Many of us sewers, crafters, and gatherers of small decorative items will have scads of buttons lying around.  We know that someday they are going to come in handy and FYI…that someday has arrived!  This particular button craft is primarily a way to show off those fantastic few buttons that are in and among the more mundane ones.   We’re talking about the carved buttons, those made out of ivory, stamped, written on, painted on, you name it, there are wondrous pieces of art out there on simple buttons!

Materials List:

• Assorted buttons
• Illustration board
• Ruler
• Matte knife
• Pencil
• Fine point marker
• Hot glue gun
• Shadow box frame

Instructions:

1.  Begin by cutting a piece of illustration board to fit inside the shadowbox frame.  The size of the frame and board will help determine how many buttons you can display.  Our frame was 8” x 10” and we were able to display 12 buttons comfortably.

2.   Spend some time pulling together your button display.  I decided to display buttons from the same color family together in a frame.  This gives the display a unifying factor which makes it look more organized.

3.  Once you have your collection pulled together, measure the width of the largest button and add ½” to that dimension for the width and height of your boxes. Now you can determine how many boxes will fit on your illustration board and you can adjust your collection accordingly.

4.  Find the center of the illustration board; ours was at 4” and if you have an even number of boxes across, measure out a box on either side of center.  If you have an odd number of boxes across, measure out on either side of center, ½ the width of your box.  This way you will have a box in the center.

5.  Our board fit 12 buttons or boxes, and this is how it looked.
I used pencil first to make sure everything looked even and balanced on the board before going to the marker.

6.  It’s best to turn the ruler over, if it has a beveled edge when you are using the marker so it doesn’t smear as you move the ruler around.

7.  Once the marker lines are on the board and dry, it’s time to add the buttons.

8.  Put a dab of hot glue directly in the center of a box.  If you swirl the hot glue gun over the dab, it will break off the string.

9.  Quickly put the button in place before the hot glue sets.  Push down on the button and the glue will rise into the button holes.  Don’t let it go too far and overflow.  The button will be set very quickly so do any adjusting so the button holes are straight as you are pushing it in place.

When all the buttons are set you have a lovely display.  Drop it into the shadowbox frame and it’s ready to hang. If you are like me….one won’t be enough!!

Shari

 
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