Today, we are excited to share that we are blog hopping with Poppy Stamps!
Don’t miss all of the fun ways that designers are sharing to mix these beautiful stamps with our buttons! Also, there’s special discount codes and a giveaway to enter too! Start hopping to get all the details!
Happy Hopping!
We have an exciting announcement today for fans of our beautiful sequins: New 28 Lilac Lane Premium Sequin Tins by designer May Flaum are available now on our web store! This new collection of six sequin tins includes fun sequin options for fall and winter holidays, as well as for vacation and everyday.
First, let’s take a look at Bon Voyage…a red, white and blue mix that includes 5 different kinds of sequins and features blue stars and white hearts! Use it for patriotic projects, scrapbooking trips to national monuments, and many other things!
Next up is Mermaid Tale! In beautiful shades of turquoise blue, Mermaid Tale features pretty leaf shapes and stunning white sequins with blue tiger stripes. This mix is perfect for those beach or pool themed projects. (Or mermaids, of course!)
Pet lovers will love the new “Happy Place” sequin tin! This new sequin mix features red heart sequins, large gold sequins and a mix of brown sequins. Happy Place will be perfect for your pet projects, celebrating your love of autumn, or sending greetings to your favorite guy!
Halloween is coming fast, and we’ve got the Haunted House sequin tin for that! In a trendy purple and silver palette for Halloween, its clear and silver stars are paired with several shapes and sizes of purple sequins to create a mix that will give your projects the perfect spooky touch!
Of course, before we know it the Christmas tree will be going up…and you’re going to love the Retro Holiday sequin tin! This festive Christmas sequin tin features red and green hearts, clear stars, green sequins, and pink sequins (this year’s hot Christmas color!).
But just one holiday collection isn’t enough, so we’ve also got the shimmering Festival of Lights! This mix includes three different star sequins (silver, blue, and clear), clear flowers, and two types of blue sequins (large clear and deep blue metallic). This mix is perfect for many winter holidays (such as Christmas, Hanukkah, and New Year’s Eve).
All of these new premium sequin tins come packaged in a brush metal tin containing 30 grams of sequins, and are available now from our online store. Don’t miss out!
We’re so excited today to be able to share with you the members of our new Buttons Galore & More design team!
We’d like to thank all of the fabulous designers who applied. It was an honor to review your applications.
In the end, we selected six designers for the team, all immensely talented ladies who work in a variety of different crafts and styles. We look forward to sharing their work with you in the next few months, and hope that you love them as much as we do!
So, without further ado…here they are…your Spring 2017 Buttons Galore team!
Aimee says: “I come from a long line of women makers. I sleep under quilts that my grandmother made, my head rests on pillowcases that my aunt embroidered, and my memories are full of time spent watching my mom and grandmother create. The majority of my sewing and embroidery skills are self-taught, and I’d like to think there is a little bit of genetic love seeping through.”
Follow Aimee at her blog, her instagram, and her Pinterest to learn more about her!
Anaya enjoys designing jewelry, paper crafts, and home decor items embellished with colorful buttons. In 2007, she started YanaDesigns.com to share her love for fun projects and creative craft ideas.
Follow her at her website, her Facebook, her Instagram or her Pinterest to learn more about her.
Connie says: I am a wife and a mom. I am also “Nini” to six beautiful “grands”. I have been a crafter for over 30 years and still love the creative process. Looking forward to getting crafty with Buttons Galore & More.
Follow Connie at her blog, her instagram, or her Pinterest to learn more about her!
Katie King is a DIY blogger, who believes that crafting should be simple, fun, and unique! She started her blog, Running with a Glue Gun, in order to share her DIY projects and to meet other people who loved to craft! On Running with a Glue Gun she shares DIY tutorials, writes craft product reviews, and shares crafting tips. Her overall goal is to spread the word that you don’t need a ton of money to create an awesome, one-of-kind project!
Follow Katie at her blog, her Facebook page, her instagram, or her Pinterest to learn more about her!
After studying Culinary Arts in Portland Oregon, Kelli went back home to the sunny South West where she decided she wanted to do different kinds of Art. This busy mom of three spends all of her available free time creating in her Craft Shack “she shed” where she can be found burning wood, repurposing old stuff, crafting, sewing, and painting just about anything she can get her hands on.
Follow Kelli at her blog, her Facebook page, her instagram, and her Pinterest to learn more about her.
My name is Lorrie McCullers and I am an avid crafter. I have loved crafting with paper since I was a kid — who knew that making collages from magazine cut-outs and playing with stickers would lead me to my life-long passion? I am an AFCI Designer Member and currently serve as a brand ambassador for several crafting companies. In addition to crafts, I love to travel, read, and geek out to several sci-fi TV shows.
Follow Lorrie on her blog, her Facebook page, her instagram, and her Pinterest to learn more about her.
Congratulations again, and welcome to the new Buttons Galore team! We look forward to seeing their work on the blog in June!
We’ve got birthdays on the brain around here in May. 28 Lilac Lane designer May Flaum was inspired to make her celebration a fiesta, with a card that features a watercolor pinata and a shower of 28 Lilac Lane embellishments!
Wondering what supplies May used? Here’s a look at her list:
This fiesta birthday card by May is so fun and easy to make – for the complete how to, check out her video tutorial below!
Did you notice that something was missing from the video? Here’s May’s explanation for that step that you don’t see in the video…
I did add the pink splatter you see here after filming. Intentional? Not quite… I was cleaning up spilled a bit then said oh to heck with it and went wild! Just a reminder you can always make it work.
Yes, even the fabulous May Flaum has crafting accidents! But as she proves with this cute fiesta birthday card, you can go from “whoops” to wonderful if you just are flexible and think creatively.
This fiesta birthday card uses the pink and orange tones of the “Fruity Fun” embellishment bottle. But with a change of background cardstock and by using different colors of watercolors, you could make this design work with almost any of the 28 Lilac Lane embellishment bottles. How about the pink and green of Savannah Stroll, or the red, turquoise blue and green of the appropriately named Fiesta? Pick your favorite colors and make May’s fiesta birthday card your own!
It’s National Scrapbook Day and we are sure celebrating here at Buttons Galore!
First up, don’t miss our fabulous sale in our online store! We’re giving 25% off storewide when you use coupon code “NSDFREE” – plus as always on our website you’ll get free U.S. shipping on orders over $30.
This means you can stock up on our colorful new mason jars, get those Button Bonanzas for summer kids projects, or score some beautiful new 28 Lilac Lane for your mixed media projects – all at great prices and with free shipping (over $30).
The sale runs through tomorrow (Sunday) but don’t delay – grab your favorite item before it sells out!
It wouldn’t be National Scrapbook Day without a giveaway…so make sure to stop by and follow our Facebook and Instagram accounts so you don’t miss out, because later today (Saturday) we’ll be running a giveaway on each of those sites!
Need some ideas of what to do with your new buttons, sequins and charms? Make sure to check out our Pinterest page to get loads of great 28 Lilac Lane and button project ideas!
Buttons are a great way to add detail to home decor projects. This flower banner project uses them to finish off the flowers and banners that make a plain valance into a pretty accent for a girl’s room.
Supplies:
My daughter’s room has had this simple white valance since I first designed her nursery before she was born. She’s nearly 14 now, and it seemed time to change it up a bit. She loves everything with flowers, so I thought a flower banner would be an easy and fun way to add some more color to her room.
To make this flower banner, cut the number of triangle banners you think that you’ll need from burlap or cotton fabric. Die cut the flowers from felt and hot glue them to the front of the banners. Hot glue a button into each flower center to finish it.
Cut a length of jute twine that is long enough for your window. Fold over the top of each banner, lay the string into the crease, and hot glue the fold down. Once all of the banners are glued onto the string, finish each banner with two buttons.
If you are decorating on a budget – or even if you aren’t – this is a great way to add some style to a simple valance. And because it isn’t permanent, it can be easily removed for washing the valance, or redecorating. Make one today!
Graduation season is here! Just because the big day is a formal affair, that doesn’t mean that the cards can’t have some fun. Our 3D buttons dress up this bird so he’s ready for the walk across the stage!
Supplies Needed:
This card uses our 3D buttons as accessories for some crazy stamped characters! This character gets a whole new dimension – literally – with a fun button graduation hat and his own button diploma.
To make this card, select a card base in one of the graduate’s school colors. (You’ll want to choose the darker of the two school colors for the card base.)
Cut a 3.75″ by 5″ piece of watercolor cardstock and adhere it centered on the cardfront. Use watercolors in the lighter of the two school colors to paint a block along the bottom of the paper. Stamp the sentiments at the top and bottom in waterproof ink, and then stamp the bird in the middle.
Use the watercolors to paint in the bird. (I used the yellow school color for the bird’s wings to hold the diploma.) Then cut the shanks off of the graduation hat and diploma buttons, and adhere them to your bird.
This bird will put a smile on the face of your special grad while bringing your good wishes to them! Happy Graduation, Class of 2017!
Shaker cards aren’t just a way to celebrate birthdays…they can also be a beautiful way to celebrate a more formal occasion like a wedding! This wedding shaker card pairs a sparkly shaker mix with a doily and die cut heart to celebrate the love of a special couple.
Supplies Needed:
This shaker card features our versatile 28 Lilac Lane “Rose Garden” Shaker Mix that is a mix of gold, clear, pink, and green sequins, pink beads, and pink buttons to create the perfect shaker mix! Use this mix for occasions like weddings, to welcome a baby girl, or for a special birthday message.
Making this wedding shaker card is simple. Just die cut the doily for the card front, and then die cut the same heart shape out of both the doily and green layer of the card so they can be layered to create the card front with the shaker window. Glue the two pieces together and flip them over.
Using either a scrap of page protector or a Fuseable Pouch and Fuse tool, create a pouch that is slightly larger than the shaker window opening. Fill it about 1/2 full with the 28 Lilac Lane “Rose Garden” Shaker Mix, and then seal it with red liner tape or a Fuse Tool. Then use red liner tape to attach it to the back of the card front so that it shows through the shaker window.
To finish the wedding shaker card, attach the pink paper to the card base. Then use foam tape to attach the shaker card layer on top of the pink layer. Finally, cut a 1/2″ strip of paper and stamp the sentiment on it. Snip the ends into a banner and attach it with foam tape for dimension.
Adding buttons is a beautiful way to add some color and detail to just about any clothing item. On this button headband that I made for my daughter, the buttons create a pretty pink contrast to the turquoise and add some shine and texture.
Supplies Needed:
This project is a great way to use up scraps! To begin, I cut a 14.75″ x 4″ piece of quilt fabric. Then I cut a 13.5″ x 3″ piece of the interfacing. I then took them to my ironing board and followed the package directions to fuse the interfacing centered onto the back of the fabric. Before turning my iron off, I folded the piece in half along its length and ironed that fold in place as well.
Then I returned to my sewing table and got out my ruler and a fabric marking pencil. I marked dots 3″ from the ends of the interfacing on each side, and marked a .75″ wide measurement centered in the middle of the interfacing’s narrow end. Then I used these markings to draw lines to follow to create the taper on the ends of the headband. I also made some markings to show where my sewing should stop on the long edge that isn’t folded, so that the headband could be turned right side out.
Next I measured around my daughter’s head and figured out how much elastic it would take to make the headband fit her nicely. To figure this out, I took the measurement of her head and subtracted the length of the interfacing (which would be about the finished length of the headband). That gave me the distance that the elastic needed to cover. Then I added about a half inch to that number and cut my elastic to length.
I laid my elastic inside the folded fabric with the ends sticking out between the two lines that I had drawn. I then pinned it into place to hold it securely into position while I sewed.
I then sewed on the lines I had drawn and across the end of the headband, reversing across the elastic a few times to make it extra secure.
Then, I pulled the fabric so it was bunched up on one end of the elastic, positioned the other end of the elastic, and pinned it in place to sew.
When I was done, I was left with a fabric tube with a hole in the side that was being gathered up by the elastic inside of it.
I used the opening I had left to turn the headband right side out, and after a bit of pressing, was able to fold under the raw edges of the opening and pin them together.
To seal the opening and make the edges of my button headband lie nice and flat, I topstitched around all the way around the edges on my headband. My headband was done…but very plain!
So to fix that, I sat down with a container of the “Strawberry Cheesecake” Color Blend buttons. These shades of pink range from bubblegum to barely there, but all are gorgeous! They are perfect for projects for little girls (and big girls) of any age. I got out a needle and thread, and one and a time sewed a row of buttons along the length of the headband. Yes, by doing this step last the sewing will show on the back side of the headband, but it won’t be visible while being worn. And doing the sewing after the headband is finished makes it easier to ensure the buttons end up exactly in the center, which is a detail that will be seen.
This button headband project is slightly time-consuming but definitely worth the effort! My daughter doesn’t want to take off her beautiful new accessory, and buying a similar one in stores would be much more costly. DIY a button headband for someone special today!
The spring flowers are in bloom, and Mother’s Day will be here before you know it! So why not combine the two to make a pretty button flower card for mom for Mother’s Day?
Supplies Needed:
This 5″ by 7″ button flower card is super simple to make but so cute! And it’s so easy to make that it would make a great kids’ project for the holiday.
To start this card project, cut a 10″ by 7″ piece of white cardstock and fold in half along the 10″ edge to create your card base.
Cut a 2.5″ by 7″ piece of cardstock from the scraps of the white sheet. Select buttons from the Glam Girl Button Bonanza to make your button flowers with. Then, using the PPA Matte Adhesive, adhere the buttons in place using dots of glue. Set the flower strip aside to dry.
While the glue dries, cut a 1.5″ by 7″ strip of paper for the top of the card, and a 2″ by 7″ strip of paper for the bottom. Adhere them in place along the top and bottom of the card front.
Stamp “Happy Mother’s Day” on a yellow cardstock scrap in dark blue ink. Trim the cardstock to slightly larger in size than the sentiment.
After the glue on the flowers is dry, adhere the flower strip in place across the card front. Glue the sentiment block down on the right side of the card front, over the seam between the flower strip and the bottom patterned paper.
This card design is so versatile! Just by changing the sentiment, the design could also be used for a thank you card, or for a birthday, or for a variety of other occasions. It’s a classic that you can use over and over! To create a smaller card, just use smaller sizes of buttons. With theGlam Girl Button Bonanza bag, you can make this beautiful button flower card over and over!
This time of year means graduations, and all sorts of other occasions for which congratulations are in order. Running out of time to make cards for all of them? Just dive into your Button Bonanza bags and dig out some of the largest buttons to make balloons!
Supplies:
I used the “primary” Button Bonanza bag for this but the beauty of a simple design like this is that you could use any color scheme that works for your occasion. For a graduation or sports-related occasion, use school colors! Recent graduate got a new job? Make your balloons the recipient’s favorite colors or their new employer’s corporate colors. With our huge palette of Button Bonanza colors, the options are endless!
To make this card, select the buttons that you want to use and arrange them to make a row of “balloons”. Before you glue them down, nudge them up just slightly to get a pen in to draw your “string” lines and bows. Then use clear drying adhesive like PPA Matte Adhesive to glue the buttons down so that it looks like the strings are tied to their bottoms.
For the final step, get out a handwritten sentiment stamp (or a pen if you are braver than I am) and use black ink to stamp the sentiment in the lower right corner of the card front.
Send some button balloons to someone special!
Do you like to make things with pretty buttons, beads, and sequins? You might be the perfect match for the new Buttons Galore design team!
Our new design team members will be working with our traditional and practical Buttons Galore brand products as well as our trendy 28 Lilac Lane line. We’ll show your creations to the world via our blog and social media channels. You’ll get exciting free products and programs to earn cash bonuses, as well as the possibility to develop partnerships for teaching and other professional opportunities.
We’re looking for four designers (crafters of all kinds are welcome) with great blogs and engaged social media followings who want to share their talents using beautiful buttons, beads, sequins, and other embellishments! Successful applicants should have versatile craft skills, photograph projects well, be able to follow instructions, and be prompt with deadlines.
Responsibilities:
Benefits:
Application deadline is Midnight eastern time on April 30th, 2017.
To apply for the team, send the following information via email to nancy@nallystudios.com with subject line “BGM Team Spring 2017”:
Name:
Address:
Email:
Blog Address:
Facebook Account:
Instagram Account:
Twitter Account:
Pinterest Account:
Current Design Teams:
Previous Design Teams:
What Types of Crafts You Do Regularly:
Tell us about yourself:
Notification of new team members will be made on or about May 8th, and the new team will be announced on or about May 12th.
We look forward to working with our new team members!
Circles are trendy right now – and they are a perfect match for buttons! This five minute card project pairs circles, buttons and a retro style patterned paper to create a look for an easy birthday card that is quirky and fun!
Supplies Needed:
To make this easy birthday card, select a blank card base and use black ink to stamp a sentiment in the lower right hand corner. I chose a birthday sentiment for my card, but this card design is really suitable for a variety of occasions: hello, cheer, thank you, and many others. Simply choose a sentiment suitable for your desired occasion!
Cut a piece of paper to 5 1/2″ by 3 3/8″. Get out your circle punches and punch about a half dozen random holes in it. Adhere it across the card front, just above the sentiment.
Select buttons that fit in each of the circles and glue them down with a clear drying white glue such as PPA Matte. Try to pay attention to color balance when selecting your buttons – don’t choose too many large buttons the same color or use too many buttons close together in one area of the card that are the same color.
When the glue dries, your card is ready to be put in an envelope and delivered! This easy birthday card project would also be great for doing with kids to make teacher thank you cards for the end of the school year, And the color scheme possibilities are as endless as our Button Bonanzas…check them out and get inspired!
Spring means lots of special occasions! This flower placemat design is great for Easter, Mother’s Day, or for making a birthday girl feel extra special – and it’s super quick and easy to make!
This flower placemat uses supplies from the popular 28 Lilac Lane “Tropical Twist” kit. You can tell that it’s definitely one of my favorites since many of the supplies are used from it! Although the name of this kit, and its themed charms, are definitely summer themed, this project is a great reminder to look at your kits not just as themes but as color palettes as well.
Supplies Needed:
To start making this flower placemat, get out a large needle. Thread it with the baker’s twine from the Tropical Twist kit, and stitch around the outside edge of the placemat. (I recommend doing this is several short lengths to avoid abusing your twine and for efficiency.) To make more than one placemat, use embroidery floss for this step as the kit only contains enough twine for one.
Next, use a flower die to cut flowers out of felt (or hand cut your own). Use scissors to hand cut the leaves.
Position your flowers, and select buttons from the Tropical Twist kit to create their centers. Stitch through both the buttons and the flowers with a needle and embroidery floss to attach the flowers to the placemat. Use a needle and thread that matches the felt to stitch the leaves in place under the edges of the flowers as well.
Whether the occasion is Easter, Mother’s Day, or something else…this flower placemat will definitely brighten your spring table!
Buttons are a great embellishment for home decor projects – especially pillows! On my button heart pillow project, I used some gray buttons to create the third shape in a trio of hearts.
This button heart pillow project utilizes on of our versatile Button Basics bags of buttons. These bags contain approximately 150 two and four hole buttons between 1/2″ – 7/8″ in size, and come in a variety of colors. The beautiful color used today is Silver Gray, a lovely neutral shade of medium gray.
To start your button heart pillow, cut a piece of canvas fabric to 17″ by 36″ in size to serve as your pillow cover. This pillow cover is made using the envelope method, so it is removable to wash, clean, or to replace the pillow form.
Next select two fabrics, one for the large heart and one for the small heart. Cut the fabric to the sizes indicated in the supply list. Then, following the package instructions, iron the Therm O Web HeatnBond to the back of the two pieces of fabric. (Skip this step if you are going to hand cut your hearts and then sew them onto your pillow)
To cut out the heart shapes, there are two options. One is to create the hearts on your electronic die cutting machine and cut them out of the fabric that way. (That is what I did.) The other option is to draw them and cut them out by hand.
Place the hearts so the design they create is centered approximately vertically and horizontally on the canvas fabric. Iron them to adhere with the iron on adhesive. (Or pin in place and then sew them on if you are using that method.)
Next, draw or die cut and trace a third heart shape to serve as the outline for the button heart. Using a fabric marking pencil, trace that heart onto the pillow cover. This heart will serve as the lines to follow for placing buttons.
Hand sew buttons along the line of the heart design, keeping them centered on the traced line. Use smaller buttons at the angled parts of the heart, to avoid the buttons being too close together and making the lines indistinct.
After the buttons are completed, fold over and hem the short sides of the fabric so that the raw edge of the fabric is on the side away from the hearts. Lay the fabric out with the design facing up. Measure 15.5″ across the front of the design on the long axis of the fabric, centering the measurement on the design. Put a pin in the fabric on each side of the design where the 15.5″ extends to.
Using the pins as your fold lines, fold the long edges of the pillow in over the design to make a square. They should overlap, forming the opening that will let the pillow form in and out. Pin and then stitch a 3/4″ seam along the raw edges.
Clip the four corners, and turn the pillow cover right side out. Insert a pillow form and you are done!
(If you need more instruction on how to assemble an envelope pillow cover, there are plenty of great tutorials available for searching on Pinterest.)
This simple design can be adapted to plenty of decor styles and colors! In bright colors, it would be perfect for a teenage girl’s room. Do it in Valentine’s Day colors for a seasonal look. What will you heart doing with a button heart pillow?
Springtime is a great time for crafting! There’s so many occasions to craft for, and spring flowers are so inspiring. Here’s a sampling of some of our favorite past spring and Easter crafts from the blog to get you inspired!
This mixed media tote by designer Melony Bradley uses dyed cotton strips to make flowers and then finishes them off with buttons! There’s no mistakes, or right or wrong way to create this beautiful spring garden that will earn compliments wherever you take it.
If you are looking for a way to bring some bright spring flowers inside without bringing sneezy pollen with them, try some buttons! These pretty little blooms by designer Jen Goode are easy to make and oh-so-springy!
You can travel in style with your essentials in the button embellished zip tote that I made from bright spring colors using a simple pattern. It also makes for a wonderful gift for mom or a new graduate!
Spring flowers don’t have to mean bright colors…designer Keri Lee Sereika used gold buttons to create flowers for a beautiful vintage look on this handmade card! Send this card for a touch of more formal cheer on any occasion.
