Tag Archives | May Flaum

Make an Altered Notebook Travel Journal

By Nancy Nally on March 7, 2017 in Mixed Media, Paper Crafts

Travel journals are hot, and altering notebooks with mixed media is a great way to make them. In a recent journal project, 28 Lilac Lane designer May Flaum showed how her embellishment kits can make mixed media beautiful!

For this project, May used one of her brand new 28 Lilac Lane embellishment kits that was just unveiled at the Creativation show in January. “Let’s Go” is a beautiful combination of turquoise, brown and butter yellow with a few touches of gold mixed in – plus a gorgeous camera charm!

To see how to make this travel journal cover, visit May’s blog, or watch May’s video below to see the step by step techniques that May used!

With beads, sequins, pearls, and buttons, 28 Lilac Lane embellishment kits are a great match for mixed media techniques. Whether it’s a journal cover, a canvas, a scrapbook page, or another project…you’ll find just what you need in one of our handy embellishment kit boxes!

Make A Thank You Card with new 28 Lilac Lane Fall Mix!

By Nancy Nally on August 25, 2016 in Card Making, Paper Crafts

This week, we’re introducing a special Limited Edition 28 Lilac Lane “Fall Mix” embellishment kit by May Flaum! This kit is only available from the Buttons Galore online store – and stay tuned to the end to learn how to get a special introductory discount!

With jewel tones, soft green, brown – and gold! – this color mix by 28 Lilac Lane designer May Flaum is perfect for embellishing gorgeous fall projects that aren’t quite right for the traditional rust and orange tones of fall.

Here’s a peek of a thank you card that May created with the new 28 Lilac Lane Limited Edition Fall Mix, using a stamp from Tammy Tutterow:

For the full how to tutorial about the card, check out the video below!

And finally, here’s May’s finished thank you card. The stamp is pretty by itself, but embellished with a few sequins, buttons and charms, it is extra special! This beautiful card makes the perfect thank you for any occasion.

The new 28 Lilac Lane “Fall Mix” designed by May Flaum is a limited edition, so make sure to get it while it lasts! Use coupon code “LL400” until 11:59pm eastern time on Friday to get $1.00 off. Better yet, this coupon can be stacked with the Beat the Clock sale going on sitewide now through Saturday. The sooner you order, the more you save!

And don’t forget that orders over $30 get free U.S. shipping! We’ve got the entire collection of 28 Lilac Lane embellishments in stock, as well as six fabulous new Button Bonanza collections (including seasonal blends for Halloween and Christmas) as well as our perennial favorites like our Button Basics, 3D buttons, and Haberdashery collections. Stock up now for Halloween and Christmas projects and save!

Introducing…Limited Edition 28 Lilac Lane “Fall Jewels” Mix!

By May Flaum on August 22, 2016 in Announcements

Editor’s Note: Today 28 Lilac Lane designer May Flaum is visiting us on the blog to introduce her new Limited Edition 28 Lilac Lane “Fall Jewels” Mix that is available only from our online store while supplies last!

When I think about fall I think of cooling temperatures and cozy sweaters, bringing in jewel tones and saying goodbye to summer brights. Inspired by these things, I have pulled together this new limited edition mix of embellishments to celebrate my favorite season. For anything from back to school to falling leaves, paired with the autumn afternoon kit or used on its own – this mix is sure to inspire a wealth of crafting ideas. From a beautiful carved button to the berry, green, and blue buttons and plenty of matte gold sequins you won’t want to miss out on this special mix.

One of my favorite things to do is create a card with a simple hand cut or die cut shape, a sentiment sticker or stamp, and plenty of embellishments! Inspired by the large beautiful wood button in this mix, I started from there and worked smaller with my details. Clustering embellishments is one of my favorite things to do, and I always encourage people to start with the biggest and work smaller to fill any gaps or spaces.

I do so love to decorate frames with buttons and embellishments, but this time I didn’t have a frame quite the right color. What’s a crafter to do? Recolor it! I used alcohol inks, however paints, staz-on ink, or other color mediums could also work well depending on your surface. To keep the focus on the photo and the project from being overwhelmed I worked in one corner instead of covering the entire frame.

