Crafty Quickie: Button Heart

Here's a quick and easy project to while away a dark January evening. This button heart will look really sweet hanging on a window or mirror, swinging on a drawer handle, tied on a ribbon to decorate a gift or even decorating next year's Christmas tree! It's a very cute way to display those lovely treasures that have been lying idle in your button box even though the coats, dresses and baby cardigans they once belonged to are long gone...

So, the first thing you need to do is gather up the buttons you want to use. You can use any colourscheme you like, but I find these hearts work very well when similar coloured buttons are put together. Now, lay your buttons out in a heart shape. Try not to have too much variation in sizes, but do play around with the positioning to see what looks best.

Next you're going to need some wire to string the buttons on. I have used a silver colour 20 gauge craft wire, which can be bought on a reel at any craft shop for a couple of Euro. If you want to make smaller hearts you could also use florists' wire as it comes in short lengths rather than a roll, though it's less flexible and you may need a pair of pliers. Measure a length of wire that will hold all of your buttons and leave about 5 inches extra. Cut the wire and you're ready to put on your buttons!

The easiest place to start is with one of the top two buttons. String the wire through the buttonholes and pull it tight, leaving about 2 inches of wire to spare. Continue your line of buttons along the wire, working around your laid out heart pattern. Try to make sure the buttons are facing the same way up and are nice and flat. Once you get to the last one, you should have a neat line of buttons and some spare wire at each end.

Bend your wire around to make the heart shape, and cross the wire ends over eachother. Twist them together to secure your heart shape. Now clip the end off ONE piece. Bend the second piece round to create a loop, twist it in to close your loop and now you have a hanger for your pretty button heart.

Reshape the heart as required, add a ribbon if you like, and hang your gorgeous handmade button decoration somewhere nice :)

Done! If any of you makes one of these, I'd love to see your pictures or hear about where you've put your pretty button heart ♥

A little project!

In my day job, I teach painting to teenagers, which can be difficult work at the best of times, and even more tricky when I'm having a particularly clumsy day! I had one such day very recently, when I spattered red paint down the front of one of my favourite tops. Argh! I spend so long telling the kids to be careful, I often forget to do so myself. So, as a result, I was left with a really tough stain that just wouldn't budge. It was acrylic paint, which is especially hard to get out of fabric.

I really didn't want to have to give up on wearing my stripey top, so I decided to cover up the stain instead of removing it, and with my favourite craft supplies: buttons! I have lots of black buttons that aren't suitable for jewellery making, so I gathered up a selection of pretty ones and laid them out in a pattern that would decorate the neckline and cover that stain. I sewed each one on very securely in its assigned place, and in just 30 minutes I had a very cute button embellished top, ready to wear again! Yay!

I'll definitely do something like this to some other things in my wardrobe, whether they have a stain or not it's a nice way to add an individual touch to any item of clothing! Do you have any ideas for personalising or decorating clothes? Or getting rid of paint stains? Let me know ;)

Buttons!

I love buttons! ... but I'm guessing you already knew that ;)

Here are some other Etsy sellers who love them too, and are making some very cute items using either new or repurposed buttons.

Chocolate Brown Letter S Pillow by letterperfectdesigns
Candy Floss at the Circus, Large Button Felt Brooch by nicedaydesigns 

Hand Embroidered Simple White Flowers Wall Hoop Art by AnnaHailey
Pastel Garden iPhone iPod Cozy by SewSweetStitches

Thanks Very Much Card by LuckyRainbowDesigns
The Diamonds and Pearls Button Bouquet by letters4lilly

Do you collect buttons or use them for crafting? Leave me a comment to let me know! I'd love to feature you or your work in a future blog post about buttony fun :)

Beth

Etsy front page treasury

Featured on the front page of Etsy :) I found this screenshot at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/28488923@N05/ which is great, as I didn't know there was a Front Page photo pool, or any archive for front page treasuries at all. Good to know, eh? :)

Front Page Feature!

I checked my Etsy page this morning as usual and noticed I have far more hearts than I had yesterday! So I visited craftopolis.com to see if maybe one of my items had been featured in a treasury. I was so surprised to see that TWO items were in treasuries - this Honey Button Ring and also a little button bracelet of mine called Cloudy Skies. So, I thought YAY!

Then I realised the treasury that the ring had been featured in had been selected to go on Etsy's FRONT PAGE this morning! Woohoo! It's all very exciting. Thanks to DigitalPerfection for featuring my ring in her pretty pretty treasury, "Kiss Me Honey Honey".