Speaking of vintage, do you have vintage (or vintage looking) Easter figurines that you would like to keep little fingers off of? Designer Dana Gustafson’s mason jar displays filled with buttons in the bottom are the perfect way to display them beautifully and safely!
Designer Jen Goode has a fun way to decorate those special Easter treats – and these felt Easter treat pouches are so easy to make that the kids can help, too. Use them year after year and make a new family tradition!
Whatever spring craft that you choose, don’t forget to stock up on all of your favorite colors of buttons before you start!
Embellishing an Easter egg card is a great reason to get out your 28 Lilac Lane embellishments and go crazy with color. The flat back pearls and buttons in our embellishment bottles will have your Easter egg card shining like a jewel!
supplies needed:
One of the great things about having a large selection of 28 Lilac Lane embellishment bottles on hand is the ability to mix and match them to create colorful projects like this Easter egg card! By combining small amounts from five different bottles, I was able to create a jeweled effect on my Easter egg that allows the egg to stand as the entire design of the card.
Locate a decorative Easter egg design in your die cut machine software. (If your machine doesn’t have this particular design, it will certainly have a similar design that can be embellished in the same manner. Look for a design with lots of straight lines or wide spaces that can be filled with embellishments.)
Cut the Easter egg design out of cardstock scraps, and assemble with glue. Then glue the assembled Easter egg to the front of a coordinating blank card base.
Using 28 Lilac Lane embellishments that coordinate with each area of the Easter egg card design, add rows of embellishments to the card with a liquid adhesive like PPA Matte.
Finish the card with a sentiment sticker in the lower right.
This is a great project for kids and grown-ups to do together….make the cards and then let the kids do the decorating!
It’s officially spring, so let’s use some 28 Lilac Lane to create a butterfly card to send some spring greetings with!
Supplies needed:
This butterfly card uses the “Love Story” kit by 28 Lilac Lane. With cream ribbon, heart charms, and embellishments in shades of red, pink & white, this kit is as versatile as it is gorgeous! Although at first glance this kit is a Valentine’s Day, wedding, or “I love you” themed kit, projects like this one are a great reminder to look at the kits for the colors of their contents as well as their themes.
To start making this butterfly card, cut a piece of green patterned paper to 4.25″ by 5.5″, ink the edges, and adhere it to the card base.
Cut a piece of blue patterned paper to 3.75″ by 5″ and ink the edges. Tie the ribbon ends together, and then secure the ribbon around the back side of the blue patterned paper. Adhere the blue patterned paper panel to the card front.
Stamp the butterfly and card sentiment on cream cardstock. Cut out the butterfly. Trim the sentiment into a 5/8″ wide strip, and snip the ends to make a banner.
Adhere the sentiment banner to the top left of the card front, and glue a button on top of it.
Squeeze a strip of glue down onto the body of the butterfly, and then layer seed beads on top of it. Once the glue is dry, use foam adhesive to attach the butterfly to the card front.
And your butterfly card is all finished, except to choose someone special to send it to!
Spring has sprung. Watercolor spring flowers embellished with beautiful touches of 28 Lilac Lane are a perfect home decor project.
Supplies:
This watercolor spring flowers project uses tangerine colored flat back pearls and sequins from the 28 Lilac Lane “Tropical Twist” embellishment kit. Tropical Twist is a summery blend of yellow, orange and green citrus shades, with some delightful flamingo pink accents! With all of the seed beads, pearls, sequins, buttons, trim and charms, Tropical Twist is sure to have the perfect touch to make your project hot, hot, hot!
This project looks complex but is super easy to make thanks to a shortcut: stamps. To create this design, simply use flower stamp sets to stamp your desired design in clear embossing ink on watercolor paper. Then heat emboss the design with clear embossing powder.
Once the design is embossed, you have a virtually foolproof way of making your own watercolor painting! Simply use a fine detail water brush to color in the design with your watercolors, following the embossed lines as a guide. Any color that gets on the embossed lines can be simply wiped away to keep them clean!
After filling in the design of your watercolor spring flowers, switch to a large water brush to fill in the background with some watery color.
For the finishing touch on your watercolor spring flowers, add some 28 Lilac Lane embellishments to the center of them with a clear drying glue like PPA Matte adhesive. Using flat back pearls or sequins as “tiles” to fill a small area of a design is a great way to get some extra pop on a project. Our kits and embellishment bottles come with plenty of sequins and pearls, so there’s no worry about running out mid-project, either!
This winter has dragged on too long. Get out those watercolors, stamps and embellishments and craft it away with some watercolor spring flowers! (And don’t forget the Tropical Twist, too!)
It’s spring break time in a lot of places and that means time to head for the beach! Let’s make some fun vacation jewelry just for the beach – a fun hemp & button bracelet!
Supplies:
This hemp & button bracelet uses one of our Buttons Galore Button Totes that is called (appropriately) Vacation. It’s a fun mix of fuschia, turquoise, light orange, and light green.
Making this button bracelet is super fast and easy!
To start, choose a large button for the center of your bracelet. Select two coordinating medium sized buttons with four holes for the sides of your bracelet, and set them aside.
Cut two long lengths of hemp. Thread one length of hemp through one of the holes in the large button, and pull it through until the ends are even. Pull one end of the hemp tight, and start tying half knots around that strand with the other strand. Stop at ten knots, or adjust for your desired bracelet length. Repeat this process for the other side of your bracelet.
Place the smaller buttons onto the bracelet by threading each of the threads on each side through two of the holes in a button. Pull the button tight against the knotted section.
Finish your hemp & button bracelet by creating slipknots to create an adjustable and removable bracelet band, or just tie your bracelet on permanently until vacation is done!
Our fabulous 28 Lilac Lane designer May Flaum is at it again, showing us all the beautiful things that can be done with her exciting new 28 Lilac Lane products that were announced at Creativation in January! This time, it’s a mixed media canvas with a profusion of pink flowers that will brighten your day – especially if winter is dragging on a little longer than you’d like!
This surprisingly easy mixed media canvas project can be made in only three easy steps, with just a few supplies, and is easy to customize o a theme or color scheme for your home or occasion.
May’s project uses her fun new 28 Lilac Lane “Fruity Fun” embellishment bottle that features an assortment of shades of (what else?) fruity pink! These brilliant shades bring to mind summer berries, watermelon, a cool glass of punch, or even flamingoes. It’s great for summer themes, flowers, and oh-so-many things!
To see more of this mixed media canvas project – and get the full 3 step instructions – visit May’s blog. Also, don’t miss the challenge on the mixed media challenge blog this month that is based on this project! (Did I mention that there is a giveaway?)
Our “Fruity Fun” embellishment bottle is just one of six new 28 Lilac Lane embellishment bottles that are shipping now from our online store: Fruity Fun, Queen Bee, Fiesta, Gemstone, Stormy Skies, and Farmhouse. Get them all!
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!
Today we’re sharing another project from our booth at Creativation. This button mosaic sun that I created brought a little bit of my home in the sunshine state to the show floor in rainy Phoenix!
This sun looks yellow, but we call it….mango! It’s made with our “Mango Madness” color blend of buttons. This blend of delightful shades of orange and yellow is perfect for sunshine-y projects of all kinds.
Although they don’t look at first like they are at all the same color palette, I combined the Mango Madness color blend with a 28 Lilac Lane embellishment bottle called “Candy Corn“. I only used seed beads. flat back pearls, and sequins from the Candy Corn bottle. Used in small doses with these tiny items, the colors work well together.
Button mosaics (or collages) are such a fun way to use buttons, and this one creates a beautiful piece of wall art home decor when you are done!
To get the full tutorial on how to make this piece of sunny wall art (or learn how to adapt this technique to make your own design), visit my website Craft Critique.
This project can be adapted to a lot of different shapes…how about an apple for teacher? Or a heart or flower for a tween room? The possibilities are endless! What will you make?
There’s many papers available for scrapbooking that are pre-designed to look already partially “done” as a layout. But how do you take those from looking flat to looking fantastic? The secret to fabulous scrapbook layouts is embellishing pre-designed paper with your 28 Lilac Lane embellishment kits! And I’m going to show you exactly how to do it with this easy scrapbook layout from my recent trip to Paris.
Supplies:
I started with a pre-designed background paper from DCWV. It is designed to look like a piece of ledger paper that has florals and several vintage elements layered on top of the left edge to frame it.
Because this paper comes from a paper stack, I was able to create practically the entire layout using pre-coordinated items from the stack. All of the paper items on the layout are cut from sheets in the same stack.
That large brown vintage receipt ephemera was white space that was just begging to be filled! It was the perfect place to put my Eiffel Tower stamp, stamped in dark brown pigment ink to continue the vintage theme.
But of course, a stamp is still flat – and I wanted to add some dimension to this area. So I grabbed my 28 Lilac Lane embellishment kits, which are perfect for embellishing pre-designed paper! A few buttons and flat back pearls from the “Love Story” embellishment kit (along with a strip of tissue tape) were the perfect addition to finish off the area where I’d just stamped my Eiffel Tower.
At the very top edge of the page, I dabbed clear glue in the center of a few of the pink flowers and dropped a few pearl sequins on them to add a bit of shine and dimension to the flowers.
On the other side of the layout, I cut and arranged all of the paper elements. I stamped the Paris stamp with Shimmer ink, and used black pen to write my journaling (leaving room to put the charm on).
Once all the paper elements and the photo were in place, I tore and stuck down two pieces of tissue tape along the edges of the large pink block. These pieces served as grounding for my buttons.
I used button shank removers to cut the shank off of the large white filigree button from the Attic Findings kit, and glued it in place at the bottom of the layout. Then I selected a cream colored button from the same kit and adhered it at the top of the layout. Finally, I glued the heart charm from the “Love Story” kit onto the journaling block.
Having a selection of 28 Lilac Lane embellishment kits on hand makes it so easy to scrapbook by embellishing pre-designed paper. Select a paper, grab the kit in the coordinating color scheme, and in minutes you can have a beautiful layout!
It’s time to share more of our Creativation booth projects! Chicken wire is so trendy right now and, paired with a button collage, it makes a gorgeous memo board!
This bright and fun button collage memo board is great decor for a kid’s room or nursery, a craft studio, or for displaying old family photos at a wedding or baby shower!
To make this heart memo board, which is about 17″ tall, it only takes two bags of our “Bubblegum” Button Bonanza buttons! This fun mix includes several shades of pink from pastel to brilliant fuchsia mixed with some white buttons. It’s perfect for everything from little girl projects to spring flowers – and of course, hearts!
The shades of pink in “Bubblegum” make a beautiful button collage on this heart memo board. The shades create a wonderful visually textured look on the frame – and there’s no worry about color matching since the shades are already pre-coordinated!
This memo board was created completely from scratch, starting with a piece of 1/4″ birch plywood. But it’s easier than you think to make, with only a few basic tools and techniques. To get the full tutorial, click here!
One of our favorite things about attending shows is the chance for our staff and some talented craft designers to show off in our booth the beautiful range of possibility that can be created with Buttons Galore products. So today, for those who weren’t at Creativation, we’re going to give you a peek into our booth at the show to see all of the gorgeous inspiration we shared!
It may have been warm in Arizona, but inside the convention center it was snowing a blizzard in our booth! These snowflakes, created by Buttons Galore staff, show that buttons make gorgeous snowflakes of all sizes from tree ornaments to wall art.
This American flag wall art piece, also created by Buttons Galore staff, combines our bulk buttons with our 3D decorative star buttons. It’s perfect for holiday decor for occasions like July 4th, or leave it up all year round for a patriotic touch of homespun decor.
Speaking of special occasions, our decorative button grab bags are a beautiful and affordable option for creating decor for events like showers and weddings! This button cake, created by designer Jen Goode, is perfect for decorating a buffet table.
Love to entertain? Our decorative 3D buttons will make your tea time, cocktail hour, or coffee break oh so elegant! This tray project, by Buttons Galore staff, is quick and easy, too!
And let’s not forget our furry family members! Our booth went to the cats and dogs with these fun frames to display your favorite picture of your pet cat (by me) or dog (by 28 Lilac Lane designer May Flaum). For the instructions for the cat frame, click here.
If you’d rather hang your pet photo on the wall, try out this dog bone wall art project by Buttons Galore staff!
This button monogram is easy to make and perfect for a nursery or kids room! (Click here for instructions.) Or create an ombre heart wall art piece for someone special to remember you by. (Click here for instructions.)
It seems everyone is in love with butterflies this season, and we agree! Our wall art butterfly, made by Buttons Galore staff, is great decor for a kid’s or teen’s room.
Text as wall art is very hot in home decor, and our staff decided to pay tribute to the greatest sentiment of all: love! These easy to make letters could be made in any colors to coordinate with the decor of a nursery or a shabby chic home decor.
Our buttons are fabulous for working in mixed media, and designer Maura Hibbitts took them to canvas for us! This whimsical sea monster is full of texture and color!
Last but not least, 28 Lilac Lane designer May Flaum shared her take on the 3D paper flower trend in our booth. Accented with a center of buttons, this flower will bring color and pattern to your walls or your party decor!
We hope that you enjoyed this peek at some of our booth projects from Creativation! Thanks to all of you who visited to see them in person!
We’re very excited to share today that Ellen Hutson is featuring our 28 Lilac Lane product line by May Flaum this month in their monthly Mix It Up Challenge, pairing their favorite products with their own Essentials by Ellen products!
As part of the challenge, 28 Lilac Lane designer May Flaum has shared two new fabulous projects on her blog that use her gorgeous new 28 Lilac Lane Unicorn Shaker Mix:
May’s quick and fun cards pair watercolors with 28 Lilac Lane embellishments to send love for Valentine’s Day (or any day). The first one uses sequins to add “pop” to an Ellen Hutson flower stamp.
You’ll really “heart” the fun simplicity of her second card – a hand watercolored heart that is embellished with sequins! It’s a little bit artsy, a little bit whimsical, and a whole lot of fun. It’s easy enough that the kids can do it – but the grown-ups will want to as well!
To see the finished cards, instructions, and supply lists, check out May’s blog for all the details! And don’t miss the chance to enter the challenge on the Ellen Hutson blog – entries close on February 14th.
Today is “send a card to a friend” day. What better way to celebrate someone special in your life “just because” than with a sparkly embellished butterfly card?
Supplies:
One of my favorite things about creating with the 28 Lilac Lane embellishment bottles is that they come in an entire rainbow of colors. This means that there is always the perfect bottle for whatever paper collection I’m in love with at the moment. For this new Graphic 45 collection called Nature’s Sketchbook, I reached for “Birds of a Feather”. It’s a perfect match for the blue tones in the papers, and a great way to add pops of colorful sparkle to my metallic butterfly!
This metallic butterfly was created with a glue and metallic flake stamping technique from Indigo Blu. It creates an opaque image even on dark paper, perfect for creating visual pop.
The butterfly is gorgeous on its own but it needed some more color to make it coordinate better with the chipboard. Also, it needed more dimension so it wasn’t overwhelmed by the chipboard elements. The blue sequins and seed beads from “Birds of a Feather,” along with the white pearls, provide just the right touch to take the butterfly from simple to gorgeous!
A few buttons from the bottle finish off the holes on several of the chipboard elements, and the whole thing is tied together beautifully! By mounting the black background on a blue card background, it keeps all of the embellishment contained and coordinated.
Who do you know that would love a blue and gold butterfly greeting? Flutter an embellished butterfly card their way!
It’s show time! This past weekend, our staff traveled to Phoenix, Arizona to exhibit at the annual trade show put on by the Craft & Hobby Association (which is now called Association for Creative Industries). Thanks to everyone who stopped by to see us at Creativation 2017!
Our booth in aisle 12 was stuffed with colorful sample boards featuring our numerous button lines, such as Button Bonanzas, Button Basics, and of course our 3D buttons!
And of course an entire section of the booth was devoted to the beautiful 28 Lilac Lane collections designed by May Flaum.
Plenty of our new products were on display. Our new Button Mason Jars, which we sneak peeked last week, were on display in a rainbow of button color!
Over on the 28 Lilac Lane wall, we showed how you can organize our cute new Sequin & Bead Mixes in a nailpolish organizer!
May’s six new embellishment bottles full of bright colors looked fabulous on a shelf in the booth!
The new 28 Lilac Lane shaker mix cubes really show off the shimmering sequins, buttons, and beads inside of them!
Our booth wasn’t the only place that you could see Buttons Galore buttons at Creativation! Designer Tammy Tutterow was doing a make & take event in the Spellbinders booth on Saturday morning that combined her signature collection’s dies with our buttons to make beautiful clips for your planner!
Our pastel Button Bonanza buttons looked great with Tammy’s felt flowers!
Thanks to all who visited the booth at Creativation! We really enjoyed spending time with all of you, and look forward to seeing you again soon!
Today we are back with one last CHA sneak peek for the Creativation trade show this weekend. This sneak peek is from our main Buttons Galore line – and what could be a more perfect combination than buttons and mason jars?
Our brand new Buttons Galore Mason Jars are filled with over 200 assorted buttons in a rainbow of colors that are perfect for your sewing, crafting, and mixed media projects. They come in 15 trendy color assortments, and retail for $5.99. Look for these in stores in mid-February 2017!
Our first color is “Greenery”, one everyone is buzzing about for 2017! This color will add an of-the-moment touch to your sewing, papercrafting, and home decor projects!
Yellow is also a hot color for this year and our beautiful “Lemon Twist” will make you long for sunshine and tall glasses of cool lemonade! Equally at home in fun kids’ projects and trendy fashion, this citrus shade is as versatile as it is cheerful.
Dive right into “Tidewater”! These turquoise blue tones will have you longing for a Caribbean beach – and is a great unisex color for a variety of mixed media, scrapbooking, and sewing projects!
Our new Buttons Galore Mason Jars come in fifteen different color assortments, and retail for $5.99:
Visit us in booth #1227 at the CHA Creativation show in Phoenix this weekend to see the whole collection of new Buttons Galore Mason Jars, as well as beautiful samples using a variety of products from our whole product line!
If you can’t attend the show, please watch our social media (links in sidebar) for posts from the show and links to blog articles with projects featuring our latest products! And watch for all of our new products in your local stores in mid to late February!
Today is our fourth and final CHA Creativation Sneak Peek for 28 Lilac Lane. (But stay tuned tomorrow for our final Buttons Galore sneak peek!) They’re cute, they’re colorful…they’re 28 Lilac Lane Sequin & Bead Mixes!
The twelve new 28 Lilac Lane Sequin and Bead Mixes retail for just $2.99, and are packaged in 20ml “nailpolish” style bottles. these special blends combine seed beads and round sequins with fun shaped sequins to create beautiful projects!
Easy to store on a shelf or in a drawer, these pretty bottles contain just the right quantity of sequins and seed beads for cards or mixed media projects!
The refreshing palette of “Citrus Fun” features crisp shades of orange and yellow paired with crystal beads. The highlight, however, is the large yellow sequins that will add a floral sparkle to your shakers or mixed media designs!
Of course, we can’t forget our furry friends! The brown shades and white sequin accents of “Puppy Paws” are definitely man’s – and woman’s – best friend in the craft room! And for the shaped sequin in this kit, what could be better than a heart to honor our furry family members?
Americana is an oh-so-trendy for 2017, and of course May has given 28 Lilac Lane its own interpretation of it. “Stars & Stripes” sparkles with a mix of blues and red, accented with gold stars. Use it for patriotic shaker cards or to accent that American farmhouse style project!
Whatever your need, there’s a new 28 Lilac Lane Sequin & Bead Mix for every occasion. Collect them all:
Visit us in booth #1227 at the CHA Creativation show in Phoenix this weekend to see the whole collection of new 28 Lilac Lane Sequin & Bead Mixes, as well as beautiful samples using the whole 28 Lilac Lane product line!
If you can’t attend the show, please watch our social media (links in sidebar) and May’s blog for more reveals! And watch for these in your local stores in mid to late February!
Today we are bringing you yet another 28 Lilac Lane CHA sneak peek – our newly repackaged 28 Lilac Lane Shaker Mixes by designer May Flaum!
The 28 Lilac Lane Shaker Mix product line isn’t exactly new – eagle eyes may have noticed that it received a stealthy launch via our web store a few months ago. But now it’s getting the spotlight with brand new packaging – a clear storage cube that makes it easy to see the beautiful sequins, buttons and seed beads inside! These larger mix packages now have a retail price of $5.99.
This blend of embellishments is especially designed to make perfect shakers for all of your cards and other craft projects, but you’ll want to use these gorgeous blends on all your designs!
With white buttons blended with blue, pink and green sequins and a sprinkling of beads, “Rainbow Unicorn” will take you on flights of fancy! This is perfect for princess projects, welcoming baby, or whatever else tickles your fancy!
Winter blues got you down? Our “Rose Garden” is in full bloom, with lush pink buttons and embellishments paired with gold sequins. It’s warm, elegant, and oh-so-pretty!
In shades of orange, yellow, and gold, “Safari Sunrise” will transport you to an African Savannah – or sunset at your favorite beach. Perfect for birthdays, mixed media projects and travel scrapbooking, these brilliant colors will light up your projects with color!
The first six themes in the Shaker Mix collection are:
Visit us in booth #1227 at the CHA Creativation show in Phoenix this weekend to see the whole collection of new 28 Lilac Lane shaker mixes, as well as beautiful samples using the whole 28 Lilac Lane product line!
If you can’t attend the show, please watch our social media (links in sidebar) and May’s blog for more reveals! And watch for these in your local stores in mid to late February!
Today we are continuing our week of sneak peeks for the CHA Creativation 2017 show at Buttons Galore with more 28 Lilac Lane previews! Today we’ve got two sneak peeks of new products to share with you from 28 Lilac Lane designer May Flaum.
Our first sneak peek is for lovers of our immensely popular 28 Lilac Lane embellishment bottles! May has designed six fabulous new bottles, to join the beautiful palette of 18 that are already available.
Do you yearn for the smell of fresh plowed dirt, grandma’s plaid dish towels, and berries picked fresh off the vine growing on the fence at the bottom of the yard? Then our “Farmhouse” embellishment bottle, a mix of Americana reds and blues paired with antique brown and creams, is just what your projects are looking for!
The full list of new 28 Lilac Lane embellishment bottles that are shipping to stores February 10th are:
The 28 Lilac Lane embellishment bottles include a blend of buttons, sequins, seed beads, and pearls, and retail for $5.99.