Both of these projects would work with any of the 28 Lilac Lane products, and this new mix is beautiful combined with a number of other kits and bottles such as the Attic Findings, Paws & Pets, Autumn Afternoon, Toasted Graham, Birds of a Feather, and more.

SPECIAL OFFER: This limited edition 28 Lilac Lane “Fall Jewels” kit, regular price $6.99, is available through Friday for a special price for $5.99 if you use code “LL400” when you order!

Don’t forget that all orders from our online store over $30 qualify for FREE SHIPPING!

You can find all of these products that May mentioned in her video in the Buttons Galore online store:

Behind the Scenes at CHA Mega Show 2016

By Nancy Nally on January 17, 2016 in Announcements

If you follow our Instagram, you know that the whole Buttons Galore team spent a good deal of the last ten days in Anaheim, California at the annual Craft & Hobby Association trade show. It’s one of the year’s premier events to display craft products to retail buyers to make wholesale purchases for their stores, and also a great opportunity for people from all parts of the crafts industry to meet and share.

The event took place at the Anaheim Convention Center and the show floor was open for four days.

Our booth, of course was wall-to-wall buttons – about 40 feet of them in all! In the picture below, that’s me (Buttons Galore social media manager Nancy Nally) standing in front of the rainbow wall of Color Blends, Button Basics, and Button Bonanzas. There’s so many choices, and they are great for my favorite types of craft projects that use a lot of buttons!

And of course we had walls of our 3D specialty button designs on display as well! This is just one small part of the huge wall to choose from.

Mixed in with the buttons, we had lots of fun button project ideas as well. Many of these will be shared on the blog and on our social media in more detail in the coming weeks, so make sure you subscribe to the blog, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest so you don’t miss any of them!

One of the projects on display may have looked slightly familiar to our blog readers….back in November I created this rag quilted patch tote in soft pastels for the Handmade Holidays blog hop. For this version, I went with bold fabric from a Lola charm pack by Quilting Treasures, and used a black Button Bonanza bag to create a Tic Tac Toe game on it. Circles win!

At the entrance to the booth, visitors were greeted by our papercrafting project feature wall. Buttons are perfect for cards, tags, and layouts!

We also took part in the show’s “Open Market”. At this immensely popular event – a first for the CHA Mega Show – attendees had the chance to purchase cash & carry product from us at discounted prices. We offered a selection of 3D specialty buttons, Button Bonanza and Button Basics bags to excited customers.

Buttons Galore co-owners Dan & Lisa Hagenman were quite camera-shy in the booth but with some stealth skills I managed to get them on camera for our readers during the frenzy at the Open Market. That’s the lovely Lisa in the foreground, and her husband Dan at the other end of the table, helping customers find what they were looking for in the product selection.

Of course the biggest excitement in the booth was the launch of the 28 Lilac Lane line by designer May Flaum.

May created a huge display wall full of samples for the booth (you’ll see many of them on her blog and ours in the coming weeks) and a beautiful demo table where she spent hours showing visitors what they can do with 28 Lilac Lane embellishments.

Of course, there had to be sample boards to show off the gorgeous color palette of the new kits and bottles! For the embellishment kits, embroidery hoop collages showed the entire contents of each kit. The hoops were even finished off with the ribbon or trim from the kit!

For the bottles, a color board shows the entire rainbow selection of all the kits’ schemes in one place:

We’re so appreciative of how many people stopped by the booth to visit us and see May demo her 28 Lilac Lane collection! It was such fun hosting you all and sharing the new products!

Here’s a peek at some of the friends that dropped by to talk all things buttons in the booth at CHA!

Scrappycampysisters stopped by and got a video tour of the booth from May personally:

And I finally got to meet Erica of Clique Kits when she dropped by!

And last but not least…who can forget the Periscope of a Periscope that created an internet black hole with Cathy Zielske and Sandy Allnock? (And then we Instagrammed it too, for good measure!)

