Button Crafts

See this?  Yeah, I made that!

 I love crafting, and I especially love making crafty things to give as gifts. So, when I found out my friends Abby and Cody were expecting a baby I knew what I wanted to do.  I made up a little gift basket of things a new mommy and daddy should probably have but rarely get at baby showers, and threw in some fun little extras for mom, and then got to work on this little crafty bit.  It took me almost 6 months to get it finished, but only because other things kept getting in the way.

 I gathered my supplies of canvas(I previously painted the background and letter), tacky glue, and buttons.  LOTS of buttons! Oh, and a pair of tweezers to pick up/place buttons with glue, and a paper towel for wiping off excess glue on the tweezers every so often.

 Next I separated buttons into glass bowls by color groups and started arranging them on the canvas to see what looked good.  BEFORE gluing, and after talking to my husband(his opinion is very important in all color decisions), we decided the green/blue combo wasn't going to pop enough, and we knew Abby really likes bright colors.

So, I started playing with pinks, oranges and yellows.  It was looking pretty good, and I decided to add the other colors to the background for something extra.  We liked the look of the greens, blues, and purples against the bright orange, pink, and yellow. 

Then came the gluing....lots and lots of gluing! It took about 2-3 hours probably but those were distracted hours of tv watching and baby chasing too. I glued each button individually, grabbing it with the tweezer, putting a drop of glue on the back and carefully placing them each back on the canvas.  The glue seeps through the holes, and sometimes squishes out the sides, but it dries clear so it's not a big deal. Just let it dry flat or you'll be seeing some droopy buttons and drippy bits.

The initial trial gave us an idea of what it would look like color wise, but I decided we needed to build the letter up a bit more so I just kept layering and building out around the letter.

And this was the final product.  I see where I could have added/built up a little more in some areas, but it turned out really cute regardless.  We were so excited to give it to our friends to decorate their nursery for their little one, and they loved it too.  I've done another one recently on a picture frame, but I think I like the canvas better.  So, go out and try it!  It's fun, and cute, especially if you have colorful buttons like these. Also, you could do a shape instead of a letter.  I outlined my letter so I had a basic guide to follow, but if you don't want to you can just eyeball it.

Materials; 

8"x8" canvas

craft paint and brush for background

Buttons:about 200, all different sizes and colors

(got mine at Wal-Mart in color coordinated packages)

Tacky Glue

Tweezers

Small cloth to wipe excess glue from tweezers

Time: Roughly 2 hours start to finish

Dry time: Overnight 

(Lay flat to dry or you will have droopy letters and drippy bits)

Happy crafting!!