But wait…there’s more! We’ve also redesigned and added to our 28 Lilac Lane sequin tins!
Our popular sequin tins are still in the same great round tin packaging with a transparent lid. But now (instead of being a single round size) our new sequin tin mixes features a blend of 3mm, 4mm, 6mm and 8mm round sequins along with special shaped sequins. And the best part is the price – our new sequin tins are priced at only $3.49.
Are you ready for the wearing o’ the greenery? Lady Luck is! This new 28 Lilac Lane sequin tin blends shades of green sequins with white sequins, along with fun golden stars!
Tired of shoveling snow? A “Seaside Holiday” is just what you need! With Caribbean blues and golden sand sequins, accented with large seashell sequins, you can almost hear the waves and feel the sand between your toes!
The new sequin tin mixes debuting at CHA Creativation 2017 and shipping February 10th are:
Visit us in booth #1227 at the CHA Creativation show in Phoenix this weekend to see the whole collection of new embellishment bottles and sequin tins, as well as beautiful samples using the whole 28 Lilac Lane product line!
If you can’t attend the show, please watch our social media (links in sidebar) and May’s blog for more reveals! And watch for these in your local stores in mid to late February!
Today, we are starting five days of sneak peeks for new product releases for the upcoming CHA Creativation trade show that starts later this week! We’re kicking off these CHA sneak peeks today with some brand new 28 Lilac Lane products from designer May Flaum.
If you loved the first twelve craft embellishment kits that May designed for CHA Winter 2016, then you’ll love the six new kits that she’s designed for 2017! Here’s some sneak peeks of a bit of what you have to look forward to…
Ahoy matey! This treasure chest of pirate booty will shiver your timbers! Created in blood red and skull & cross bones black, the dastardly plunder of Pirate’s Life will make your lair’s party decor, invitations, and scrapbook layouts overflow with pirate character.
Tea and crumpets, anyone? Tea time, a collection of greens and blues paired with lace, a crown and a cameo, will have you pinky up and passing the finger sandwiches! This collection is perfect for card makers, vintage mixed media, and even travel layouts!
Click! Snap! Are you the wandering type? “Let’s go” then! It’s collection of turquoise, brown, and buttery yellow, along with touches of gold, will take you from sunrise to sunset and from sea to shining sea.
Above is just a preview! The full list of six new 28 Lilac Lane embellishment kit themes coming for CHA Creativation 2017 are:
The new 28 Lilac Lane craft embellishment kits retail for $8.99, and include buttons, charms, sequins, pearls, seed beads and trim in a divided plastic box – an all-in-one solution for embellishments that works beautifully for scrapbooking, card making, mixed media, sewing, and a variety of craft projects. The new products will be shipping to stores by February 10th.
Visit us in booth #1227 at the CHA Creativation show in Phoenix this weekend to see the whole collection of new embellishment kits, as well as beautiful samples using the whole 28 Lilac Lane product line!
If you can’t attend the show, please watch our social media (links in sidebar) and May’s blog for more reveals! And watch for these in your local stores in mid to late February!
It’s time to share who won the Season’s Giving Blog Hop!
And the lucky winner is….Cindy H!
Cindy will get to enjoy a prize pack of 28 Lilac Lane embellishments:
Thanks for reading the Buttons Galore blog and to everyone who entered our giveaway! Make sure to come back later today for sneak peeks of new CHA products!
I love making button collages on small items – you may remember my button collage apple on my teacher tag awhile back. Collaged die cuts are a fun and simple way to add some dimension and detail to a design. Today, I’m falling in love with a button collage heart for Valentine’s day!
Supplies Needed:
I started this card by cutting my 3″ high heart out of plain white cardstock on my Cricut Explore using the software’s basic shape tool. Then, starting in the upper right corner, I gradually spread white liquid adhesive (PPA Matte) over small areas and filled them in with the Strawberry Cheesecake buttons.
While my glue was drying on my button collage heart, I cut my background paper to the size of the card front and adhered it. Then I stamped the sentiment on a strip of the white cardstock. Once the ink was dry, I snipped the ends to create a banner look for the sentiment strip.
The button collage had white spaces showing through between the buttons after the glue was dry. To fill these in, I dropped spots of glue on them, and pushed seed beads from the Pretty Princess bottle down into them. Some of the white edges also weren’t entirely covered, so I ran beads of glue along those areas and pressed beads into there as well.
After all the glue was dry, I simply attached my heart and my sentiment strip to the front of the card. This simple design has a lot of “pop” from the color contrast and the button detail. I can’t wait to share it with someone special!
There are as many ways to store buttons as, well, we have buttons! But how do you know what one is right for you? Here’s our five favorite ideas for button storage so that you can always find the ones you need quickly and easily.
Grandma had the right idea…”Grandma’s button jar” is a great way to store buttons functionally as well as beautifully. Mix them all together, or make a rainbow of jars to choose from for your projects.
They’re affordable, easy to get in a multitude of sizes, and everyone knows how to use them! It’s easy to see what you have inside clear zip bags, and best of all – they are easily portable for crafting on the go!
Hardware drawer units aren’t just great for nuts and bolts – they’re great for small items like buttons in the craft room, too. So go ahead, raid the garage. We won’t tell where that hardware drawer unit went! (photo credit: May Flaum)
photo credit: May Flaum
Looking for a button storage solution that is lightweight and unbreakable, but still stackable? Resealable plastic food containers might be the answer for storing your buttons. They are available in plenty of sizes, and in either disposable or heavy duty weights, depending on your budget. Try your local dollar store for budget options!
These come in different types and no matter what you call them – jewelry storage, tackle boxes – there’s no argument that small compartmentalized boxes are great for button storage and for storing other small items, too. Easy to tuck in a drawer or a craft tote, these boxes are an easy way to keep your button stash organized.
What is your favorite button storage method? Please share in the comments to inspire other readers with your ideas!
Welcome to the Seasons Givings blog hop at Buttons Galore! Today, we are joining with a group of industry companies and bloggers to start 2017 off by saying a big “thank you” to the people that make us possible – YOU!
To say thank you, we’re giving away a goodie bag of 28 Lilac Lane products that will make your Valentine’s Day and spring scrapbooking and cardmaking simple and a joy! Your treats include one of our BRAND NEW 28 Lilac Lane Shaker Mixes, called Unicorn Rainbox – a mix of buttons, beads and sequins that is perfect for making shaker cards (and lots of other things, too).
One lucky winner will receive:
How To Enter: All you have to do to have a chance to be the lucky winner is leave a comment on this blog entry before 11:59PM US eastern time on Friday night, January 6th, 2017. Make sure you include your email address in the line reserved for it on the comment form (for your own protection, don’t put it in the text of the comment, where it will be visible to the public – just in the line labeled “email” in the form where only Buttons Galore staff can see it). We will need it to notify you if you are a winner. Winners will be drawn by random drawing from all eligible entries. One entry per person. Sorry, US delivery addresses only.
Thanks for visiting – and now, on with the blog hop!
2016 is coming to an end, and it’s time to take a look back at the best of our button (and sequin) projects for the year. We hope you enjoy taking a look at the year’s highlights, and find some things you missed – or forgot how much you loved the first time!
A monogram is just the thing for baby’s room, and buttons add just an extra touch of cute to one. Use traditional pink or blue, or choose a color to coordinate with baby’s nursery for home decor style.
Guest artist Becki Adams used primary colors to create a giant title out of buttons and sequins on an adorable layout about her children reading. Paired with a bold black and white color scheme, the colors really pop!
Guest artist Candy Rosenberg used buttons to dress up her signature design icon – a dress form. Using a palette of neutrals along with pale green and peach, Candy created an eye popping “dress” that is at once vintage and modern. This beautiful lady will be at home in your home decor or decorating an art studio!
A little sparkly sunshine is always seasonal! This simple sequin collage card using our 28 Lilac Lane sequins will have someone special looking on the bright side of life, and let them know you are thinking of them.
Buttons make a big impact in a big collage. Encase them in resin, and you’ve got a surface that is both practical and pretty. Creating a collage of ivory and pearl buttons gives a gorgeous vintage look to this wooden tray, creating a project that will decorate your party or wedding.
Our 28 Lilac Lane embellishments are so pretty, you’ll want to wear them – and you can, in this mixed media locket project! Layer charms, buttons and beads to create a one of a kind piece of jewelry. The options are as endless as our 28 Lilac Lane color palette!
What is cheerier than a rainbow? Creating this bright button rainbow card to bring some cheer to someone you care about is surprisingly easy. Learn how we did it!
With our huge selection of colors, a button collage can be customized to any decor. This project utilized our trendy new Glam Girl Button Bonanza to make a button collage frame that is perfect for a kid’s room – or a grown-up room, too.
We hope you enjoyed our walk down memory lane of the best of button projects of 2016! We can’t wait to share more beautiful things – and products – with you in 2017!
Are you feeling the love? It’s time to start thinking Valentine’s Day! This geo heart valentine card is trendy, fun, and best of all…oh so easy to make!
Supplies:
Valentine’s Day is the perfect time to use our 28 Lilac Lane embellishment kit called “Love Story”. This kit is packed full of beautiful rose and white buttons and seed beads, along with gold and rose pearls and sequins. For those extra-special greetings, there’s even a few charms and some ribbon, too. Love Story will make loads of valentines for the ones you love!
One of my favorite things to do with my 28 Lilac Lane embellishments is to customize my stamps with them. I love stamps, but it can be difficult to create different looks using the same image repeatedly to get value out of it. Adding buttons, sequins, pearls, or beads over an image can help make it look like an entirely new design!
This clean and simple geo heart valentine card design is very quick and easy to make with only a few basic supplies. It truly is only a ten minute project! Or it can turn into twenty minutes if your cat gets up on your work table and knocks over your entire container of beautiful “Love Story” embellishments so you have to clean them up. (Let’s not talk about how I know that…)
To make this geo heart valentine card, I cut my floral paper to the size of the card front. Then I glued it down to the blank white card base. I cut the heart print paper a half inch smaller each direction, and glued it centered on top of the floral paper. To finish preparing the card base, I stamped the sentiment in black ink on the center of the bottom of the card front.
I stamped the geo heart design on white paper with embossing ink, and then heat embossed it with gold embossing powder. I used fine pointed scissors to cut out the heart. Don’t worry if your hand cutting skills aren’t the best! Since this heart doesn’t have super smooth curves, it’s quite easy to hand cut.
To embellish the heart, I glued a few gold sequins at the intersections of lines in the geo heart. Then I chose a nice big rose button for a big pop of color, and then tied it off with matching embroidery floss before gluing it down. Finally, I used foam dot adhesive to attach the heart to the card front.
It’s a gift box…it’s Christmas decor…it’s a Christmas album! Today, we are closing out our Christmas projects with a Christmas Village Gift Box that is beautiful holiday decor while it hides a few secrets!
Supplies:
This project is based on an “explosion box” by DCWV. Take the lid off, and it opens up to hide a small gift inside and also show a few mini album pages!
All of the sides of the box are covered in fun patterned papers that were applied decoupage style with white glue. Once the glue dried, embellishments were added. The “door”was cut from black cardstock and glued on, along with a button handle. The wreath sticker had sequins added to it before it was attached with foam dot adhesive to give it depth. And on the rear, a sticker announces the house as a gingerbread bakery!
The roof top of my Christmas village gift box was left blank when the papers were decoupaged on the rest of the house. The blank white surface gives the appearance of snow, but was pretty boring. A collage of white buttons, interspersed with white glitter glue, gives the roof some fun texture! I used a combination of several of our most popular white and ivory button assortments to create my roof, but any one of them would work fine by itself.
I applied the buttons only to the two large surfaces of the roof, and then dripped the glitter glue like icicles down the sides onto the two small edges. I also dripped the glitter off the rear edge of the house. The great thing about this technique is that there is no “wrong” way to do it, since it is supposed to look messy and random.
This fun little Christmas village gift box with buttons up on the roof top will decorate your holidays long after it is opened! Have a happy holidays, everyone!
TExt
Whether you are looking for a last-minute gift idea, or to brighten your home decor for the new year…this mixed media wall art project by 28 Lilac Lane designer May Flaum is just the thing for your walls. It’s an easy home decor canvas that can be completed in just a few minutes, but packs a visual punch!
easy home decor canvas by May Flaum
Only a few basic supplies are needed for creating this project:
The mixed media technique for this easy home decor canvas is messy and random looking – and therefore very forgiving and difficult to screw up! Just smear the shades of paint in one direction across your canvas – and remember to make sure it is nice and thick for a beautiful textured look.
Next, use your palette knife to smear a shape into the paint. Use liquid adhesive to add your embellishments and gold leaf on top of the smeared shape. Finally, spritz with gold mist for an extra touch of shine!
easy home decor canvas by May Flaum
It’s that simple to create beautiful wall art! And don’t forget that May’s mixed media technique on this easy home decor canvas can be adapted very simply to many color schemes and shapes. Try the 28 Lilac Lane Hello Sunshine bottle with shades of yellow and white paint to create a beautiful moon for a nursery wall. Or create a heart in shades of pink using Pretty Princess to add a touch of artsy elegance to a dorm room. The possibilities are as endless as our color palette of 28 Lilac Lane embellishment bottles!
Think buttons aren’t a match for modern style? Our 28 Lilac Lane “Winter Wonderland” embellishment bottle, paired with washi tape, makes a quick and easy modern Christmas gift tag that will add sparkle and style to your special gift this Christmas!
Supplies:
To create the tag base, cut the 6×6 pad in half to create a 3×6 piece. Snip off two corners to create the top of the tag, and then use a hold punch to create the hole.
Lay a strip of the gold washi tape across across the tag about 2/3 of the way down from the top. Cut two more small strips and position them one to each side closer to the top.
Select buttons to create a row across the tag along the bottom of the washi tape. Adhere the buttons using white glue or a hot glue gun.
From the white cardstock, cut a 5/8″ strip. Write the to/from information for your gift on it, and then snip the pieces off of the strip. Adhere them using paper adhesive.
Cut a length of yarn. Loop it through the tag’s hole and tie it off to attach your gift.
This modern Christmas gift tag only takes a few minutes to make, but will definitely brighten up your Christmas wrapping for someone special!
Looking for an activity to entertain the kids this Christmas? Our felt Christmas tree ornament project is quick and easy, and perfect for kids of all ages! Better yet, it’s a great (and affordable) activity for doing with large groups for parties and class activities.
Supplies:
Any felt will work for this project, but I chose to use the heavier Eco-Fi Plus because it stands up better to the weight of the buttons than thinner felts and hangs better as a result.
Constructing these tree ornaments are fast and simple. They are created from two simple shapes cut by hand from felt and/or burlap. Older children can draw and cut their own shapes, and the shapes can be pre-cut for younger children.
Assembling the tree parts (and adhering the buttons) can be done with hot glue or with a clear drying white glue, depending on the age of the kids making the ornaments. The hot glue will dry faster, if the ornaments need to be moved or hung quickly. Or, to make the project even more educational, practice some sewing skills and sew everything together!
Choosing different buttons will make each kid’s felt Christmas tree ornament look unique! For a fun country Christmas look, I decorated my felt Christmas tree ornament with buttons from our new Button Bonanza called “The Merriest”.
To complete your ornament, it needs a hanger. I made a loop of twine and attached it to my ornament with hot glue. Ribbon or yarn could also be used.
This easy and fun felt Christmas tree ornament will provide fun for the whole family, and the kids will love creating their own personal design for it! These ornaments would also make beautiful custom gift tags (with the addition of an address label sticker on the back for writing on) for grandparents that can be saved and treasured for years to come.
Are you going to button up your Christmas tree this year?
Stamps are a great investment because they are a tool that can be used over and over again. However, using them over and over again can quickly get boring…so how do you spice things up and put the fun back in your stamps again? 28 Lilac Lane has the answer!
Supplies Needed:
One of my favorite ways to make my old stamps look new again is to embellish them! And with the 28 Lilac Lane embellishment bottles, I have the choice of seed beads, sequins, flat back pearls, and buttons to embellish my stamps.
I chose the Cotton Candy bottle because it matched my paper pad. [The 28 Lilac Lane “Cotton Candy” embellishment bottle is available at the our online store, Scrapbook.com, A Cherry On Top, Ellen Hutson, Simon Says Stamp, Create for Less, and others, or check your local retailer].
To create this card, I first made a card base by folding a half sheet of letter sized cardstock. Then I cut a 3.75″ by 5″ piece of the blue plaid paper, and inked the edges in Iced Spruce before adhering it in the center of the card front.
Next I used embossing ink to stamp the snowflake design on the top of the card front, and heat embossed it with white embossing powder. Once the heat embossing was cool, I selected embellishments from the Cotton Candy bottle and adhered them with small dots of clear drying white glue.
The sentiment on the bottom of the card front was created by first stamping the label outline in Victorian Velvet on the pale turquoise patterned paper. Then I cut out the label using scissors, close to the edge of the stamped label. I stamped the sentiment in Iced Spruce, and adhered the label to the card front.
What stamps do have that could be given new life with embellishments?
What’s sparkly, shiny, and shimmery all over? It’s a 28 Lilac Lane Christmas, of course! Here’s a round-up to all the projects that you need to make your Christmas a 28 Lilac Lane Christmas!
No 28 Lilac Lane Christmas would be complete without a tree! This little wooden Christmas tree bought from a craft store got a touch of alteration – including some 28 Lilac Lane button bling – from designer May Flaum to make it extra special.
But why stop at a tree? Deck the halls with buttoned up banners that are fun and easy to make!
The gifts that go under the tree need their own sparkle too, and with 28 Lilac Lane, your gifts will look festive and gorgeous! A clean and simple understated look to your gift box is easy when you top it with charms and buttons:
Or go for a more luxurious look, with a button and jewel encrusted top like this one by 28 Lilac Lane designer May Flaum that is rich and feminine! This is one gift box that won’t be going in the trash after the gift is opened!
Since not everyone can get our Christmas wishes in person, how about some Christmas cards?
To see a video on how to make these two beautiful cards, and get information on a free card making class at Scrapbook.com that uses 28 Lilac Lane, visit May Flaum’s blog!
Or, if bright retro is more your style…try our funky paper pieced trees card:
A button border makes any project a little more special. The 28 Lilac Lane one on this Happy Howl-idays card is spiced up with pearls and sequins for some extra bling!
Have you made a 28 Lilac Lane Christmas project? Please share a link in the comments! We’d love to see it!
Nothing’s more fun at Christmas than an ugly Christmas sweater. So why not send one to a friend in the form of an ugly Christmas sweater card for the holidays?
Supplies Needed:
This card’s technique is simple – just creating two strips of paper by stamping the sweater knit stamp over and over, alternating the color and embossing it. The Twisted Citron ink is embossed with clear embossing powder, and the red is clear embossing ink that is heat embossed with Red Tinsel powder. The strips need to alternate to create the effect on the front of the card.
Doing all that stamping and embossing while changing colors takes a bit of time, but the result is a great effect!
Once strips are made, they can be adhered to a card base. Start by attaching the one on the right side of the front. Position it, glue it down, and then trim off any excess. The front is layered, with the left side overlapping the right panel, so there’s no need to worry about how wide the panel is on the card front.
To emphasize the layered effect and create bulk in it as if it really is a sweater placket, adhere two inch wide strips of paper underneath the right edge of the left panel before attaching it to the card front. This will slightly raise the area under the buttons up, creating depth and shadow that look like a true sweater! For a little extra shadow, run a dark red pen or inkpad along the paper edge where the pieces overlap as well.
Now that your sweater has a placket, it needs buttons to fasten it! “The Merriest” Button Bonanza has red and green shades that match the card base. Adding in the the pink and blue shades that are also in the assortment looks a bit random on top of all of that red and green, and is the perfect way to “ugly” up your ugly Christmas sweater card. Glue your buttons down with a clear drying adhesive like PPA Matte Adhesive.
The finishing touch is the “patch” that has the sentiment on it. Just stamp and emboss the sentiment, and then draw stitching lines around it with a pen. Adhere it at a jaunty angle to your sweater’s “front” and you are done!
Who do you know that needs an ugly Christmas sweater card? Send them one today!
Christmas isn’t just green and red anymore…pink and blue are also becoming more part of the palette. Today, I’m going to show you how to create a beautiful pastel Christmas tree card with our versatile new “Coral Reef” Button Bonanza bag!
Supplies Needed:
This card uses our new “Coral Reef” Button Bonanza to create a fun pastel blue and pink Christmas look that is super trendy and oh-so-pretty! The shades of pale blue, soft rose pink, and white are perfect for a retro pastel Christmas tree card look.
Making this card is fast and easy, but with the gorgeous patterned papers and the pearly button accents, it looks anything but plain!
To begin your card, cut the pink background for your card base to 4.25″ by 5.5″. Then cut the garland paper to 4″ by 5.25″, and adhere it on top of the pink base. Next, get out a blank card base and adhere the layered background to the front of it.
Stamp the Christmas tree in brown ink on blue text pattern paper, and then add the star in gold at the top. Trim closely to the tree in a rectangle shape. Adhere the tree block on top of the pink striped paper, and trim it to leave a small border around the edges of the tree.
Select buttons from the Coral Reef collection, and use PPA Matte Adhesive (or other clear glue) to adhere them to the tree. Once the glue is dry, attach the tree block to the card base, angled in the upper left corner.
Stamp sentiment on green patterned paper, and trim to size. Adhere in lower right corner.
This pastel Christmas tree card design could be used to create seasonal trees all year round – pretty spring blossom colors mixed with bright green, fall colors, or all white for a snow covered winter tree! What season’s tree will you button up?
Nothing says you care at the holidays like a handmade gift! These DIY Holiday Gift Ideas with buttons will help you create a gift that matches everyone on your list.
With a few jewelry findings and one of our 28 Lilac Lane embellishment kits, you can make a one-of-a-kind locket for a special woman (or girl) in your life. Make it sweet, or make it dramatic…you decide and choose the embellishments!
A button collage frame is so easy to make the kids can do it…but with the right color choices, it can be perfect for any decor from farmhouse to graphic. This one, made with our Glam Girl Button Bonanza, will fit in a tween room or a country decor. An all white version (like the tray below) could go shabby chic, or try shades of pink for a cute girl’s room accessory!