CHA was so much fun we’re taking the show on the road again in less than two weeks! European retailers will have a chance to catch Dan and the fabulous Buttons Galore buttons – including 28 Lilac Lane – at Creativeworld in Frankfurt at the end of the month. We’ll be located in Hall 4.2 Booth G50, across from the Creative Impulse awards display. Please do stop by and visit if you are at the show!

CHA Sneak Peek: Full Reveal of 28 Lilac Lane by May Flaum

By Nancy Nally on January 5, 2016 in Announcements

It’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for – the CHA Sneak Peek with the full reveal of the new Buttons Galore line by signature designer May Flaum called 28 Lilac Lane that we’ll be showing in Anaheim at the CHA Mega Show 2016. We’re so excited to share this with all of you!

There’s actually three parts to the 28 Lilac Lane collection being shown at the CHA Mega Show 2016!

Let’s start with the biggest element…embellishment kits! Each item in these themed kits has been painstakingly hand selected by May to be perfect for creating beautiful designs for paper crafters, mixed media, collage, fabric crafts, and a wide variety of creative projects.

The kit pictured above is called “French Quarter”. The initial release of 28 Lilac Lane embellishment kits will include twelve themes:

Adventure At Sea
Attic Findings
Autumn Afternoon
French Quarter
Hello, Cupcake
Holly Jolly
Let it Snow
Love Story
New Leaf
Party On
Paws & Pets
Tropical Twist

The kits include buttons, shimmering pearl accents, seed beads, trim, sequins, and charms. Some kits also include felt shapes and/or novelty buttons. The embellishment kits will have an MSRP of $8.99.

Below (clockwise from top left): French Quarter, New Leaf, Love Story, Adventure At Sea

Below (clockwise from top left): Hello Cupcake, Party On, Paws & Pets, Attic Findings.

Below (clockwise from top left): Tropical Twist, Autumn Afternoon, Holly Jolly, Let It Snow.

We couldn’t stop with all of that fabulousness though! You can never have too many basics like buttons, pearls, beads and sequins – versatile and useful embellishments for crafters of all kinds. So, May created a collection of additional decorative embellishment jars in color mixes especially designed to coordinate with and extend the embellishment kits!

These jars include 3 oz of buttons, 50 Pearl Accents, 10 grams of seed beads, and 10 grams of sequins, and have an MSRP of only $4.99.

The decorative embellishment jars come in twelve color themes:

Birds of a Feather
Cotton Candy
Dragon Fire
Hello, Sunshine
Just Peachy
Minty Fresh
Oh Christmas Tree
On Lilac Lane
Pretty Princess
Pumpkin Spice
Toasted Graham
Winter Blues

Below (left to right): Cotton Candy, Hello Sunshine, Dragon Fire

Below (left to right): Pumpkin Spice, Toasted Graham, Winter Blues

Below (left to right): Minty Fresh, Birds of a Feather, Just Peachy

Below (left to right): Oh Christmas Tree, On Lilac Lane, Pretty Princess

Now that is a lot of embellishment goodness to play with. But before we go…there’s one more thing. How about some sequin tins?

The final piece of the 28 Lilac Lane collection for the CHA Mega Show is a group of tins containing sequin mixes for those projects that need an extra bit of sparkle! These color mixes coordinate with the jars and kits above, so you can mix and match to create the perfect look for any project.

Below (clockwise from top left): Reds, Yellow, Pastels, Neutrals, Bold & Bright, Blues

The tins contain 40 grams of sequins, and will MSRP for $2.99.

All of these fantastic 28 Lilac Lane items will ship to stores from Buttons Galore in February 2016!

Stop by our booth (#1809) at the CHA Mega Show 2016 to see the products anytime during show hours. May Flaum will be doing demos with the 28 Lilac Lane products on Sat/Sun/Mon from 10-11:30am and 4-5pm.

A few lucky attendees of May’s demos are going to take home a CHA exclusive 28 Lilac Lane button mix…don’t miss your chance to be front and center for her demos in booth #1809!

Also, be sure to follow us on Instagram and Facebook to get live updates from the show, including booth project photos and a peek at May’s demos!

