.

Well today, my wonderful items from a gorgeous lady called Helen made their way to me. I am blown away. She did an amazing job considering my lack of information. So here is the photographic journey I am going to share with you...

 This card is now up on my noticeboard. It is from LAURENCARNEYart.com. Stunning!

So this is what the first peek of the parcel looked like. Beautifully wrapped. Sooooo exciting opening something that isn't a birthday or christmas present...

Squeal! and then came the second peek!!! Oh my such pretty packaging I am in heaven already!

I absolutely adore this gorgeous pile of goodies from blossom & cat. Earrings, a clip and the cutest Owlet Sewing Kit. I have been wanting to make an owl forever and just haven't got around to it. NO EXCUSES now. Most of the work has been done...

Then this assembly of beauties from the uber talented Jo of Joallie Petit! A cuff, necklace and shoe clips. I must have looked quite a sight - wandering around the house with my black tights, birkenstocks (I had just taken my boots off, honest) and tried on the necklace and cuff. I couldn't put the shoeclips on the birkenstocks, although I did contemplate it for a moment...

So all I can say is thank you again Helen. I am a very happy lady right now:)

Links for you to check out:
 http://isaidyesdear.blogspot.com
www.facebook.com/blossomandcat
www.facebook.com/JoallieP

So it's official. I am a bit of a break from my main little handmade business. I am taking some time of for myself and my family and to find out what creative styles work for me and scream IZZY B at me! So the months of June and July will entail me trying out new things, experimenting, learning new sewing techniques so when I come back in August I hopefully have some new skills that mean I can try new styles that I no longer fear.

Fear 1 to overcome: Zips! Zips, zippers whatever you call them have been on my list of sewing phobias and would have to be number 1. I generally make children's clothing and don't like using zips as kids have a tendency in my house to be pretty rough on their clothing. I like items that are easy to pull on/pull off as a child is running away from me whilst being dressed! I am sure there are plenty of other parents like that around here too;) My youngest seems to have ants in her pants all the time at the moment and just won't keep still when getting dressed. She likes to dress herself if at all possible so elastic and pull over the head items seem to be the best. But one of my other goals is to make more items for me and all the ladies patterns I have seen lately seem to have zips. I bought a new skirt pattern that looks really cool, so I am going to road test it and share the before and after on my little old blog.

Hopefully my instruction following skills will be better than my recipe following skills (teehee). I always read my patterns and recipes multiple times before I start to make items but this doesn't remove the muck up factor for the first few times...

I am also planning on creating a ladies skirt for my part of the Collaborate for A Cause submission and it really will need a zip. So why not make myself a few test run items first.

I will show you my novice attempts at inserting a zip. Share any tips I have along the way.

My lovely mother in law turned up to our house yesterday with a bag of zips for me to practice with. That will hopefully help.

That's it from me now, but I will be popping back in a few days hopefully to start the project xxx

And the winner is...

Thank you to everyone who has particpated in the Swan Lake Giveaway.  I thought we would get a few more, but I am guessing as it wasn't on Facebook, people got a little scared and it was slightly more complicated than a post on there;)

The winner is comment number 20. I can confirm that the person is a liker of the page, so the winner is Jenni Michon. Jenni wins the Black Swan, White Swan feather headbands and the black cabochon clips! Jenni, roll up and CONGRATULATIONS!!! (Hear the roar in the background or perhaps that is Miss Emily roaring from her bed;))

Thanks again to everyone who has participated. There are so many familiar names in there that I feel very lucky to have had you all participate and support this little give back to you.

I am officially on "hols" as of tomorrow (yippee), but that means I am going to be focussing on my family and do some personal creating and training up in time for spring/summer time.

I am also going to be participating in Collaborate for A Cause with the talented Melisa from Melisa Jane Handmade and I can't wait. I have some gorgeous fabric waiting to be unleashed into something.  I plan on utilising my blog a bit more. When I can think of something to do a tutorial on, I may even unleash that you the world too!!

Night all,
Sarah x