A simple wood tray becomes a beautiful accessory for decor or entertaining with a button collage and some resin. For a shabby chic look, choose the Ivory/Pearl Haberdashery buttons, or for a more rustic or beachy feel for poolside entertaining, try the Natural Haberdashery.
How about a little button bling? Pair some of our Gold/Silver Haberdashery buttons with a chain link bracelet and you’ve got a retro Button Charm Bracelet. It’s a great piece to accessorize all of those trendy 70’s looks with!
Looking for something pretty and practical too? This mason jar sewing kit will make it easy and fun for your college student or newlywed to replace that missing button. And it is decorative while it is waiting to be used!
We’re cat owners at our house, and as anyone who owns a cat knows…it makes Christmas decorating extra, well, interesting. We decorate, the cat un-decorates. So today, my project is a Merry Christmas cat card that celebrates that annual feline-human war of December!
Supplies:
This Christmas cat card has a very simple design. It’s featured embellishments are Christmas ornaments made from buttons from the “Tis the Season” Button Bonanza that is brand new for this holiday season. Featuring deep red and green tones that are accented by a light sage green shade, “Tis the Season” is a versatile button mix for almost any holiday craft project.
Instructions:
Cut a piece of watercolor paper to 4.5″ by 6.5″. Use Archival ink to stamp the Crazy Cat.
Use a ruler and the black pen to draw the line across the bottom underneath the cat. Don’t draw through the cat’s paws!
Scribble on a scrap piece of watercolor paper with the Distress Crayon. Using your waterbrush, pick up some of the color and use it to watercolor the cat.
Cut a piece of patterned paper to 5″ by 7″ and ink the edges. Adhere the watercolor paper centered on it. Cut a piece of cardstock to 7″ by 10″. Fold in half to make a 5″ by 7″ card, and adhere card front to it.
Cut a strip of patterned paper 1/2″ wide. Stamp the sentiment on it, and trim the ends. Adhere to bottom right of card.
Select three buttons to serve as your “ornaments”. Thread the holes on the buttons with German style wire. Use the tail of the wire to create a loop for the ornament’s “hanger” before snipping off the excess wire.
Use liquid glue like PPA Matte Adhesive to glue the button ornaments in place.
Since it mostly relies on bulk supplies like buttons and tools like stamps to make, this Christmas cat card could easily be made in quantity. Simply substitute cardstock or a variety of patterned paper for the paper used for the matted background and the sentiment strip. and you can make this card over and over with a Button Bonanza and your stamp! And since it is fast and easy to make, your cards will be done in no time!
Tis the season to be jolly! Today I’m here to show you how to combine two of our holiday products that have a turquoise toned blue in their palette to make a fun retro Merry Christmas card!
Supplies Needed:
This project pairs seed beads from our beloved 28 Lilac Lane “Let It Snow” embellishment kit with buttons from our new “Cool Winters” Button Basics. With similar tones of blue, these two coordinate together beautifully to add a pop of trendy color to holiday projects of all kinds.
This card is 5″ by 7″, so to start my retro Merry Christmas card I cut the snowflake background paper to that size.
Next, I cut a 5″ wide strip of white cardstock that was a few inches tall. I stamped “Merry Christmas” on it with red ink, centering the image near the bottom. Then I used scissors to cut the top of the sentiment block into a wavy design.
To create the beaded edge, I started by spreading a bead a white glue along the edge. Then I sprinkled seed beads over the glue until it was covered, and set the sentiment block aside to dry.
Cutting the trees is easy! I simply used three scraps of paper and cut them into various sizes of triangles. The tree “trunks” are made from washi tape (but could also be made from strips of paper). Some of the tree triangles hung over the edge, so I just snipped them off. Once those elements were adhered in place, then I used liquid glue to adhere three buttons as toppers for the trees.
Once the glue holding the seed beads was dry, then I adhered the sentiment block across the bottom.
To finish my card, I used white cardstock to make a blank card and then adhered the finished card front onto it.
I hope this cheery little retro Merry Christmas card greeting will help you brighten the holidays of someone special!
Welcome to the Handmade Holidays blog hop at Buttons Galore! We’re sharing a faux wood pallet Christmas tree to decorate a desk or tabletop…but this tree is hiding a very useful secret!
This fun little pallet Christmas tree is equally at home in a dorm room, or a farmhouse style decor. But at 17″ wide and more than two feet tall, it’s a challenge to store after all the gifts are opened. Or is it?
By using Industrial Strength Velcro to assemble the pallet Christmas tree instead of glue or nails, I made it able to be completely disassembled! Just pull apart the Velcro and instead of a big awkward tree, you’ve got a small bundle of wood that can be much more easily packed in an ornament box!
Disassembly also allows the flower pot – which is deliberately not seasonally decorated – to be used year round for flowers or other seasonal decorations when it isn’t being used for the tree.
Supplies Needed:
I started by cutting the craft wood into the following lengths: 6″, 9″, 12″, 14″, 16″ and 17″. Then I trimmed the 1″ x 2″ pine board to 26″ in length.
I used the Americana satin paint (made by DecoArt) in multiple thin coats applied with a foam brush to get a nice smooth finish on the boards.
After the paint was dry, I laid out my boards in the arrangement for the tree. Then I started decorating my tree! I used Button Shank Removers to cut off the stems from the Haberdashery buttons, and filled in around them with buttons from the 28 Lilac Lane bottles and kit. Tiny green sequins from the Yuletide Greetings bottle added nice little sparkly highlights around various areas of the tree, too!
When it was all glued down, I was left with this! Notice how I hung some of the button “ornaments” off the edges of some of the wood branches to add some interest.
Attaching the branches to the stem was super easy with the Velcro. First, I cut 1.25″ squares from the Velcro. Then I measured and placed a mark at the center of the back of each “branch”. I peeled one side of the Velcro and adhered it centered vertically on the branch, using the center mark to get it centered left to right.
Then I peeled the second side of the Velcro and pressed the branches into place on the tree’s “trunk”. Once they were in place, I glued a big gold button to the top of the trunk as my tree’s top.
Painting the pot is fast and easy! I just dipped a paintbrush in water and then into the white chalk paint. This diluted the paint and when it spread, it created a whitewash effect. In areas that it didn’t spread as much as I would like, I just dipped the brush in water again and used the water to dilute the paint a bit more.
To create a second layer of paint for a mottled effect in the whitewashing, I repeated the technique with the more cream colored chalk paint. This time I just dabbed the paint instead of trying to fully cover the pot, and it created the textured look below.
The base is part of what makes the pallet Christmas tree collapsible. I trimmed the foam so that it fit nicely into the pot, and then carved a hole down the middle of it for the tree trunk. To make the fit nice and snug, I wrapped the trunk in a strip of felt. This method makes the fit adjustable as wear and tear erodes away the foam base!
For the finishing touch, to hide the foam, I covered it in a layer of moss.
This faux pallet Christmas tree is the perfect decoration for a buffet table, an office, or a kid’s bedroom! There’s so many places to use it…where will you put yours?
Now, it’s time to get hopping to see more holiday decor ideas. But before you go…how about a giveaway? Here’s a peek at the huge assortment of prizes that are up for grabs!
Use the Widget below for your chance to enter!
Thanks to all of our fellow sponsors!
Now…click here to visit the next stop on the hop – or click below to see the entire hop list:
A few weeks ago we introduced you to our six new 28 Lilac Lane embellishment bottles. Candy Corn, Winter Wonderland, Yuletide Greetings, Savannah Stroll, Through the Woods, and Coral Reef embellishments bottles are currently shipping, just in time for holiday projects and stocking stuffers!
Today, I’m here to show you an up close look at a project by 28 Lilac Lane designer May Flaum! This project uses the gorgeous and versatile 28 Lilac Lane Coral Reef embellishment bottle, a blend of coral pink and shades of green that is seasonal year round.
The delicate tones of Coral Reef are perfect for using with watercolors. With its natural floral color palette, Coral Reef works beautifully for watercolor floral cards! In the video below, designer May Flaum shows how she paired her 28 Lilac Lane Coral Reef embellishment bottle with a stamp to create a quick and easy floral greeting!
Here’s a closer look at May’s finished card…just a sprinkling of Coral Reef embellishments takes this card from simple to simply fabulous! It’s simple, quick, and easy to do, but makes all the difference in the finished card.
Check with your Buttons Galore local retailer or visit our online store to get your 28 Lilac Lane Coral Reef embellishments today!
It’s November and that means…the leftover trick or treat candy has been eaten (at least at our house)…and it’s time to jump full on into Christmas trees and snowflakes and all things Christmas! For our readers that like to personalize their gifts, today I’ve got a holiday gift tag that will be remembered long after the holiday is over!
Supplies:
The background on this tag was created by inking a craft mat with the four shades of blue Distress Ink, spritzing it with water, and then dragging the tag through it. A heat gun helped to speed the drying process. The nice thing about this technique is that if you don’t like the effect that you get, you can add and remove color by spritzing the tag with water, or adding another layer of color, until you get just the effect that you are happy with.
Once the background was thoroughly dry, I stamped the snowflake stamp with clear embossing ink and heat embossed it with white embossing powder. Since the stamp was not as tall as the tag, I made sure that I started the stamp at the bottom of the tag. Using the PPA Matte Adhesive to glue a line of buttons across the area where the snowflakes stop disguised the transition area from snowflakes to plain background.
Next, I stamped the poinsettia stamp in Archival ink on watercolor paper, and colored it in with watercolors and a waterbrush. Finally, I trimmed it to a size that would work on the tag.
It’s not very visible in the photos, but I used Stickles to create a border around the outside edge of the poinsettia square to add a little extra glint of sparkle to the tag. I also used various colors of seed beads from both of the embellishment kits to create some dimension in some areas and create the flower’s center. (The seed beads in our kits adhere beautifully with the PPA Matte Adhesive, which is what I used here.)
The trickiest part of assembling this holiday gift tag is getting the loops of silver string and the poinsettia layered and adhered. I laid down a pool PPA Matte Adhesive in the middle of the tag, and created my string loops by passing the string through the glue area repeatedly. Then I pressed the poinsettia block down on top of it and when it dried, everything was adhered together!
At first glance, it looks like the snowflake charm is looped through the string but if you look closer…it is not. I simply glued it on with the loop laying over the string. This helps everything lay a little more flat and stay adhered better.
The final touch on my holiday gift tag are the two phrase stickers I added in the bottom corner. If you didn’t want to put the to and from information on the reverse side, these strips could have it instead.
Christmas shopping time has arrived…and so has Christmas gift crafting time! A custom piece of jewelry is the perfect DIY holiday gift for a friend or family member…and with 28 Lilac Lane embellishments, a surprisingly easy one!
Supplies:
This locket is built using a very simple process. Fill the bottom of the locket with a single layer embellishments. Start with the large items (the buttons) and then fill in around them with the small items like the beads and pearls. Vary the color and placement of the items. Select a charm but don’t place it in the locket just yet!
Once you are satisfied with the placement of your bottom layer of embellishments, get out your Ice Resin. Following the directions on the package, use the Ice Resin to fill in a layer of epoxy on top of the layer of embellishments. Stop filling when the layer is just slightly covered. Before the resin dries, press the charm that you saved earlier into the top of the epoxy. It should just be slightly embedded, protruding out the top of the epoxy layer.
To create the ribbon embellished chain, thread a large needle (or a knitting darning needle) with the ribbon. Then weave it in and out of every other link the chain so that it is threaded into it. Tie the ribbon off to the chain at each end.
The fun thing about these DIY holiday gift lockets is that they can be created for any theme or color scheme, to perfectly match the recipient it is intended for! To see a different interpretation of this project in a pink color scheme, check out our previous mixed media locket article.
In only a few weeks, December will be upon us! For many scrapbookers, that means recording our December holiday celebrations in special page-a-day pocket scrapbooks. Our 3D buttons are a fun and simple way to add embellishment to your December album!
Most of us using pocket scrapbooks for our December album will have at least a few 4×6 cards in our album to highlight important topics or days. This journaling card could hold very large number stickers to put focus on a special date (such as #25) or the kraft colored tag could be used for journaling space!
Supplies:
To make this card, I cut a 4″ x 6″ piece of patterned paper. Then I stamped “Merry Christmas” on the bottom right and embossed it with clear embossing powder. After I die cut the tag from cardstock, I looped ribbon through the hole, and secured it with a staple. I adhered the tag in place and laid the sticker in place on top of it.
The buttons were the final touch. These buttons are shank buttons, so I had to use button shank removers to give them a flat back. Before gluing them down, I used a pen to draw “strings” from the top of the card to the locations of the baubles that I wanted hanging. Then I glued all three buttons down on top of the drawn strings, and also added the Christmas tree in the bottom left corner.
Supplies:
I also started this 3×4 card by stamping the sentiment in the upper part of the white box. Then I added the washi strips in the bottom part of the box, trimming them so they fit the decorative shape of the bottom corner. I die cut the small holly leaves and adhered them, adding small red buttons as berries. Finally, I cut the shanks off of two 3D present buttons and glued them down in the bottom right corner using PPA Matte adhesive.
Whether you are using a kit or doing it yourself, we’ve got the perfect buttons for your December album. Visit the Christmas category on our website, or our new section to see our latest releases to find great options for your album!
Halloween is coming fast! But there’s still time to make a few more Halloween projects – like this fun scaredy cat halloween tag! It makes a great decoration on a spooky tree or a fun goody bag attachment.
To make my scaredy cat halloween tag, I started with the middle tag below. This is a set of three tags that I made using Distress Spray Stain. I sprayed the three colors of stain on my craft mat in a triangle arrangement, and pressed the first tag into them. That created the tag on the left below. Then I added some water to the mat using my Distress Sprayer, and swiped a tag across my mat again, which got me the tag in the middle that I used for this project. Finally, I took a third tag and swiped it through the color mix that remained on the mat. By that time, the three colors were mixed together enough on the mat that it produced a more brown color, giving me the tag on the right.
Decorating this tag started with a lot of stamping! I stamped the cat in black and heat embossed it with clear embossing powder. Then I stamped the pumpkin in brown, coloring in the part of the blueprint stamp that I wanted to use and stamping it. To make them look wispy, I used silver ink to stamp the spider webs to fill the top of the tag area.
Once the stamping was done, I stuck down the phrase stickers and the letters to spell “Boo!”
Next I got my PPA Matte Adhesive liquid glue to start adding some beautiful embellishments! Well, first I added a scary one…I cut the shank off of a spider button using button shank removers and glued it onto the spider web on the upper left of the tag. In that spot it looks like the cat is looking at it!
To make the cat’s eyes look really bugged out, I selected two dark colored seed beads from the 28 Lilac Lane “Paws & Pets” embellishment kit and glued them on top of the stamped dots in the cat’s eyes. It makes the cat look even more scared!
Finally, I dumped the new 28 Lilac Lane “Candy Corn” embellishment bottle (pictured above) into a craft tray, which is a great way to contain all of the small embellishments while you are looking for just what you need. With it all spread out I selected several small sequins to glue on to the spider webs, and glued some small seed beads, sequins, and a button onto the bottom of the pumpkin to give it some orange coloring.
To really look finished, my tag needed some ribbon through the hole. I selected some gray and some black and strung them through the hole. But instead of tying them off, I made a seed bead “twist tie” to fasten it. I cut a piece of wire several inches long. To start, I looped the wire through and around a pair of beads and twisted it together, clipping one of the ends off. then I began threading seed beads onto the wire in a random pattern until the tie was the length I wanted. To finish the wire off, I once again created a loop with two beads in it and twisted the wire together below that loop. I made sure to cut off the ends very close to the twist and turn them under so no sharp points stick out!
The seed bead twist tie was then wrapped around my ribbon to cinch it tight (similar to a ponytail holder). It brightens up the ribbon and brings something shiny to the top of my scaredy cat halloween tag.
And now my scaredy cat halloween tag was ready to hang on my halloween tree with my other tags! (To see the other tags in the collection, check out the Spooky Halloween Tag and the Fall Pumpkin Tag).
Supplies:
Do you make tags? What occasions do you make them for? Tell us in the comments!
October is flying by, and that can only mean one thing…that chill in the air is going to bring snow soon – and Christmas!
Today we’re excited to be announcing new 3D buttons that are perfect for your winter and Christmas crafting. We’ve got snowmen and snowflakes perfect for all of your project needs. (And don’t miss the peek at the end of even more new holiday goodness!)
Adorable snowmen are a holiday must-have, and we’ve got two versions – a bright one and a more rustic one. No matter what your style…we’ve built the snowman for it!
If you are dreaming of snow…snow…snow…in your winter holidays (and your winter craft projects), we’ve got a huge new selection of 3D snowflake buttons!
Our new 3D snowflake buttons come in three different styles that are available in several sizes and shades of blue. Packaged in five different assortments, there’s a perfect one for your needs no matter what your project!
All of these buttons, except for the snowflakes on the far left above, have shank backs for sewing them on to projects. But for crafters who prefer flat backs, the shanks can be easily removed with scissors or a button shank remover. (The set of snowflake buttons that doesn’t have shanks has a flat back and holes that can be used for sewing it onto projects.)
In addition to our snowflakes and snowmen, we’ve also got a great selection of new 3D Christmas designs such as gingerbread men, Christmas trees, stars, adorable holiday icons, and more!
All of our new holiday 3D buttons are available now on our website – click to see the entire selection!
October is half over and that means it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas in most crafter’s work spaces! Today, we’re going to share a few ideas of how to embellish a Christmas gift box with buttons to make your gifts look extra special.
All of these boxes are created from paper maché boxes that are painted with white acrylic paint. Then the tops of the boxes were splattered with spray ink or paint to add some color, before buttons and other embellishments were added.
The large rectangle Christmas gift box is created with embellishments from the 28 Lilac Lane “Let It Snow” embellishment kit. To create this embellishment collage, I started by laying down a pool of white glue in the middle of the lid. Then I placed the large items first, creating the arrangement of the buttons. I filled in around the buttons with the small embellishments like the sequins and beads, creating a feeling of an explosion of embellishment spreading across the lid. For the final touch, I glued the snowflake charm from the “Let It Snow” kit on top of the button collage.
Supplies:
For the round box, I used the new “Winter Wonderland” Button Bonanza. I started this one by making the first layer of buttons. Then, once that layer had dried securely in place, I glued a second layer of buttons on top of the center of the first layer.
Supplies:
I used the same technique on the square box, creating a two layer collage of buttons one layer at a time. The key to making the prettiest collage is to vary the size and type of the buttons that you use. Also, it helps to balance the colors. On this box, the center has one of each color, and then there is an outer ring that shows the green shades alternating with red.
Supplies:
Grab some boxes…grab some glue…this project only takes a few minutes to make beautiful holiday gift packages. And it’s so easy that the kids can help out. What are you waiting for? Button up a few holiday gifts!
We recently announced six new Button Bonanza assortments for fall – great mixes of colors that are seasonal and trendy. Today I’m here to show you a beautiful button frame project with what is probably my absolute favorite of the new mixes: Glam Girl!
This lovely assortment of pink, turquoise, butter yellow, and dark blue is oh-so-trendy and so versatile for a variety of projects!
This button frame project would make a gorgeous addition to the decor in a teen/tween’s room (and it’s easy enough for them to make themselves). Or it could add a pop of color to a flea market decor in a living room or bedroom!
The steps to completing this project are super simple.
To begin this project, paint the unfinished wood frame with the Pink Dogwood paint. The soft pink color provides a delicate background to fill in between the buttons in the collage, and coordinates beautifully with the shades of the Glam Girl buttons.
Once the paint is dry, then it is time to start the button collage! My tip for doing this is to work in sections laying down an inch or two long section of the white glue and filling it in with buttons. Once it is dry, then start the next section. This technique prevents a huge mass of buttons that are sitting in still-wet glue from accidentally being shifted as you work your button collage into place.
The key to a nice balanced button collage is to spread out the larger buttons, and to try to avoid placing the same colors next to each other too much. With only four colors, it’s not possible to avoid it entirely, but I mostly managed to avoid more than two that were connected to each other of the same color.
Creating a button frame collage like this can be a bit time-consuming, but also a relaxing and fun project! And the end result is a button frame that will be enjoyed for years to come!
Supplies:
The calendar is about to turn October, and most of us are in full-speed Halloween crafting mode! In case you are still in need of some Halloween crafts inspiration, here’s a round-up of our favorite Halloween crafts using our favorite crafting embellishment – buttons, of course!
Our autumn frame is super easy to make with no sewing, and will make a great addition to your home decor or your buffet of candy treats. And it’s a great way to use up those fabric scraps!
Whether you are planning a hospitality gift for your party hosts, or dropping some fresh baked pumpkin spice brownies at the neighbor’s, this fall pumpkin tag is a warm and friendly way to say “hello” to someone special!
When it comes time to hand out candy, our spooky button eye bags will be the talk of the neighborhood or your kids’ classroom! They are so simple to make that the kids can help!
Pumpkins are seasonal decor that can go from early fall all the way through to Thanksgiving. This decorative pumpkin will add a beautiful touch to your home or porch all season!
Halloween wouldn’t be complete without some bats! These button bats are more cute than spook, and will look great hanging from the ceiling, staked into a plant, or stuck to a wall.
If you aren’t quite ready to give up all the color in your world for the browns of fall, we’ve got the perfect card for you! This fall card brings nice bright pink and orange to a cheery “happy fall” sentiment.
Looking for buttons for your Halloween projects? Don’t miss our brand new Scary Button Bonanza, Trick or Treat Button Basics, and Fall Festival Button Basics!
We’ve got Christmas cards on the brain here at Buttons Galore! Since World Cardmaking Day the first weekend of October is the unofficial launch of the holiday card making season, we’re sharing another card idea today to help your Christmas card planning. Our buttons, sequins, and beads are the perfect easy and affordable embellishment to use for making loads of Christmas cards.
Supplies:
Creating this Christmas card is quick and easy with buttons, and pre-coordinated paper and embellishments.
Start by cutting a piece of plaid paper that is 5″ by 3.75″. Ink the edges with the green Fluid Chalk and adhere it in the center of the front of the card base.
Cut a triangle from the gold paper, and adhere it in the upper left corner of the plaid paper block.
Adhere the large chipboard piece in the upper right corner of the card. Adhere the “Tis the Season” tag layered on top of it, using foam adhesive dots for the end not on top of the chipboard.