Video Sneak Peek of 28 Lilac Lane

By Nancy Nally on December 21, 2015 in Announcements

Dying to know more about the new 28 Lilac Lane collection that is coming from designer May Flaum at the CHA Mega Show next month? Well, she’s here via video to tell you some more about it!

We hope that you enjoyed a peek behind the scenes at May’s studio and the new line! Keep your eyes open soon for the full reveal of the collection!

Announcing…28 Lilac Lane by May Flaum

By Nancy Nally on December 7, 2015 in Announcements

Today we are excited to share with the craft world that the Buttons Galore family is expanding! Well-known designer and instructor May Flaum is partnering with Buttons Galore to design a signature line of products, which will launch at the CHA Mega Show in January 2016.

May runs a popular blog and education website called Craft with May, and has worked as a designer with many major craft industry brands. She’s authored two books, Scrapbook Workshop: The Best Techniques From Your Favorite Craft Bloggers and Paper + Pixels, and appeared on several seasons of the PBS television series Scrapbook Soup. Prior to the launch of her own site, May was known to many crafters as a successful instructor at Big Picture Classes, where she taught more than 25 classes.

It’s fitting, May says, that her first product line is centered around buttons.

Crafting is all about the details for me. From a light splatter of color to a trio of little pearls, a seemingly random scatter of sequins to a cluster of buttons I love adding my own touches to my projects. As a kid, my favorite spot to hunt for treasures was a set of drawers at my grandma’s house. She had everything from vintage costume jewelry pieces to tiny figurines to buttons. Here in my studio, my own set of creative treasure drawers dominate my work desk and it is always my favorite part of the creative process when I get to dig in and search for the perfect finishing touches to whatever I’m making. Scrapbook layouts to mixed media canvases, décor project to playing with the kids I love using the bits & pieces that I’ve collected over the years.

The one item that dominates my collection is buttons. Small or big, fancy or simple, I adore the versatility and universal usability of buttons. When Buttons Galore approached me about working on a line with them, I thought about my creative process and style, and how the details are my favorite part! Thinking about all of my favorite embellishments, and beginning this collection for them has been a true labor of love. I am inspired by all of the colors and happenings in my own world, and I’m excited to bring this collection to you in 2016.

The new May Flaum signature collection for Buttons Galore will be sold under the brand name of 28 Lilac Lane. The 28 Lilac Lane release at the CHA Mega Show in 2016 will include embellishment kits as well as custom button mixes specially created by May.

“Buttons Galore & More has been my main supplier of buttons for over a decade, and I am really excited to be working with them on 28 Lilac Lane,” May says. “Their button quality and variety is unmatched, and they have been wonderful to collaborate with in bringing 28 Lilac Lane to life.”

Buttons Galore is excited to have found in May the perfect collaborator for its longtime goal of creating an embellishment line, says company president Daniel Hagenman.

“May is an incredibly talented designer who is very passionate about her work. Working with May has enabled us to bring to market a product line that has been in the planning stages for several years. It has been our goal, at Buttons Galore to develop a line of embellishments that complement our vast array of buttons. May has provided the knowledge and insight to make this goal a reality. Her attention to detail and knack for selecting pieces and colors that work perfectly together make these embellishment kits special.”

In the next few weeks, we’ll be sharing more details about the products here on our blog and on our social media. Wondering what they’ll be like? Here’s a hint from May: “I am so excited to dig into these buttons, pearls, charms, and more and get creative. From card making to mixed media, sewing projects to scrapbooks – this is a line of embellishments that will allow you to create in your own way, and in your own style. The finishing touches that bring that special something to your projects.”

For our readers who will be attending the CHA Mega Show, don’t miss your chance to see the products (and May) in person in booth #1809. May will be in the booth demonstrating and answering questions about the new product line during the hours below.

Saturday: 10am-11:30am and 4pm-5pm.
Sunday: 10am-11:30am and 4pm-5pm.
Monday: 10am-11:30am and 4pm-5pm.

For an appointment outside of those hours, please contact Nancy Nally at Nancy [at] nallystudios.com.

Thanks for joining us for the “See You At CHA” blog hop!