To create the bottom text strip, cut a 1/2″ strip of cream cardstock. Use the Shimmer ink to stamp the sentiment twice across it, leaving room in the middle for a button. Adhere across the bottom of the card.
Using the PPA Matte Adhesive, place small dots of adhesive on the stamped strip and the sentiment tag. Press sequins into them and allow to dry. Also use the Matte Adhesive to adhere the buttons on the corner frame and the chipboard embellishment, and allow to dry.
“Tis the Season” Button Bonanza is perfect for vintage color schemes, and if brighter is more your style, don’t miss “The Merriest” Button Bonanza, with bright green, bright red, and pastel pink & blue! We’ve got your Christmas cards buttoned up!
World Cardmaking Day is coming soon, and that means lots of crafters will be starting to think about making Christmas cards! Today’s holiday card idea uses 3D buttons to create dimension on a snowflake card that only takes minutes to make!
Supplies:
The key elements of this card’s design are very simple – a snowflake background stamp, stamped with acrylic paint, and 3D snowflake buttons. Layered together, these elements create a design this is simple, elegant, and dimensional.
To begin your card, cut a 5.5″ x 4.25″ background for the card from dark blue cardstock. Then cut a 5″ by 3.75″ layer of the light blue cardstock. Paint the snowflake stamp with the acrylic paint dabber, and stamp it onto the light blue cardstock. One dry, adhere the light blue cardstock layer on top of the dark blue layer.
For the sentiment strip, cut a 3/4″ strip of white paper. If you stamp in the middle of that strip and then adhere it before snipping off the ends, it is easy to get your sentiment perfectly centered on the card front. Then you can arrange the red accent buttons around the edges of the sentiment strip and they will also be perfectly spaced!
For the final touches on your card, remove the shanks from the 3D buttons using a button shank remover. Then adhere the the snowflakes with liquid glue in random places on the card front. You can choose to place them to accent a specific stamped snowflake (as I did in the upper right of my card) or randomly in open areas between the stamped designs.
This holiday snowflake card is quick and easy to make. If you’d like to produce this card in volume for your holiday card list, these pearl snowflake buttons are also available in bulk via custom order from our customer service department.
Spooky trees are a fun way to decorate for Halloween. To keep it from getting too spooky and scaring my daughter, I’m decorating mine with some cute ghost ornaments that only take 15 minutes to make!
Supplies Needed:
To begin making these, I first had to raid my kitchen for a 10″ dinner plate to use as a circle template! I laid the plate out on the white fabric and drew around it with the fabric marking pencil. Then I cut the circles out, just inside the lines I had marked.
Next, to find the center of the ghost ornament, I folded the circles into quarters. I threaded a needle with white embroidery floss. Then I stitched up through the center of the fabric and back down, leaving a loose loop. I tied the threads together on the reverse side. (The side with the knot became the inside of the ghost.)
To create the pouffy head of the ghost, I balled up some fiberfill to about the size I wanted. Then I gathered the fabric around it, centering the hang loop at the top. I wrapped some embroidery floss around it to tie it off, leaving a small (about a half inch or so) opening so that it isn’t gathered too tight.
The final step was to sew on the buttons for the ghost’s eyes. I threaded my needle with black embroidery floss and used the opening at the center of the fabric gather to pull my needle through when I needed to sew from the underneath side.
Whether you make just one or a whole tree full, these cute ghost ornaments are a 15 minute treat that will make your Halloween extra festive!
Today we’re taking a walk on the creepy side of Halloween, with a spooky Halloween tag that makes a great attachment for a treat bag or can be a unique holiday greeting by itself!
Supplies:
1. Create the background of the Halloween tag by spraying the three colors of Distress Spray Stain in a triangle arrangement on a craft mat and then dragging the tag across the ink. Allow to air dry, or dry with a heat gun.
2. Ink the edges of the paper elements with matching ink to hide the white edges, and glue them in place.
3. Using Archival ink, stamp the creepy cat on top of the background and paper elements.
Tip: If the stamp image is incomplete where the paper layers meet, use the fine point end of the Distress Marker to fill it in!
4. Draw a line for the spider web in the upper right corner using the brush end of the Distress Marker and a ruler.
5. Thread black embroidery floss through the green button and tie off.
6. Use a button shank remover to cut the shank off from the back of a spider button.
7. Glue all of the buttons into place using the PPA Matte Adhesive. (Make sure to center the orange one over the hole in the tag.) Let dry.
8. Thread twine from the back through the button and ending at the back again, to tie off the tag.
9. Enjoy your Halloween tag!
That September chill is in the air, and that means pumpkin spice, apple cider…and Halloween on the horizon! Our 3D buttons make great accessories for your themed cards, and I’m here today to share an idea you can make with bat buttons from our Halloween Value Pack.
Our Halloween Value Pack includes approximately 50 assorted buttons. The buttons range from 1/2″ to 7/8″ in size and include shank and sew-through buttons. Designs include fun options like pumpkins, monsters, spiders, bats, and everything you need for your Halloween-themed projects!
Supplies:
To create the base of the card front, cut a 4.25″ by 5.5″ piece of the black and orange paper. Adhere to the front of the card base. Cut a 3.75″ by 5″ piece of the text paper, and adhere it centered on top.
Select the bingo card and wicked flashcard from the ephemera pack, and adhere them angled in the corners of the card front. Adhere the skeleton ephemera on top of them.
Tie embroidery thread through the large black button from the Halloween Value Pack and glue it on top of the bingo card using PPA Matte Adhesive. Use the PPA Matte Adhesive to also attach the bat buttons from the Halloween Value Pack on top of the “wicked” flashcard.
To finish the card, select some sentiment stickers from the Small Talk sticker set and stick them down in the upper left corner underneath one of the bat buttons.
This quick and easy card is a fun way to say “boo!” to someone for Halloween! Who do you want to send a friendly scare to this year?
This week, we’re introducing you to six new Button Basics assortments! One of the new assortments is a vintage fall palette called Fall Festival, perfect for making fall, Halloween, and Thanksgiving projects.
Fall Festival is a mix of brown-tinged tones of green, orange, and yellow, along with coffee shades of brown.
I decided to pair Fall Festival with Graphic 45’s new Halloween in Wonderland collection to make a retro fun Halloween card!
Supplies Used:
I used tiny orange buttons from Fall Festival, to visually “attach” the faux bookplate that is printed on the label from one of the cut out sheets in the Graphic 45 “Halloween in Wonderland” collection. The buttons highlight it as the sentiment block for my card, and Fall Festival’s color tones coordinate beautifully with the paper collection.
All of my buttons on this card are attached with PPA Matte adhesive, my favorite liquid adhesive for working with buttons and embellishments. It’s just the right consistency – thick enough to hold an embellishment in place, but not so thick that you can’t move it around to get it where you want it. It holds securely, and dries perfectly clear so there’s no need for anxious moments it a little spreads out from underneath your embellishment!
When making a project like a card, I frequently like to start with the most important elements of the design first, and then build around them. That means that I often am starting with elements that will be on top – like this sentiment block – and then working down in my design as I fill in around it. To do this, I lay pieces out without adhering them as I work.
I started by creating my background, and then putting in place the sentiment and the border that I wanted to anchor it. This of course, left me with a lot of open area made up of that super busy tiny checkerboard pattern. It overwhelmed my sentiment so I needed to tone it down.
To fix this, I cut a block of a lighter, larger pattern and inserted it behind the sentiment block. Then I used a piece of decorative chipboard from the “Halloween in Wonderland” collection to fill a bit more of the space and add some color. A purple striped corner frame sticker completed the design.
I did all of that without adhering anything except for the purple sticker! So what do you do when you have everything arranged just how you want – but nothing is adhered? I grab my phone and just snap a picture like the one above. Then I can take the design apart to glue everything down, and use the photo as a guide to get everything back how I wanted it! It’s just another way we can turn the camera that is always in our pocket into a creative tool.
The new product introductions keep coming! Today we’re introducing 6 new colorways of Button Basics, our button candy bags that are just the right size for making fun projects. The new additions to the Button Basics line-up include two seasonal offerings for fall and Halloween, two blue assortments for winter and Christmas, and two new trend-based color groupings.
First, let’s take a closer look at Fall Festival! This beautiful assortment of browns, leaf green, rusty orange, and mellow yellow will have you yearning for a cup a cider and the crunch of leaves under your feet.
For Halloween, we think you’re never too old to love to Trick or Treat! Shades of light orange and green combined with pops of bright purple make this the perfect collection for the cutest Halloween projects on your block.
Blue is a hot color for Christmas, and we’re bringing it to you with Cool Winter! This mix adds a sophisticated shade of red to a cool mix of pale blue and white to create an elegant mix that will work for cards, ornaments – and even holiday party wear.
Are you “blue” this Christmas? Then Winter Flurries is the collection for you! Not content with just on shade of blue, this collection gives you an entire range of shades from deep midnight to pale ice to choose from so you’ll be able to find exactly the shade you need for your festive Christmas or winter project.
If you are a fan of heathered pastels – especially the colors of the year for 2016 – then you’ll love our new trend mix Bohemian Style. With rose pink, blue, and a pop of sunshine yellow, this trend mix matches well with current home decor, fabric and fashion color trends so you can create up-to-date looks.
And finally, we have Party Time! This bright and happy combination of teal and bright pink with touches of white is perfect for parties, fashion, and everyday papercrafting projects.
Which of the new Button Basics is your favorite? You can get all of these new Buttons Basics on sale for $1 off from now until September 10th. That’s a great deal at $5.99 each! Why choose just one? Get yours now!
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!
The days are ticking down to the start of the holiday season! Today, we’re going to kick off the holiday crafting season with a fun Christmas ornament full of buttons!
Supplies:
To make this ornament, I started with a clear acrylic Christmas ornament from a local craft store. These sorts of ornaments are widely available during the holidays and have removable tops because they are designed to be filled. The one I chose to work with was round, flat, and about 3/4″ thick.
For my buttons for this project, I had three beautiful new holiday Button Bonanzas to choose from! I chose “The Merriest”, a delightful combination of pastel blue, light pink, lime green, bright red and white. These colors will have beautiful pop against the dark green branches of a Christmas tree!
Making my button filled Christmas ornament was super simple! I started by filling the ornament with a selection of small buttons from “The Merriest” and replacing the top.
To decorate the top, I first wrapped a small piece of silver ribbon around the neck of the cap and secured it with my hot glue gun. Then I made a bow by looping another length of the ribbon, and secured it with the hot glue as well. Finally, I used hot glue to attach a button to the center of the bow.
This cute Christmas ornament is just a pretty decoration – it also doubles as a fun little gift for a crafter! After it’s done being decorative for the season, the recipient can just remove the top of the ornament to empty it out and enjoy using all these gorgeous button colors year-round.
Who do you know that would love a buttoned up Christmas ornament this year?
Today we are thrilled to share with you some gorgeous new products for crafting and sewing – six new seasonal and trendy Button Bonanza color mixes!
Our six new Button Bonanza totes, available today, include two new trend mixes, a Halloween mix, and three new Christmas and winter holiday mixes! Let’s take a closer look!
First up is Coral Reef, full of beautiful heathered blues and pinks that are reminiscent of this year’s colors of the year. Also, there’s a touch of white for some neutral to pair them with.
Coral Reef is great for baby projects, of course…but also so much more! These on-trend tones are great for stylish fashion projects, coordinating with many of the latest paper crafting collections, and so much more.
Up next is Glam Girl. This collection combines several very hot color trends into one gorgeous color palette that will make your projects look girly and glamorous! Navy, the neutral of the moment, anchors a palette of yellow, aqua, and rose pink to create Glam Girl. Yellow is THE home decor color at the moment.
This palette of trend forward colors will work well year-round for all sorts of projects. Glam Girl is especially perfect for quilting, papercrafting, and feminine fall fashion projects!
Now, let’s talk holidays! The weather may still be hot, but cooler days are coming soon and with them the fall holidays. We’ve got the perfect new Button Bonanza for all of your Halloween crafting: Scary! It’s a mix of seasonal orange shades, with some black thrown in for extra scare!
The Scary collection will take you from fall to Halloween to Thanksgiving with a perfect shade of orange for every project. Whether it’s treat bags, table decor, or a scrapbook page of your adorable trick or treater – it’s got to be Scary!
Christmas will also be here before you know it! Our three new Button Bonanzas for Christmas cover a wide range of popular color schemes for winter holidays.
Our Tis the Season Button Bonanza is a classic holiday color scheme – rich reds and deep greens, with a few contrasting lighter green shades to create perfect Christmas greenery!
This versatile combination is great for making ornaments & cards, wrapping presents, festive sewing projects…Tis the Season!
Blue, red, and white is also a popular winter color scheme and for fans of that palette, we bring you Winter Wonderland! Two different shades of blue – one light and one dark – paired with deep red and topped off with white and brown neutrals make Winter Wonderland perfect for everything from cute Christmas projects to winter snow scrapbooking!
Winter Wonderland is a really versatile addition to your embellishment collection – when the winter is over, use the red, white and blue buttons for patriotic projects!
Finally, we have what may be The Merriest collection of all – a mix of pink, pale blue, lime green, and cranberry with white neutral. This fun combination is a great match for kids’ projects and for many of season’s more whimsical papercrafting collections. It’s a lighthearted alternative to the more traditional shades of green and red.
All of these new Button Bonanza products are available today in the Buttons Galore online store (and for wholesale order as well for our retail clients). We can’t wait to see what you all make with them!
Most of what we do here on the Buttons Galore blog are simple, fast projects. But occasionally, we like to bring you a more complicated project that really shows how amazing – and beautiful – buttons can be. Today we’re sharing one of those projects, a vintage-look button tray that will look perfect in a farmhouse, shabby chic, or vintage french country style decor.
Supplies:
To start my button tray, I painted the unfinished tray with two coats of chalk paint. I sanded with fine grit sand paper in between coats, and also after the top coat.
The next step is tedious work, but one I actually enjoy because I find it a very zen process. I dumped my various packages of buttons out of the surface of my work table and painstakingly began selecting ones to fill in the bottom of the tray. It’s like putting together a jigsaw puzzle that you don’t have a picture for!
Note that this step is just a “dry fitting” process with no adhesive involved. (Make sure that kids and pets are kept at a safe distance where they can’t disturb your work!) The buttons will be held in place by the epoxy resin.
To seal the buttons into the bottom of the tray and provide a flat cover over them, you’ll need an epoxy resin product. I used EnviroTex Lite Pour Over. It comes in two bottles that are poured together into a mixing container and stirred to make the resin, which is then poured over the tray. I used the 16oz package size and used almost all of it to fill my tray to the bottom of the handle cut-outs.
The trick to getting a perfect surface on your resin is to use a handheld kitchen torch to pop the bubbles that come to the surface of the resin as it hardens in the early stages. (The bubbles are caused by the mixing of the resin.)
After that, it just takes some patience to let your resin harden and after about two days you’ll have a beautiful button tray that can be used for serving or display!
In this close-up look, you can see how the resin floats over the buttons and provides a solid glass-like surface in the bottom of the tray. I poured the resin to the bottom edge of the handle cut-outs. A few buttons shifted from the pouring of the resin, and one was even sticking up though the top of the resin. I just used a disposable chopstick to nudge them back into the correct position.
I used a combination of our “White” Button Bonanza, “White Wash” Button Basics, and “Ivory/Pearl” Haberdashery Buttons (pictured below) to fill the bottom of my tray. As long as you mix them throughout the project, it doesn’t matter if you mix the different products together to fill your button tray. And don’t feel limited to white in your color palette – this project would look great in a variety of colors, from pastels to holiday brights!
This button tray project is a bit time consuming but will bring years of beauty to your home! If you’ve made something with epoxy and buttons, we’d love to hear about it in the comments!
School is starting in many parts of the country, and that means that cooler temperatures – and changing leaves – can’t be far behind! Today’s project is a piece of slate wall decor with painted leaves that will bring fall colors inside so you can enjoy them where it is warm!
Supplies:
(For my paint selections, I used Delta Ceramcoat “Ranchero”, Delta Ceramcoat Select “Light Foliage Green”, Folkart “Cardinal Red” and “Daffodil Yellow”, and Martha Stewart Crafts Metallic Acrylic in “Rust”. But the exact shades aren’t as important as getting a light green, a red, an orange, a yellow, and a metallic.)
The paint effect looks complex, but the technique is actually really simple. The secret to it is using disposable make-up sponges to apply the paint with a “dabbing” motion, instead of a brush. It’s so simple that even young children can do it!
Taping down the stencil, and using tape to cover all of the nearby open areas that I don’t want to paint, helped to ensure that I got a perfect impression from my stencil.
I started with the light green color of paint, using one of the cosmetic sponges. I dabbed one of the end edges of the sponge into the paint, and then dabbed most of the paint off on the palette that I was using. I then used the damp sponge to dab blotches of color onto the stencil. I repeated this process with each color (except the metallic), filling in the whole stencil area.
Then I used the metallic color and dabbed it heavily over the top of the stencil, but not filling in quite completely. I wanted small areas to peek out from underneath. Then I repeated a layer of the light green paint, but not quite as heavily as the metallic.
Sometimes when applying new paint over paint that is still wet your colors might mix and blend a bit. As long as the sponges aren’t too wet, the colors shouldn’t shift too much.
The finished effect will look something like this – a mix of metallic and green with hints of other colors like red and yellow peeking through. Just like with leaves in nature, no two painted leaves will come out the same!
The painted leaves are pretty on their own, but the slate doesn’t really look finished without some dimension on it. I wrapped jute string around the bottom of the slate and secured it on the back with hot glue. The string provides “ground” that the leaves are falling to. Then I made a bow by twisting some string and attached it with some hot glue. I attached a button to hide the hot glue making the bow. Buttons are great concealers for glue and seams! Then, finally, in the bottom corner, I attached three more buttons. I like the repetition of the three leaves as three buttons for balance, and it provides a visual anchor for the other end of the string.
The buttons I used are from our “Argyle” Button Tote. With deep reds and greens, trendy navy, and neutral cream and black, the Argyle mix is a great selection to have in your creative toolbox for the holidays in the last part of the year! What will you use Argyle for?
It’s always a good idea to have some thank you cards on hand to share your gratitude with others. This big thank you card featuring 28 Lilac Lane products will make an impact at a full 6″ by 6″ in size!
Supplies Needed:
When I was making this, I knew that I wanted a button to decorate the center of this design but wasn’t sure what until I saw this rosette button in the “A New Leaf” kit while I was creating my card. It’s very ornate, but it matches almost perfectly the mum design! The visual repetition that it creates is perfect. I could also have taken a regular button and tied it on with contrasting thread for some pizzaz.
I also like using sequins that are the same color as the background that I place them on as an embellishment! This technique adds a bit of shine and dimension to the design without the sequins being too garish. On this card, I used the sequins to create a sun kissed circle of highlight around the center of the flower.
To begin making your extra big thank you card, cut a piece of white smooth cardstock that is 6″ x 6″. Center the stencil on the cardstock. Holding firmly, begin to scrub the lighter color of ink (squeezed lemonade) into the design with the ink blending tool. A circular motion blends best.
Work the Squeezed Lemonade into the center half of the design and then switch to the darker color (Mustard Seed) for the outer half of the design. Once all of the design has been inked, switch to a clean blending foam and begin to rub in a circular motion to blend the colors together where they meet.
Once the ink is dry, trim the white cardstock so that it is just slightly larger than the stenciled mum design. Cut a piece of matching patterned paper that is 6″ x 6″ in size. Adhere the stenciled design on top of the patterned paper and attach them both on top of a card base. (The card base can be made by folding a 6″ x 12″ piece of paper in half.)
Stamp the sentiment in the bottom corner of the card. Cut the shank off of the featured button and glue it into the center of the stenciled design with PPA Matte adhesive. This adhesive is great for working with our buttons – it will hold the button in place but will dry clear and invisible if it leaks out around the edges of the button or through the holes in the button!
For the finishing touch on your big thank you card, select a few yellow sequins from the assortment in the 28 Lilac Lane “A New Leaf” embellishment kit, and glue them onto the design around the center of the flower using PPA Matte.
Floral design cards are great for many occasions. Instead of “thank you” consider substituting sentiments for birthdays, housewarming, or other occasions. This easy card will bring a smile to someone’s face!
It’s that time of year to think about a teacher gift! Today’s project will show you how to take an inexpensive basket available at any craft or discount store, and turn it into a beautiful back-to-school teacher gift.
Supplies:
The basket that I used was a simple wood woven one that started out as unfinished wood. It cost less than $3 at a local craft store! It was the perfect size to hold a 15 ounce potted plant from the local home center.
Start your teacher gift basket project by using a paint brush to apply the wood tint or stain to the basket. Be sure to use the brush to push the stain down into the cracks in the weaving so the basket’s original color won’t show through! Wipe off any excess tint and leave to dry.
While the basket is drying, select from your Button Bonanza bag a grouping of buttons that are approximately the same size and that will fit around the front edge of the basket. (You only want to do the front edge of the basket so that the handle will still be able to be put down.)
Once the basket is dry, use a hot glue gun to adhere the buttons around the top edge of the front of the basket. (Make sure to leave clearance for the handle to go up and down!)
A beautiful bow is the final touch to make your basket special. Tie a bow using some ribbon and snip off the ends at an angle. Use the hot glue gun to adhere the bow to the front of the basket.
Your completed teacher gift basket can be used to deliver a wide variety of gifts to teacher: a small plant, an assortment of snacks or school supplies, or useful goodies like hand sanitizer and wet wipes.
Change up the color scheme a bit (such as by trying red buttons with green ribbon) and this basket will make a great way to deliver a small gift for Christmas or another occasion!
What occasion will you make a button gift basket for?
Think our 28 Lilac Lane buttons are too beautiful to hide at home in your craft room? We do too! That’s why I made this this beautiful locket that showcases some of my favorite elements from the collection. This mixed media locket is a fun and eclectic piece of button jewelry that will let me show off my love of crafts in a fashionable way.
Supplies needed:
This mixed media locket is created by encasing 28 Lilac Lane embellishments in Ice Resin, a clear drying epoxy that is available in single use syringe dispensers. It’s a fast and easy project that can easily be completed in an hour or so, except for allowing dry time for the epoxy.
To make my design, I started by arranging the large colored items – the buttons and the flat back pearl – inside the locket. Once I was happy with how they looked, I gently filled in around them with the seed beads. This part of the process requires patience, as sometimes it means placing the beads one at a time.
Once the bottom layer of embellishments is placed, I selected a charm to place on top and set it aside.
Working with the epoxy was something I’d wanted to do for awhile but I was, I admit, a bit intimidated to try it. It turned out to be very easy – just push the plunger down to get the amount that you want, and stir! Once the epoxy was mixed well, I poured it over the bottom layer of embellishments to cover and hold them in place in the locket. Then I quickly pressed the charm down on top of the epoxy, so that it was just barely embedded and stuck out from the top. (Be very careful to not get your fingers in the epoxy! I suggest dropping the charm in and then using a toothpick or other tool to nudge it into place.)
Once the resin is dry, you can add a chain to your locket. Then you can wear and enjoy your mixed media locket masterpiece to share your love of crafts – and 28 Lilac Lane – through fashion!
As summer vacation winds down, why not make a craft with the kids that will help them display their favorite summer memories? This giant clothes pin photo holder is fun and easy to make with only a few supplies!
Supplies Needed:
To get started, paint your giant clothes pin (mine is about 6″ tall) with water-based acrylic paint or wood tint. I used Plaid Ultra Dye in “Pucker Up”. Using a wood tint or stain is easiest, since it will wipe easily off of the metal parts of the clothes pin. Acrylic paint will also wipe off of the metal while it is still wet, but not quite as easily.
The next step is to decide on the buttons that you would like to use to place across the front of the clothes pin. If you choose buttons with shanks like I did, you’ll need to remove the shanks. I prefer using a Button Shank Remover for safety and because it leaves behind a more flat back on the button.
The next step requires the use of hot glue, so to be safe, make sure you help out younger kids. Place pea sized drops of hot glue on the spots where you want your buttons, and then push the buttons into place on top of them. (If you choose buttons that have holes in the center, beware of hot glue coming back up through the holes!)
And that’s it…now your giant clothes pin photo holder is ready to enjoy with one of your favorite photos! As well as being a great summer kids’ craft, this project would also make a great seasonal project to display memories of past holidays – just used holiday themed buttons!
Shaker cards are a fun and easy way to make fast cards that look way more complex than they are. They pack a big visual punch, but are surprisingly simple to make!
Supplies:
This shaker card is based around Jillibean Soup’s matching dies, stamp sets and shaker box inserts that make mason jar shakers. They are a great size for filling with buttons, sequins, and seed beads – the contents of our 28 Lilac Lane embellishment bottles!
For this card, I used the “Hello, Sunshine” bottle to make it look like this jar shaker was filled with lemonade. The sequins in the mix add a nice extra bit of sparkle to the shaker!
Filling this mason jar with a rainbow assortment of buttons would turn it into grandma’s button jar for a more generic sentiment like “thank you” or a new home welcome card.
Don’t forget that if you are giving this card to a crafter, our 28 Lilac Lane embellishments aren’t just functional – they also make the card a fun little bonus gift! After the party is over, the recipient can recycle the card, open the shaker box, and save the embellishments for using on a project of their own!
Summer is wedding season for a lot of families, and a DIY wedding is a great way to save money on the cost of getting married. As our DIY Wedding Chalkboard Table Number shows, DIY can also be beautiful – and a great way to personalize your wedding.
Supplies:
This table number is very simple but oh so pretty! Small chalkboard easels like this are available at most craft stores. They make great table numbers, or menu display boards for weddings and showers. And at the end of the night, they can go home with guests as party favors!
To start the project, paint the bare wood with white chalk paint. Use a small brush along the sides of the chalkboard. If you get some paint on the chalkboard surface, use a damp cloth to wipe it away while it is still wet. If you aren’t able to get it all off and a trace of it remains, don’t worry. It will just look like smudges of chalk when the project is complete.
Lay the easel flat and spread some of the glue in one of the corners of the chalkboard. Fill in some buttons, varying colors and sizes and leaving small spaces in a couple of places. Fill the small spaces in with small items from the embellishment bottle such as seed beads, sequins, and flat back pearls. Repeat for each corner of the blackboard. Allow to dry.
I chose to work with the “On Lilac Lane” embellishment bottle for this DIY Wedding Chalkboard Table Number, but this project could be adapted to any wedding color theme by selecting another of the embellishment bottles (or even one of our Button Bonanza bags). Our embellishment bottles include popular wedding colors like Mint, Yellow, and Pink.
The last step before using your DIY Wedding Chalkboard Table Number is to use a piece of chalk to prime the board. Place the side of it on the chalkboard and rub all it all to cover the board. Erase the chalk and the board is ready to use!
What other uses can you think of for this decorative chalkboard easel?
A handmade card is the perfect finishing touch to a gift for a new baby. With the Buttons Galore 3D “Baby Hugs” collection of buttons by Vicki Schreiner, it’s fast and easy to make cards like this simple baby boy card! The only supplies needed are paper and buttons and a pen.
Supplies Needed:
That looks like a long list, but it’s really just a package of buttons, two sheets of cardstock, and some glue. I used a sentiment stamp for adding “it’s a boy” but it could easily be added with just a marker.
Assembling this card is simple – and fast! Just cut a piece of white cardstock sized 8.5″ x 5.5″ and fold it in half to make a card base. Cut a piece of yellow patterned paper that is 4.25″ x 5.5″ and glue it to the front of the card base.
Cut a 3/4″ strip on the leftover white cardstock to make the sentiment strip. Use scissors to snip the ends of it to create a banner. Write or stamp the sentiment on it, and glue it about 2/3 of the way down the front of the card.
For the final step, use scissors or a shank remover to cut the shanks off of the 3D buttons. Glue the buttons down with a white glue like PPA Matte Adhesive or Aleene’s Tacky Glue.
This quick and simple baby card can be make in less than 10 minutes. This simple design can be adapted to many other occasions (like birthdays and weddings) as well with the help of our other 3D button collections such as Sweet Delights or our wedding collection.
July means hitting the beach, blooming gardens – and stir crazy kids bored with all their summer vacation free time! Here’s our top five ideas for kids crafts projects to turn bored kids into busy kids!
This project is great for even the youngest of kids! This button covered treasure box is an easy to make project using blank paper board boxes available in local craft stores. For the young ones, simple shapes like rectangles and square boxes are available. Older kids may want to try their hand at more challenging shapes like stars, or circles. To keep the kids busy for longer, let them add a coat of acrylic paint as a base before adding on their buttons.
If you are worried about hearing hours of “are we there yet?” from the back seat, Road Trip Bingo may be the answer for you! Let the kids make their tin themselves before the trip, or surprise them in the car. To keep the kids from fighting over whose markers are whose, use a different color for each set (or use 3D buttons to create fun themed sets). Don’t forget to pack a stash of a few extra markers in case of lost ones!
This project will remind the kids to make the most of the last of their summer vacation by having them get ready for back to school! An upcycled can turned into a pencil holder makes a useful decoration for a homework desk, or a fun kid-made teacher gift. If you don’t have any fabric scraps, use contact paper or gift wrap for this easy project.
Dollar stores are a great place to find an endless supply of simple items just waiting to be made beautiful. These basic photo clips, paired with a package of 3D buttons, can be easily turned into a fun themed display for favorite photos from any occasion with our wide range of shank buttons.
Thanks to the rubber band bracelet craze, many kids have a rubber band loom stashed that they’ve gotten bored with. Bring new life to that old crafty friend of theirs by showing them how to use 3D shank buttons to make charm bracelets! Use themed buttons to make bracelets for special occasions, or use basics like flowers for every day wear! (This project also makes a fun take home activity for a girls birthday party or sleepover!)
These are just a few of our favorite kid crafts for summer! For even more, ideas of great projects to keep kids busy (and learning) with crafts, visit the Kids Crafts section of the blog.
On Tuesday, we shared a tag that is perfect for giving a back-to-school gift to your new favorite teacher. Stumped for an idea for a gift to attach it to? We’ve got the perfect gift idea – an easy to make Back to School Flower Pot Pencil Holder that is a pretty as it is useful!
Supplies Needed:
This flower pot pencil holder is made from a basic small clay flower pot, available at any home center or craft store, that is painted with chalkboard spray paint. To spray paint items like this, I use a scrap of 1×2 board left over from a project and turn the pot upside down onto the end of it. Then I can take the item outside, hold it extended arm’s length away from me, and rotate it while spraying. This gets me good coverage with minimum mess and clean up, and I can get all the edges. To let it dry, I just prop the stick up against something with the pot still on top of it.
Once the painting is complete (I recommend two light coats) and dry, the rest was super fast and simple! Just grab a hot glue gun and get to work gluing the buttons around the top rim of the pot. Cut the shanks off of the apple buttons, and insert one of them periodically. Make sure to use enough glue that they are attached securely!
Finally, rub the bottom area with the side of a piece of chalk and then clean it off to “prime” it so that it can be written on. I chose to write the teacher’s name but you could also write instructions like “please return”. That’s one of the best things about using the chalkboard paint for this design – it’s not just classroom themed, it’s also useful!
The flower pot pencil holder will likely have a small drainage hole in the bottom of it. If you are concerned about things falling out through the hole when the pot is moved, cut a small circle of cardboard (such as from a recycled cereal box) and glue it into the bottom of the pot.
School will be here before you know it! Grab your 3D Apple Buttons and Primary Button Bonanza and start crafting your flower pot pencil holder for a beautiful classroom!
With July 4th gone, that means for many of us the summer is officially half over. It’s already time to start thinking about back to school! Our cute back to school tag is perfect for teacher gifts, first day of school lunches, and decorating backpacks!
Making this tag is so quick and simple – the kids can help! Die cut the tag base and hole reinforcer out of patterned paper, and glue them together. Attach tab and alphabet stickers across the bottom of the tag. (Instead of “hello”, you could substitute a name, or the year if you’d like!)
To make the button collage on our back to school tag, use a die cut machine (I used my Cricut Explore) to cut an apple shape out of red cardstock that matches the “Red Hot” buttons. Spread a nice thick layer of the PPA Matte Adhesive all over the fruit of the apple. Begin to fill it in by carefully selecting various sizes of the buttons to fill as much of the space as possible. Push the buttons down into the glue to make them really secure!
Once the glue is dry on your apple collage, glue it in place on your tag! For the finishing touch, slip a piece of ribbon through the tag’s hole and secure it with a staple.
To make this back to school tag double-sided, select a double-sided paper (like this one) for your tag base. Or cut a second tag from the die and glue them back-to-back.
Whose back to school are you going to make awesome with an apple button collage tag?
Supplies Needed:
When you think of button magnets, you probably think of cute, brightly colored accessories for a classroom or a sewing room. But with the right button selections, button magnets can also be sophisticated accessories for flea market or farmhouse vintage style home decor.
Supplies needed:
Button magnets are so simple to make! Start by selecting buttons to create a coordinated set. Don’t forget to make sure they are all at least a little bit larger than the magnets that you plan to use! Next, cut the shanks off any that buttons that need it. (The buttons will attach more securely if you get the backs as flat as possible, so it pays to give some attention to detail on this step.) Glue the buttons to a round magnet using adhesive or a hot glue gun, pushing the buttons nice and flat on the magnets. Once the glue is dry, your button magnets are ready to use!
The trick to achieving a sophisticated look with button magnets is in the color and button selection. This “Wedding” Button Bonanza is full of creams and gray tones that are the perfect complement to many currently trendy home decor paint colors. They are subtle, and understated. Combine them with the metals of the Haberdashery set, and you have created an effortless collection that looks like grandma’s random button bag yet is perfectly coordinated.
These button magnets will look fabulous on a variety of surfaces – magnetic chalkboard, galvanized metal (see above), white board, even your fridge! They are an affordable way to create DIY wedding decor (hang up reception table assignments with them) or to add some style to a functional office board. What will you use them for?
Needles are easy to lose, and not the sort of thing you want to find accidentally in your sewing box (or on the sewing room floor). Our pretty and easy to make needle book will keep your needles safely organized and ready to use any time that you need them!
Supplies:
This needle book can be make in any size that you would like! Cut 2 pieces of felt the same size for the interior pages, and then cut a piece of fabric that is slightly larger than the felt to make your cover with.
Start construction by working on the piece of felt that will make the inside of the cover (mine is pink).
Use pinking shears to cut a small pocket and sew it to the upper left side of the piece (inside the front cover). This will serve as a pocket for needle threaders! To keep them from falling out, cut a flap of felt and stitch it over the top of the pocket.
Below the pocket, draw a shape with a fabric pencil. I chose a heart. Use a needle and thread to sew seed beads onto the shape using backstitch.
When the inside of the front cover is done, center the pink felt on the reverse side of the cover fabric. Pin in place, and machine sew using zig zag stitch or by hand.
To create the center page, cut 4 small strips of felt slightly shorter than the width of your pages. (My strips are 1″ high.) Pin them so two strips make a “sandwich” of the page, and one set of stitching will attach both strips. These strips will allow you to put needles on the book’s pages without them going through to the other side.
Lay the center page on top of the cover and stitch up the middle to bind your needle book.
For the final touch, finish your needle book’s cover by die cutting a piece of felt to make a flower. Use the flower and buttons from the 28 Lilac Lane “Hello, Cupcake” kit to embellish the cover. Attach them by sewing them through only the fabric layer of the cover so the stitching won’t show through to the inside.
This needle book is a great way to use your scraps, or to make a gift for a sewist or quilter! Putting pockets on all of the pages would allow it to hold packets of machine needles. Sewing in strips of Aida cloth instead of felt to slide the needles into would turn this into a great organizer for cross stitch and embroidery needles!
Our 28 Lilac Lane embellishment kits designed by May Flaum make the perfect finishing touch for projects like this mixed media tag! This tag thinks “outside the box” with our Paws & Pets kit, using its lovely brown tones as the perfect partner for some vintage style Tim Holtz products.
Supplies:
To make this tag, begin by cutting the dapper man out of the patterned paper sheet. Then flip the sheet over and cut the tag base out of the Tim Holtz paper and glue down the hole reinforcer.
Using the Distress Paint dabber, stencil the harlequin design across the middle of the tag. Once dry, glue the dapper man on top of it. Stamp the clock image with Ground Espresso ink, allowing it to bleed off the edge of the tag.
Lay down an area of glue in the bottom right corner of the tag and spread a random assortment of buttons and seed beeds throughout the area. (In addition to the Paws & Pets kit, I used one ivory button from the Vintage Findings kit.)
Lay down another area of glue in the upper left corner and spread another assortment of seed beads in that area. Loop a short length of the Melissa Frances ribbon through the tag’s hole, and stitch a button through it to keep it in place.
To finish off the mixed media tag, select some phrase stickers from the Small Talk set and place them over the dapper man. I selected phrases that reflected the man’s confidence and effortless sense of personal style.
Our pre-coordinated 28 Lilac Lane kits are the perfect quick & easy embellishment for all your mixed media projects. Don’t forget to look past the name to the color scheme, and “think outside the box” about all the wonderful things that they can do!
This quick and easy quilt thank you card is perfect to send to your favorite quilter, or create a set to give as a gift!
Supplies:
To make this card, first cut a 3″ x 4″ piece of white cardstock. Cut 1″ squares out of two different patterned papers for the quilt squares. Arrange and glue them to cover the white cardstock backing.
Attach the quilted piece on top of the light pink patterned paper and trim to mat it with a small border.
Cut a 4.25″ by 5.5″ sized piece from the dark pink patterned paper. to use as the background of the card front. Attach the quilted piece to the card background, leaving a slightly wider border at the bottom.
Stamp the sentiment across the bottom of the card front. Fold a piece of cardstock to make a card base (or use a pre-made card). Attach the card front to the card base.
Select six small buttons from the “Summertime” Button Bonanza. Tie embroidery floss through the buttons, and adhere with glue.
This card design could easily be adapted to a variety of occasions. Change out the color scheme for blue and yellow, or pink and yellow, and you have a “welcome baby” card. And quilts go great with a fall chill in the air…made in browns and oranges, your quilt could wish someone a “Happy Fall!”
What occasion will you make a quilt card for?
This time of year sees a lot of people we love embarking on new adventures, headed off soon to new schools, or new jobs. Wouldn’t it be nice to send a piece of ourselves, and a positive message, along with them? This inspirational mixed media canvas using 28 Lilac Lane products will remind them to reach for their dreams!
Supplies from Buttons Galore:
Other Supplies:
To get started on your inspirational mixed media canvas project, paint the front and edges of the canvas with the blue Milk Paint. Let the paint dry.
Tear the floral “Farmhouse” paper and adhere it to the front of the canvas using the PPA Matte Adhesive. Use a baby wipe or damp paper towel to smooth down the edges of the paper and adhere them firmly. (This will have the effect of also distressing the milk paint finish on the canvas.)
Once the paint and glue is dried well, use the stencil and stencil creme (in orange) to apply a rose design to the lower right hand corner of the canvas, over the paper.
In the upper left hand corner, glue down a doilie on top of the patterned paper. When the glue is dry, smudge some Antique Linen Distress Ink on top of the cut outs in the doilie to highlight the design in them. Next, apply the twill ribbon from the “A New Leaf” kit across the top of the canvas.
To make the tag, die cut the tag shape out of a larger manila tag. Ink the edges with Broken China and Ground Espresso Distress Ink, and stamp the sentiment in Ground Espresso. Tie the charm from the “A New Leaf” kit onto the tag with some jute string, and glue some seed beads from the kit to the tag’s corners to finish it off. Glue the tag down.
Apply some PPA Matte Adhesive in the corners of the canvas and embed some seed beads from the “A New Leaf” embellishment kit in it. Once that is dry, you can begin building the stickers, rhinestone and button elements in the rest of the canvas. Don’t forget to thread your buttons before adhering them so they look finished!
This inspirational mixed media canvas is fun and simple to make…and will let someone you care about know how much you believe in them. Who will you give it to?
Looking for an easy quick card idea? Look no further than your Project Life cards and your buttons and embellishments from 28 Lilac Lane!
Creating this quick card is simple – and fast. It takes only five minutes! This project uses leftover Project Life cards as a shortcut to creating a beautiful color blocked card. Depending on the style of the kit you are using, the design could be graphic, shabby, or cute in style.
Supplies:
The key to this card’s fun design is to think in threes. All of the major design elements are arranged in threes, creating repetition and harmony in the design.
Start by folding a letter sized piece of cardstock in half for the base. Then select 3 project life cards and arrange them layered, as shown in the photo above. Select three sequins that match each of the top two cards, and arrange them in a triangle on the card. (Since my cards were very geometric, I chose to place the sequins centered on design elements.)
For the final touch, choose three buttons that match the cards. I chose three that matched the circles on the top card, to repeat the design element visually and bring that color down closer to the bottom for balance in the design. Tie embroidery floss through the holes of the buttons to make them feel more finished. Adhere in a row.
Variation: If you don’t find a card in your stash that contains an appropriate greeting or sentiment for your occasion, you can substitute a strip of paper with a stamped or handwritten sentiment. Just place it on top of the pocket card in the location where my card says “hooray”.
It’s time to make another addition to our holiday frame project! This time, we’re creating a rustic flag insert for the frame that will be perfect for showing your patriotic pride for the 4th of July or the upcoming Olympics!
(For those new to the series, the holiday frame project is a 8″x10″ frame that I’m creating a series of decorative inserts for to celebrate various holidays and occasions. To see previous installments in the series, click here.)
The hardest part of making this rustic flag project is…the math! To start, you are going to need to measure the opening on your frame, and decide how much border you want around your frame. Then use the painter’s tape to mask off the edges right up to the area that you want to paint.
Divide the remaining vertical area by 7 to determine the width of the stripes on the flag. Use painter’s tape to mark off the bottom stripe and fill in the stripe with paint. Remove the tape right away. While the stripe dries, determine how wide you want your blue area for the stars (I suggest about 40% of the width). Then mask it off with vertical strip of tape to protect it while you paint the top two red stripes. Measure down from the top to create your first stripe, lay down a piece of painter’s tape to protect the “white” stripe, and fill in the red stripe with paint. Remove the tape immediately after painting.
Letting each stripe dry before painting the next one, continue measuring and masking with tape before taping, until all 4 red stripes are painted.
Once all of the red paint is dry, then you can lay down painter’s tape to paint the blue area.
Peel the tape up as soon as you are finished painting, while the paint is still wet. Because of the open weave of the burlap, your paint will appear “patchy”, since in some places it will fill in the weave and in some it won’t. This adds to the rustic feeling of the project!
The final step is to select 13 small to medium sized white buttons from the Patriotic Mix of Button Basics. Arrange them in a random way in the blue area, and use a hot glue gun to attach them to the flag.
Now you’re all ready to put your flag in your frame and celebrate the 4th of July or cheer on Team USA for the Olympics this summer!
Mason jars are so trendy and so useful. They are perfect for making fun (and affordable) little gifts, like this mason jar sewing kit with a pin cushion top. And this project has another bonus – it’s perfect for using up those fabric scraps you just can’t part with!
Supplies:
To begin this mason jar sewing kit project, take the ring off of your mason jar. Select buttons from the Haberdashery collection that are approximately the height of the ring. Using the hot glue gun, attach them around the ring. The trick to getting the spacing even is to start adjusting with several buttons to go – select slightly smaller or larger buttons as needed to fill in the remaining space as evenly as possible, and then space them slightly apart if needed to avoid leaving a large gap at the end.
Once the ring is done, cut out a circle of fabric that is about 4.5″ in diameter (if you are using a regular mouth mason jar). Baste around the edges of it to create a gathering stitch, and leave the thread ends hanging. Ball up a a large wad of fiber fill and compress it so it is smaller than the jar lid.
Place the fiber fill on the top of the jar lid. Place the fabric on top of it – right side up – and then flip the entire thing over. Make sure the fiber fill stays bunched in the center of the jar lid! Pull the stitches to gather the fabric. When it snugs tightly onto the back of the jar lid, tie off the ends.Insert the lid with the fabric & fiber fill attached back into the ring and check its fit on the jar. There should be no fiber fill underneath the edges of the ring to ensure the lid screws on all the way. If it fits properly, use the hot glue gun to put glue under the edges of the fabric to seal it to the back of the lid. If the ring will not seal onto the jar, adjust the fiber fill away from the edges of the lid and try again.
The final step is to fill the jar with sewing supplies! A selection of buttons from our Buttons Galore Neutral Button Tote makes a great assortment to have on hand for replacing lost buttons on clothing. Add in a scrap of felt with some needles attached and a spool of thread, and you have an emergency mending kit with a top that will hold pins or needles!
This is a great gift for a bride, a student leaving for college, or someone setting up house for the first time. For a more advanced sewist, fill the jar with buttons, pins, or other sewing necessities to create a handmade gift they’ll enjoy using regularly.
Artist Trading Cards are a fun way to experiment with colors and techniques. They are also a great way to use up random leftovers from other projects, like I did on this Artist Trading Card wth buttons and trim!
For those unfamiliar with the concept, an ATC (Artist Trading Card) is a 2.5″ by 3.5″ piece of art that is intended to be traded with other artists. The rear of an ATC is usually signed by the artist and indicates if the card is part of a series. A wide variety of substrates are used as bases for ATC’s but popular ones include manila, watercolor paper, mat board, and ephemera like old book pages.
Supplies:
This ATC card was created from manila cardstock, cut from a #8 manila tag. I actually stamped the trading card background stamp on the tag first, and then cut out my card base, to make sure that I got perfect placement of the stamp on my card.
Once the base was created, I used a tag stencil with some texture paste to create a flower in the corner of the card on top of the stamped design. Rubbing some Distress Ink on top of the flower gave it a nice pink shade, and I also colored in the image that I wanted to highlight with markers.
I used a scrap of crochet trim from the 28 Lilac Lane “Attic Findings” embellishment kit to fill in the area in the upper left of the card. Then I opened up the “On Lilac Lane” bottle and went to town! The pretty lady got some embellishment for her outfit (see how shiny her buttons are?) from some of the small beads and sequins in the bottle. Then I placed buttons and pearls around the card for pops of color. Some of these elements highlight certain design elements like lines in the stamp or the flower. I purposely varied the size and color shade of the embellishments that I chose to create a more random, artsy effect in the design.
The final step was to use the Archival ink pad that I had stamped with to edge the card and give it some extra “pop”.
Our embellishment kits and bottles are perfect for making Artist Trading Cards with buttons, trim, sequins, beads, and pearls. Their great assortment of embellishments will help you create a one of a kind work of art! Try one today!
Shaker cards are super trendy right now, so next time you want to want to express your gratitude…why not send a thank you shaker card? This quick and easy thank you shaker card uses our “New Leaf” embellishment kit from 28 Lilac Lane to add a touch of sparkle to its shake!
Supplies:
The base of this thank you card is created from a “thank you” card cutting file from the Cricut Design Space library. I modified the cut file by duplicating the card and using squares to slice sections of it out to create layers in different colors. When I assembled the pieces, I had the base for a colorful shaker card. The scalloped edge is actually on the back edge of the card, so it is still visible when you open the card up to read what is written inside!
The front panel of the shaker box is easy to make. I just grabbed a spare page protector and cut a piece out of it big enough to cover the window. I attached it to the back of the card front using red liner adhesive tape.
To create the box part of the thank you shaker box, I layered a double layer of foam adhesive tape on top of the area where the red liner adhesive was used. This created a box to put the shaker embellishments into. I filled the box up with sequins, seed beeds, and buttons from the New Leaf kit. Then I peeled the backing from the foam tape and attached a cardstock “lid” to the shaker box.
If you give this card to a crafter, this card is an extra special treat! The recipient can simply open up the shaker box and empty the contents into a small container or zip bag to use on their own papercrafting, sewing, or mixed media projects.
The summer holidays coming has many of us here in the U.S. wanting to display our more patriotic side. This simple pallet flag will help you show your love of country while bringing some country charm to your home as well!
To create this pallet flag, I started by painting the entire pallet white. Then, to create my stripes, I measured the tallest height of the pallet and divided by seven (the number of stripes that I wanted) to get the width of my stripes.
Using painter’s tape to block off the areas that I didn’t want to paint red ensured that I got crisp edges on my stripes. I just measured the width I wanted and laid down a strip of tape at that mark. Then from that edge, I measured again and lay another strip of tape at that mark. That left a small open area between the two strips of tape. To protect my white paint from splatters while painting with the red, I laid down an extra strip of tape on top of the others to fill in that gap. When I was done, I had blue and white stripes like this:
Once the tape was in place, I painted the areas that weren’t covered in blue tape with red paint. The paint below appears patchy because I peeled up the tape while it was still drying – an important step to keep the edges of your paint crisp. Once dry, the paint is much more even.
Instead of painting the blue field for the stars I chose to use a paper background. The paper filled in the holes between the planks on the pallet, allowing for even spacing of the stars. It also allowed me to extend the paper above some of the shorter pallet planks, to the height of the taller planks. This gave me more room to work with for the stars. The paper was adhered down with matte finish white glue.
Before attaching the stars, their shanks had to first be removed. Placing the stars required a lot of patience. I worked in sections, letting glue dry on each row before moving to the next so that I wouldn’t push previous stars out of position placing the next row. It’s difficult to get the arrangement exactly perfect, but on a rustic pallet flag like this, that is part of the charm!
While I used silver quilted stars for this project, any of our 3/4″ or less sized stars would work (like our Texas Stars, our Gold Stars, or our Silver Star assortment, or the white stars from our Stars & Stripes assortment). If you don’t have the patience to do all 50 stars, try arranging 13 of them in a circle.
Supplies:
Is the dad in your life a sports fan? This baseball Father’s Day card may be the perfect way to send your love on Father’s Day!
This simple Father’s Day card is based on only two main elements: a die cut and some of our fun 3D buttons!
A plain blank card takes on a baseball pinstripe look with the help of a background stamp. The texture of the blank card keeps it from stamping completely perfectly, giving it a vintage distressed look. A strip of patterned paper also helps to create a vintage vibe, which is perfect since baseball is a sport with such a strong sense of history. The die cut is cut from a red cardstock that matches to stitching on the baseball, and which creates a nice contrast to the blue. Once that is done, all that is needed is to attach the buttons. (The bat is attached with some embroidery floss, and the ball is glued.)
This baseball father’s day card could easily be themed for another sport with only a few changes. Simply change out the baseball buttons for other Buttons Galore sports themed ones such as basketball, soccer, or football, and then change the background stripes for stars!
Supplies:
Father’s Day is almost here, and that means time to make cards for dads, grandpas, and other special men in our lives! This quick and simple Father’s Day card is easy to make, and has a fun orange and turquoise color scheme that will make kids and grown-ups happy!
The card design is based on a preprinted journal card cut from a sheet of Simple Stories patterned paper. To keep it from looking plain as the basis of the card, embellish it with pearls that match the TV’s printed dials. The “screen” of the TV is the perfect place to hold the card’s sentiment. Stamp the sentiment on cardstock and then cut it apart to fit onto the screen. Adhere.
Next mat the TV card on orange patterned paper, and then mount it onto the card front. Finally, attach the card front to a blank card to complete the layers.
To wrap the twine, poke a hold in the spine of the card. Using the hole, wrap the twine around the card twice. Finish with the ends on the front. Thread a button onto each end of the twine, and then tie the ends together. To make the buttons lay more flat, glue dots can be attached behind them.
Supplies:
This card is perfect for any of the favorite fathers (or father figures) in your life. Who would you give this quick & simple Father’s Day card to for Father’s Day?
I spent the weekend creating new storage for my buttons that has them arranged in rainbow order. After playing with a giant rainbow of buttons for hours, it left me in the mood to create a button rainbow card for my project today!
A rainbow like this is just a simple button collage. The trick is to get the curves lined up and space correctly. I made that simple for this project by using a die cut as a basis for the collage. Because I cut the die cut from cardstock that matched my buttons as closely as possible, the cardstock background will “fill in” visually between the buttons.
Assembling the button collage is simple. Working one row at a time, I placed a line of glue along the row for each color. Then I selected small buttons to place along the row. It helped if the buttons were somewhat alternated in position from the previous row, since then I could put a slightly larger button into the gap created by the curves. I let each row dry until it was adhered firmly before beginning the next row to make sure that I didn’t accidentally displace the previous row adhering the new one.
Once the rainbow was completed and dry, I adhered it to a blank card after first stamping the sentiment on the card. It was important to do the stamping first since the thickness of the button rainbow could make it difficult to get the stamp in position after it is adhered.
The final step was to adhere the clouds using 3D foam squares. I lined the squares up along the bottom of the clouds so they created a line across the center of the clouds. This edge butted right against the bottom edge of the rainbow when I adhered it. The top of the cloud doesn’t need adhesive because it is supported by the rainbow.
Supplies:
I hope you enjoy my button rainbow card! It’s an easy way to send some cheer to someone you care about!
Happy (Inter)National Scrapbook Day! Buttons are a perfect match for scrapbooking. They are a quick and easy way to add a pop of color and dimension to any layout design!
Today, in honor of scrapbooking’s special day, we’re going to share with you our favorite examples of the wide variety of ways that buttons can be used on layouts.
Buttons and burlap are always a good pair, especially on a scrapbook layout. Keri Lee Sereika paired them with bright red and crisp turquoise for this brilliant summer layout of her son.
If you like the combination of turquoise and brown, but burlap isn’t your thing…try using brown buttons! Designer May Flaum used her 28 Lilac Lane Paws & Pets kit to make some brown elements pop out of a solid turquoise background to highlight her Scrappy pup!
Natural materials (like the cork letters above) are a great combination with buttons. Ashli Oliver decided to extend the natural and handmade look to the paper on her layout, pairing her 28 Lilac Lane buttons with a rustic handmade paper. The contrast between the smooth, hard buttons and the rough, wild paper is perfect!
We’ve seen lots of button clusters so far, but May Flaum showed us in her My Girls layout how to use buttons scattered as 3D trinkets alongside ephemera as well. She scattered some of her 28 Lilac Lane Attic Findings and Just Peachy buttons – as well as the coordinating sequins and pearls – to prove that a few buttons can pack a design punch as well.
Guest blogger Karla Yungwirth took the scattering to a new level of delicacy! Her gorgeous pastel layout, with just a touch of one or two buttons dabbed here and there for a spot of color, shows how buttons (and sequins and pearls) can have an impact while still being subtle.
But wait, there’s more…a sale! We’ve got 20% off on our entire website to celebrate National Scrapbook Day! So you can save while stocking up on all the buttons and embellishments that you need to put the perfect finishing touches on your scrapbook layouts! Use code NSD20 at checkout and save now!
The weather is warming up and soon it will be t-shirt season! Using buttons to embellish a t-shirt is an easy way to add some instant style to an inexpensive, plain piece of clothing without the need for a sewing machine or hours of time.
This project can be done on any affordable basic t-shirt. The only supplies needed are buttons and a needle and thread.
To coordinate with this green t-shirt, I selected our Strawberry Cheesecake Color Blend buttons, gentle shades of pink that contrast nicely to the shirt’s green tone. But this project could be made in any color combination, like school colors, which makes it perfect for special events or creating a custom piece to match that hard-to-match clothing!
Beginning at one of the shoulder seams, sew the buttons centered onto the border of the neckline. The spacing of the buttons can be measured if you’d like, but I chose to estimate my placement. The spacing distance will depend on how many buttons you’d like to use. If you want a heavily embellished look, put your buttons close together – or even touching! Spacing the buttons further apart, as I chose to, will give a more delicate look to the embellishment.
For a more interesting design, you can vary the sizes and colors of the buttons like I did. I recommend, however, keeping them small enough on a shirt with a binding like this on the neck to stay within the trim itself.
The finished result is an embellished t-shirt that is affordable and simple to make, and an easy look that will still look “finished” around the neck if you skip wearing jewelry.
While you are at our webstore checking out the Strawberry Cheesecake Color Blend buttons, don’t forget to also check out our spring clearance sale section. Some items are as much as 80% off as we are clearing out inventory in preparation for moving our warehouse!
You can never have too many pretty little places to stash mementos and accessories. This little wood trinket box with a multi-colored button lid is a great way to hold your favorite jewelry, souvenirs like ticket stubs, or even office supplies!
This wood trinket box starts with a fun ombre finish created using the brand new Plaid Ultra Dyes. These are somewhat like water soluble brightly colored wood stains, and blend. I layered several colors to get the effect shown here: Raspberry Beret and Hot Flash applied on the bottom, and the top area with several coats of Hot Pink. Then a coat of hot Pink was layered over the entire project. The end result was almost a dip dye effect.
To find a selection of lots of colors for my button collage for on the lid of the trinket box, I decided to pull buttons from two different button assortments. On the left is our Spring button box, with the purple buttons, and on the right is our Vacation button box, with the dark teal and peach colors. Both assortments share in common some pink and light green shades, making them well suited to work together.
I laid down a thick layer of white glue and then went to work filling in the lid with the buttons. The key (for me anyway) to achieving a random look is to try to not have buttons touch each other that are the same color. It’s also important to make sure that too many buttons of the same size aren’t clustered together in an area.
After the glue dries clear, that buttons will appear to be floating on the lid of the wood trinket box!
This wood trinket box with a button lid is a fast and easy project for all ages – a great project for a Mother’s Day gift or for summer vacation crafts for the kids! What will you use it for?
Supplies:
For those of you following along with the holiday frame project, there may be times when you don’t want a seasonal element in it. Today, I’m here to show you a welcome frame design for your frame for those in-between times of year!
This simple design makes use of beautiful elements from our 28 Lilac Lane “Attic Findings” kit, as well as 3D die cut elements. All of the paper elements are created from a single paper pad for easy coordination of colors and designs.
To create this welcome frame project, the background paper was cut to 8″ x 10″ to fit the frame opening. Then the crochet trim from the Attic Findings kit was cut to create the border and glued in place. The word “welcome” was die cut (sized to just slightly more than 5″) and the edges were inked to provide a drop shadow before adhering it as well.
The three flowers were sized to about 2.25″ in diameter, and then cut from different papers. (The stamens on two of the flowers were cut from another flower design that wasn’t used on the frame.) The edges of the pink flowers were inked, and then the flowers were assembled.
The finishing touch on the flowers were the embellishments from the Attic Findings kit. Each flower got its own touch of contrasting color. The buttons were threaded with embroidery floss and tied off before adhering to give them a finished look.
Supplies:
This welcome frame is a beautiful way to fill your holiday frame in between holidays! In case you’ve missed them, don’t forget to check out the previous installments in the holiday frame series. What holiday would you like to see added to the series next?
Welcome to the 28 Lilac Lane blog hop on the Buttons Galore blog! Let’s make some spring flowers! Make sure that you stay until the end today for the giveaway!
Spring has us all thinking of flowers! But in some areas they aren’t blooming yet, or we may not be able to have them in the house due to allergies.
The solution is simple…fabric and buttons! 
This project starts with fabric and interfacing. Iron heavy-duty iron-on interfacing to the back side of a small fabric scrap. Then, wrong sides together, iron another fabric scrap to the back side of it. This will create a double-sided piece of fabric, with the interfacing in the middle to stiffen the fabric.
Run the fabric through your die cutting machine to make flowers. Repeat with several different fabric scraps. If you don’t have scraps that will work for this project, visit your local quilt or sewing store and check out their fat quarter inventory for suitable fabric. Small prints work best for this project.
Select a large button to coordinate with each of your spring flowers. With a piercer or large needle, poke holes through the flower where the button’s holes are.
Cut a length of the German Style wire about twice the desired stem length and fold it in half. Poke one end through each of the button’s holes and the flower and pull to snug the loop down on top of the button. Begin twisting the wire together under the flower. Continue until you reach the desired stem length and clip off the wire ends.
Arrange your spring flowers in a vase, and for the finishing touch wrap baker’s twine around the neck and tie a pretty bow!
Supplies:
Don’t miss the other stops on the blog hop:
To celebrate this blog hop, Buttons Galore is giving away a fabulous 28 Lilac Lane prize! One lucky winner is going to win two 28 Lilac Lane embellishment kits, an embellishment bottle, and a sequin tin – and the best part is that it is winner’s choice!
To enter, comment below and tell us which of the 28 Lilac Lane embellishment kits is YOUR favorite! This giveaway is open until Midnight pacific time on Sunday, April 24th. One entry per person, and only U.S. mailing addresses are eligible to win.
Thanks for visiting the blog hop and good luck! If this is your first visit to the blog, please make sure to subscribe to the blog and follow our Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest!
This gold button charm bracelet project is easy to make with only a few supplies, and makes a perfect gift for the special stylish woman in your life!
Supplies:
I also recommend having on hand a pair of jewelry pliers (long nose or bent nose) to open and close the jump rings to complete this project more easily.
Once the supplies are assembled, select a random assortment of stem buttons from the button bag. You’ll need enough to put one button on each link of the bracelet chain.
Use the jump rings to attach the stem buttons to the bracelet chain. Attach one button per link in the chain, keeping all of the buttons on the same side of the links.
Vary the size and design of the buttons that you use as you go to get a good random appearance. If you look closely above, you can see that I put larger buttons in the center of the bracelet, and smaller ones at the ends, to create a taper effect and make the bracelet more comfortable to wear.
That’s all there is to it! This fun gold button charm bracelet gift is so easy to make, but the results are stylish!
For a different look, try making this button charm bracelet project with our Fancy Silver Haberdashery buttons, and a silver bracelet and silver jump rings.
Old man winter has been really reluctant in some parts of the country (including at the Buttons Galore warehouse) to pack it up and head back to the arctic where he belongs! So today we thought we’d share on the blog a round-up of some of our favorite spring projects to remind everyone that spring is coming after all!
This fun project will brighten up any decor and bring the cheer of spring inside – even if Mother Nature isn’t cooperating outside. And the only tool required is a glue gun!
This gorgeous frame project could be used to house a favorite picture, or a favorite seasonal quote. It’s perfect for nursery decor, or a craft room!
This sign says it all for those who are ready to be done with winter…”welcome spring”. This light and airy look can be made in a variety of spring colors, or the text could be changed out with a child’s name for nursery decor too!
When there is no flowers outside yet, just make your own! This spring project brings the spring cheer and is environmental too, as it upcycles a tin can for the beautiful container the holds the handmade flowers.
Spring time means gardeners everywhere are dreaming of abundant summer garden harvests, and planting pots of seeds to get a head start on the growing season. These adorable garden markers will help you remember what that little green sprout in that pot is – peas? corn? beans? – before it makes its way out to be planted in the garden.
If spring has you feeling in the mind to spread some good cheer, some button embellished flowers and butterflies may be just the way to do it! This quick and easy card will put a smile on someone’s face for sure!
Although it is shown on a candle jar, this spring floral mason jar project could be used for a variety of uses – even storing your buttons in your craft room! With a few color changes (such as natural burlap) it could work with any decor, too. Your creativity is the limit!
And now for the giveaway!
One lucky blog reader is going to win a spring button prize package of a random assortment of our Buttons Galore Spring Fling 3D buttons (a sampling of the collection is shown above) that is worth $20 retail! That will make plenty of great spring projects for the lucky winner!
How To Enter The Giveaway: Leave a comment below telling us which one of the spring projects that we shared here you liked the best! A random winner will be chosen from all comments left before midnight U.S. pacific time on Sunday, April 17th. One entry per person. Giveaway open to U.S. residents only.
This cupcake is sweet, easy…and calorie free! Perfect for celebrating a special occasion like a birthday or for decorating a kitchen, our cupcake canvas can be customized to suit any color scheme very simply. All that is needed to customize the design is to change the fabric colors, and the options are endless!
To start your design, iron Heat-n-Bond to the reverse of your purple and turquoise fabric following package instructions. Cut cupcake wrapper and lettering on your Cricut Explore machine following instructions in this blog post.
Cut the top of the cupcake out of cardstock to be used as a template.
Iron the fabric pieces in position following instructions on the Heat-n-Bond package. Trace around the cupcake topper template lightly with a disappearing fabric pen or pencil to create an outline of where to place the buttons for the frosting.
Wrap the background fabric around the canvas and attach to the back of the canvas using a staple gun. To create an extra neat edge, turn the raw edge of the fabric under before stapling.
Using a glue gun, adhere the buttons to create the frosting and the stripes on the cupcake wrapper.
To finish your canvas, cut the stems off of a few 3D Sweet Delights buttons and use the glue gun to fasten them in place scattered around on your letters. Don’t forget to put the cherry on top of the cupcake!
Now you can enjoy your cupcake canvas, or treat someone special with it! (But don’t be surprised if you start feeling hungry….)
Supplies:
Mother’s Day is just around the corner, and what better way to tell Mom how much you appreciate her all year through than with a handmade card?
This fun and easy watercolor floral Mother’s Day card will show mom just how much you care!
Start by stamping the flowers on watercolor paper with permanent ink. Paint with watercolors. Remove the lid from the ink spray and use it to drop ink splatters onto the watercolor paper. Finish the flowers by adding button centers to them.
Cut and fold the cardstock to make a card base. Cut a piece of patterned paper to cover the front. Attach the flower elements on it.
Cut a patterned paper strip. Stamp “with mom” at one end of it, and adhere it across the card front. Use the die cutting machine to cut out the word “mom”, and attach it over the strip. Finish it with a button covering the “o”.
Supplies:
Regular readers of the site may remember this delightful zip pouch that I made last fall during the Handmade Holidays blog hop. It is from a pattern called Everyday Zips by Joanna Figueroa of Fig Tree & Company, available online or at local quilt stores.
Making the pouch was so simple and fun that I decided to make another one for the trade show booths in January…this time in a spring color scheme, and with a few modifications. Because you can never have too many zip pouches, right?
Supplies:
For this version, I created a totally different look. Instead of vintage style neutrals, the new design used batik print quilt fabric in spring colors. The light green fabric was used for both the exterior body and for the lining. The bright pink contrast panel and the green prairie points create an impression of leaves surrounding flowers.
Instead of just a few button accents, the spring zip pouch has a whole collage of buttons decorating its front panel!
As well as adding buttons, I also took something away from the front of the pouch. You might have already noticed that the zipper pocket isn’t on the front of the new design of the pouch. Removing it simplified the sewing of the pouch and made room for the large decorative button collage.
Making the change to remove the zipper from the panel was easy. I measured what each of the three pattern pieces for this panel would be in height after the seam allowances were removed. Then I added those three numbers together, added the seam allowance to the top and bottom of it. That gave me the new height I needed to cut my panel to. (The width is provided by the pieces for above and below the zipper.) Using those dimensions, I created the new pattern piece. The piece I ended up cutting was 3″ by 9.5″. I then simply skipped the steps in the pattern dealing with installing the pocket zipper and the pocket lining.
Zip pouches make great gifts for Mother’s Day, birthdays, and teacher appreciation! What occasion do you have coming up that a fun zip pouch gift would be perfect for?
Today we are continuing with the theme that we started on Monday of using button monograms for babies! Only this time, the button monogram is the central piece on a clean & simple baby card.
If elegant and simple is more your style than the typical baby cutesy, this card may be just what you are looking for. The pastel color palette and the use of the buttons add delicate touches of a baby theme, but the overall design is understated, simple, and more mature.
Supplies:
Directions:
Cut and fold a card from the white cardstock. Adhere pink patterned paper to the front.
Using the die cutting machine, cut a large circle from the white cardstock. Adhere to the top front of card.
Cut a strip of white cardstock wide enough for the alphabet stamps to fit on. Stamp name on it, trim ends, and adhere to bottom of card front. (If necessary, use two strips placed one on top of the other for longer names.)
Using Arial Black font, cut the monogram from the pink cardstock. Cover the monogram in buttons, using white clear-drying glue. Adhere the monogram to the middle of the white circle.
With the monogram and baby’s name, this clean & simple baby card would be great for a baby announcement, shower invitation, or mom’s thank you cards!
A new baby, whether it is yours or someone else’s, is always a great reason to make something! And what could be cuter than button monogram wall art?
This fun project uses two key components – a wood monogram letter like the kind available at most craft stores, and two tins of our beautiful Sea Glass buttons. I really love these buttons – their beautiful blue/green translucence really makes me want to go down to the shore and hunt for glass!
Supplies:
Lay down areas of glue in sections, and fill the letter in with buttons. Don’t be afraid to lay down a nice thick layer of glue so the glue will come up the button holes when the buttons are pressed down into it. When the glue is dry, this creates “prongs” that grab onto the buttons and help hold them in place more securely.
The areas between the buttons don’t need to be even or really tiny. While it looks uneven viewed very close up, unless a gap is extremely large it won’t look awkward when viewed from a reasonable viewing distance.
For the finishing touch (and to add the baby theme to the button monogram), tie a nice large bow out of the white ribbon. Attach it on top of the buttons on the button monogram using hot glue. Cut the stem off of a Ducky button, and hot glue that on top of the bow.
This button monogram project can be made in any color, and would make a great gift or baby shower decor. Hang it on a nursery wall, a bedroom door, or prop it up on a dresser top!
Sometimes you just want to send a card to say “hi” to someone special. This adorable donut card is a sweet way to do the job!
The new 28 Lilac Lane embellishment kits are now shipping, and they are perfect for cardmakers: buttons, sequins, trim and charms. They also contain seed beads, something unfamiliar to some cardmakers. In addition to making great shaker boxes, seed beads can be combined with glue to make great shiny embellishments. On this donut card, they give the appearance of sprinkles (or nuts).
Cut pink striped paper to fit card front. Adhere. Cut 1″ strip of yellow stripe and attach along fold of card.
Cut a strip of water color paper that is 1 7/8″ wide and the same height as the card front.
Using Archival ink, stamp three donuts on the watercolor paper.
Paint the donuts with the watercolors.
Spread a thin layer of white glue (I use Artquest PPA Matte) on the donut frosting. Scatter yellow seed beads from the Tropical Twist kit in the glue. Add a second layer of glue on top of the beads (above).
When dry, the glue will largely disappear. Any remnants that remain visible (as around some of the beads in the photo above) will just look like donut glaze!
Adhere the donut strip over the seam between the two patterned papers on the card front.
Stamp the sentiment in the lower right corner of the donut card front.
The new 28 Lilac Lane products are now shipping to stores! Look for them in a store near you!
Are you hearing bells in your future – wedding bells, that is? If you are having a DIY wedding, our 3D wedding buttons can help you create a DIY wedding invitation and other beautiful items for your special day!
Supplies:
Making this invitation is easy!
Cut and fold the smooth cardstock to make a 5″ x 7″ sized card base.
Use a word processing program to create the invitation text. Print the text onto inkjet printable vellum.
Cut the patterned paper to size. Using your sewing machine, stitch the vellum onto the patterned paper.
Adhere the patterned paper & vellum combination to the card front. Adhere the buttons on top of the vellum.
Buttons Galore’s 3D buttons are available for bulk purchase. If you require a specific item in bulk to create large quantities of an item like this DIY wedding invitation, please contact our customer service department through our website for assistance.
Do the dark days of February have you longing for spring? My spring button wreath project will put a little touch of spring green and flowers inside on your walls – no matter what the weather outside!
To create this project, you’ll need the following supplies:
Begin by wrapping the foam wreath in the burlap ribbon. The ribbon I chose is thin – more like fabric than canvas – which makes for smoother wrapping of the wreath and a better surface to serve as the base for the buttons. Secure the ribbon ends with floral greening pins. It may take several rolls of ribbon to complete the entire wreath.
The next step is to use hot glue to start adhering buttons on the wreath. Working in small sections, lay down hot glue and then arrange buttons in it. I highly recommend using a protector (like the hot glue gun finger protectors make by Plaid) when you are pushing the buttons down to avoid burning yourself. Handle hot glue guns with care – even so-called low temperature hot glue will burn!
Once the buttons are all in place, trim the stems off of three spring floral blooms. Use hot glue to adhere them onto the wreath.
Cut the stems off of the Spring Fling buttons, and using hot glue, adhere them scattered around the wreath. Don’t forget to add a bee on one of the flowers!
Hang your wreath on the wall with a wire, a wreath hanger, or with a ribbon and nail – and then sit back and enjoy the spring!
Thank you cards are one of the most commonly used cards that we reach for, so we can never have too many on hand for when we need them! This fun and simple project combines Sakura watercolors with our bright “Fiesta” Button Bonanza bag to create a bouquet of button flowers for you to send to someone special.
Supplies:
Our Buttons Galore “Fiesta” Button Bonanza bag is full of bright colors that are perfect for making little flowers! To start your card, pick three buttons in different colors and sizes for making your button flowers. Then set the bag aside.
Next, cut a 4.25″ x 5.5″ piece of the yellow striped paper. Adhere to front of card blank.
Cut a 3.75″ x 5″ piece of Ocean Breeze cardstock.
Using watercolors & a water brush, paint green grass and three flower stems on the cardstock. Vary the heights of the stems, but make sure to leave enough room between the tallest one and the top for adding the buttons and the sentiment!
Stamp the sentiment across the top of the card.
To make the flowers, sew the buttons on to the ends of the stems with embroidery floss. Tie the knot in the front and snip ends so they will fray a bit to make a center for the flower.
Adhere the blue cardstock on top of the yellow striped paper.
Your card is done! Now it’s time to write a message of thanks inside and deliver a bit of sunshine and gratitude to someone special!
Saturday is National Love Your Pet Day, and what better crafty way to celebrate your pet than by creating a pet button frame to display your favorite photo of them?
Supplies:
This frame could easily become a dog themed frame just by changing the cork word to “woof” and using some of the dog buttons from our Pets & Pals collection.
To begin, paint the frame with the FolkArt chalk paint in Java. You may want to use some sandpaper first to prepare the frame’s surface for the paint. Don’t forget to paint the edges of the frame that will be visible!
After the chalk paint is dry, buff the painted surface with the Plaid FolkArt Home Decor Wax to finish it.
While you wait for the paint and wax to dry, mix the microbeads to create a variegated mix that is half brown and half black. Make sure to thoroughly mix the beads together to get a random distribution of color.
Next it is time to apply the buttons! Working one small section at a time, spread a thick coat of clear-drying white glue on the front of the frame. Position a mix of buttons to fill in the frame. After you are certain that the buttons are in their final position for that section – and before the glue has dried – sprinkle some of the microbead mix on top of any gaps between the buttons.
The benefit of using the white glue (versus say a hot glue gun) is that its invisibility and dry time gives room for adjustment as you build each section of the collage. You can nudge a button or move it completely if necessary to make your “puzzle without a correct answer” fit together in a way that satisfies you. You aren’t committed until the glue dries, which takes quite awhile.
I recommend letting one section dry before beginning another. While the dry time on the glue method allows for error, it also creates error – making it easy to accidentally nudge an entire section out of place while trying to wedge a button into a tight spot. Working with only a small wet section at a time minimizes the damage that sort of incident can do.
The title is a simple addition to the frame – it’s the materials that make it look fancy!
Cut the cork sheet on a Cricut Explore machine, and then ink the edges with Distress ink to create a nice shadow on it. Because the surface of the buttons is really uneven, you’ll need to adhere the cork with a glue gun even though the cork is self-adhesive.
Once the cork title is on, cut the shanks off of the buttons and use the hot glue gun to adhere them in place as well.
And that is it – your beautiful pet frame is complete! Now you can find the perfect photo memory to enjoy of your furry family member!
Yesterday was Valentine’s Day, and that means love, romance…and proposals! So, for everyone who woke up this morning with a wedding in their future (or their family’s future), we’ve got a fun and easy project for you – a DIY wedding frame!
This wedding frame is multi-purpose – it can serve as a wedding or shower decoration, and then transition to home decor as a treasured memory after the big day is over.
The first step in this project is to select a color scheme. This project is built around a fabric background, which can really be any color. I’ve chosen a beautiful aqua, but the wedding’s theme color or a color from the bride’s home decor might both be excellent choices.
The gold iron-on material matches both the frame and a fleck that is in the fabric. Our Haberdashery button pack is variegated between cream and white, so no matter what color of wedding dress the bride chooses, the collage will work.
Use a fabric pencil to sketch out the area for the heart.
Measure the remaining area and create the text and other elements on your die cut machine. Cut from glitter iron-on material, and iron on to fabric following manufacturer’s instructions.
For the fabric to stand up to holding the collage of buttons in the frame, it needs to be stiffened. I used Krylon Spray Adhesive to laminate the fabric to a sheet of white chipboard as a backing.
Using white glue (I used PPA Matte by ArtQuest), adhere white buttons from the Button Basics and Haberdashery packages. Continue until the entire heart is filled. I ensured that the largest ones were spread around in a balanced fashion by laying them down first and then building around them.
Finish by removing the stem from a heart button, and gluing the heart on top of the glitter flourish.
Remove the glass from the frame, and place the cardboard sheet in place!
And now your beautiful memory of a special day is ready to enjoy!
Supplies:
Congratulations to all the newly engaged couples out there, and we look forward to seeing you make our DIY wedding frame!
As a northerner transplanted to the south, I remember all too well the dark days of February in the cold part of the country. This time of year it seemed that winter would never end! So today, I’m here to bring a blast of sunshine to February, with some help from the new sequin tins from 28 Lilac Lane.
This mixed-media inspired sequin card is very simple to make. By simply changing up the sentiment stickers, it can be perfect for providing cheer on a variety of occasions.
Supplies:
Instructions:
The sequins will shine on their own in this sequin card, of course, but the Mica Spray enhances the card’s overall shine and brings out the sequins’ shine. And the orange ink will make the darker toned sequins in the yellow sequin blend really pop!
The 28 Lilac Lane sequin tins will be shipping soon – don’t miss out on the entire collection of all six color blends!
Now that the CHA Mega Show is over, we can start sharing with you a closer look at the projects that were designed for our booth, like this ombre heart!
I designed this ombre heart wall art by combining several of our button assortments that contain great shades of pink that work together to make the ombre shift.
This project is surprisingly easy. The biggest challenge is the first step working with the buttons, which is simple but can be tedious. This is a great project to do with kids, to help teach color distinction!
Step 1: Paint the wood heart base with chalk or acrylic paint.
Step 2: Sort the pink buttons into five gradual color shades.
Step 3: Measure the heart from top to bottom. Divide that amount by six to get the width of each color band in the ombre heart. Mark off the divide between each color.
Step 4: Begin to apply the buttons. Apply a thick coat of glue in the first color band, and begin filling with the color for that band.
Step 5: While the first color dries, turn the heart around and work from the other end. Repeat until you meet in the middle and finish the final color.
Step 6: Allow the glue to dry.
Step 7: Use hot glue to attach a loop of ribbon to the rear side on the top of the ombre heart to allow for hanging.
Supplies:
Also…don’t miss our winter sale! We’ve got great deals now through January 31st on Christmas, Winter, and Valentine’s Day themed buttons!
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!
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:
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:
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!
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!
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.
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!
Make sure to visit the other participants in the hop today, and don’t forget to enter the giveaway below to win a $500 Visa gift card!
Remember that Autumn photo frame I shared awhile back? Well, it’s past time to decorate it for Christmas! This rotating seasonal decorative frame is so easy to to decorate to bring a seasonal spark to your home decor.
Supplies:
Instructions:
Cut an 8″x 10″ piece of the background fabric. Iron Heat n’ Bond to it to stabilize it.
Use die cut machine to cut tree and phrase out of glitter iron-on. Iron in place on on background.
Carefully remove shanks from snowflake buttons using scissors or a button shank remover. Adhere on Christmas tree in random pattern using hot glue gun.
For an brighter look than the gold and white theme, try making ornaments out of bright red buttons!
Trim off any excess interfacing around the edge of the fabric.
Insert the sheet into the frame, and enjoy your Christmas photo frame!
I’ll be back in January with a seasonal Valentine’s addition for your frame! In the meantime, we’ll have plenty of exciting things going on here on the blog as the Craft & Hobby Association in early January gets closer…starting with a big announcement tomorrow (Monday) here on the blog! Don’t miss it!
Welcome to the Handmade Holidays on Buttons Galore! We’re joining in by sharing ideas for handmade Christmas gifts using – of course – buttons!
Today’s gift is both practical and pretty! You can never have enough tote bags, and today our gift is a nice sized one that is made gorgeous using an easy rag quilting method.
Supplies:
This bag is quilted using convenient 5″ charm squares. I originally cut these to use on another project but when I switched fabrics for that project, these charm squares went unused. It took 18 of them to quilt this tote: 9 for the front of the squares, and 9 for the backside of them (to help create the bulk in the visible seams).
Laying out the pattern is the first challenge. I inserted a piece of cardboard in the tote to help make it nice and flat while I worked on the layout.
Once your layout is arranged, the next step is to prepare the edges that won’t be quilted of the squares.
On the backing squares, each edge that won’t be part of a rag quilted seam should be trimmed by 5/8″.
On the front (visible in the finished product) squares, press under a 1/2″ seam on each edge that won’t be part of a rag quilted seam. Miter corners where pressed edges meet for best results.
Stack the backing squares on the front squares, folding the pressed edges over the backing squares. Make sure that the raw edges for the rag quilted seams are aligned. Pin together.
Assemble the 9 blocks into a square by using rag quilted seams. (For easy instructions on assembling rag quilt blocks, see this wonderful article by Deby at So Sew Easy.)
Once the squares are all attached together, the block must be attached to the bag by sewing around the outside edge. This seam must be sewn one block at a time, without passing over the rag quilted seams. So it requires a lot of stopping and starting of your machine. Careful pinning is the key to success in this step.
The final step is to adhere buttons in each square. This project is a great way to use all of those really large buttons in your Button Bonanza bags! The buttons aren’t just decorative – they also serve a purpose as well, by helping to anchor the squares to the bag.
And that is it! Your tote is ready to hit the street – or be wrapped for under the tree! The rag quilted seams will soften and fray as they are used and washed into an even more beautiful fuzzy fringe.
Now, did I mention there are fabulous prizes?
We are having a giveaway of over $600 in craft supplies to help you make this holiday handmade! Enter to win using the widget below:
Many thanks to all of the sponsors of the hop and giveaway!
Thanks for stopping by, and make sure to use the widget below to visit the other hop participants!
Thanks for joining us for the three days of the Handmade Holidays blog hop! Make sure you don’t miss day one and day two of the hop, too!
Welcome to Day 2 of the Handmade Holidays blog hop on Buttons Galore! Today, we’re buttoning up a fashionable accessory that will keep someone you love warm and stylish this winter! This project started with an inexpensive store bought scarf, but some embroidery and buttons turned it into a one of a kind keepsake that is practical too! 
Supplies:
The fun thing about Button Bonanzas is that they are, like your grandmother’s button jar, full of an assortment of random sizes and styles of buttons. I love finding little treasures in them that have sparkles and other special designs. This scarf highlights several”fancy” buttons that I found in my Pastel Button Bonanza bag and turns them into feature elements on the scarf. 
The design is fairly simple – the flowers are backstitched and the buttons are stitched in the middle of them. But how did I get my flowers the right size and shape? That’s where my secret weapon – my Cricut Explore – came in. 
First, I created the three flowers in Cricut Design Space, using files from the Cricut library. Then I used one of my Cricut pens to draw them onto some tracing paper. Once the flowers were sketched out onto the tracing paper, I cut them apart. One at a time, I attached them to the scarf with pins. Then I backstitched on the lines, through both the scarf and the paper. 
Once the stitching is done, the paper needs to be (carefully) removed. I used a combination of delicate tearing and a craft knife to tear the paper away from both sides of the stitching. The stitching holes serve as a sort of perforation that aid in the tearing away of the paper, but some effort is still required.
The final step is to use a few quick stitches through the holes to attach the buttons. And then you are ready to wear – or wrap! 
I recommend hand washing for this completed project, no matter what the recommendation is for caring for the scarf that is used for the base.
And now…it wouldn’t be a blog hop without fabulous prizes! We are having a giveaway of over $600 in craft supplies to help you make this holiday handmade! Enter to win using the widget below:
Many thanks to all of the sponsors of the hop and giveaway! Thanks for stopping by, and make sure to use the widget below to visit the other hop participants!
And don’t miss our contribution to day one of the hop….a practical and pretty zip pouch for the sewer or traveler in your life!
Welcome to the Handmade Holidays on Buttons Galore! For the next 3 days, we’ll be joining in by sharing ideas for handmade Christmas gifts using – of course – buttons!
Our handmade gift project today is a handy little zippered notions bag that is perfect for the sewing enthusiast or frequent traveler in your life! It’s made from a pattern called Everyday Zips by Joanna Figueroa of Fig Tree & Company that is available online or at a local quilt store (which is where I got mine).
Supplies:
One of the most underestimated tasks in the success of a sewing project may be the selection of fabric. Just choose colors you like, right? Not exactly. Color, pattern, and other choices can make the difference between a project you are happy with and one that just isn’t satisfying.
On this project, the pattern called for the body of the bag to be a neutral colored lightweight canvas. But I had found this neutral background vintage sewing themed quilt fabric that I was in love with at my local quilt store. This project seemed like a great excuse to use it! Plus, since this is a “notions tote”, the fabric would reinforce the theme.
I also chose a light color for the interior (not seen here) – an ivory tone on tone chevron design.
For the contrast panel, I chose the black rulers to pull the black out of the background and reinforce the sewing notions theme. That left me the prairie points to decide on. Red, white and black is a classic vintage color scheme, and so it seemed the natural answer here.
But as you can see above during construction, the red is incredibly stark against all that neutral. To me, it made the design look off balance. That’s where the buttons come in! By putting a row of red buttons above the zipper, it balances out the red prairie points and mutes their visual aggressiveness somewhat. And, as a bonus, the buttons add to the sewing theme!
Sometimes color choices make practical sense too. The pattern called for the strap to be the same color as the prairie points but I thought that would be too bold. The best alternative was to use the black ruler fabric, as it is the least likely of the fabrics that I was using to show dirt from while I was handling it.
Even the zipper color choices can make a night and day difference. I really could have used black or natural for either of the zippers. I could have positioned them so the zipper contrasted with the surrounding background, or so that the zipper blended with the background. But I’m well aware that sewing zippers isn’t my most proficient sewing skill. By choosing zipper colors that blend with the fabric around the zipper, I provided a bit of camouflage for any wonky sewing of the zippers. Choosing a contrasting color for the zippers would have the opposite effect: highlighting any errors on the zipper.
One thing that I made sure to avoid on a project like this that had tons of straight seams? Fabric that had stripes or other straight lines in the pattern (such as dots arranged in neat lines) was a no-no. Straight lines in the fabric would only highlight any errors in getting my pieces cut square or sewn straight. The ruler fabric does have straight lines but they are somewhat rough and not continuous so the pattern was workable.
Since the project is mostly just straight seams, sewing the zippers are the most challenging parts of making this tote. While I admit that zippers aren’t my best talent, I do have one secret weapon:
This is the zipper foot on my sewing machine. While it is possible to sew zippers without them, the zipper foot makes it infinitely easier. Having the right tools is often half the battle in producing a quality result. If you are going to sew a zipper, I highly recommend that you invest a few dollars in a zipper foot for your machine. You won’t regret it!
Now, to the blog hop…
Did I mention there are fabulous prizes?
We are having a giveaway of over $600 in craft supplies to help you make this holiday handmade! Enter to win using the widget below:
Many thanks to all of the sponsors of the hop and giveaway!
Thanks for stopping by, and make sure to use the widget below to visit the other hop participants!
It’s time for the Fall Quilt Market trade show, and that means new products from Buttons Galore!
This fall, we’re debuting products that fit perfectly with one of the hottest trends in the craft world: pet-themed projects. Buttons Galore is going to the dogs – and cats – with our new “Pets & Pals” collection!
These buttons come in a variety of assortments and individual design packs.
With shank backs, these fun 3D buttons are perfect for sewing projects or craft projects!
These new products can be seen now on our website, or if you are at Quilt Market in Houston this weekend you can stop by our booth #562 to check them out in person!
Welcome to the Stampendous and Buttons Galore blog hop!
Our contribution today is a fun card with some great Stampendous stamps, Cling Daisy Mix, and their matching dies. They pair perfectly with buttons!
Supplies:
This card is super simple to create!
First, splatter some of the gold spray ink on one corner of the blank card.
Stamp the flower on watercolor cardstock. Stamp the leaves on green cardstock. Use the matching dies to cut out all of the stamped pieces. Using scissors, cut a stem for the flower from the remaining green cardstock. Ink the edges of the stem.
Scribble some Gelato on a scrap of watercolor cardstock. Use the water brush to transfer it to the stamped flower and color it in, shading as you go.
Stamp the sentiment phrase on orange paper. Use scissors to trim around it, extending the piece on the end of the sentiment. Ink the edge of the completed piece.
Adhere all paper pieces to background. Thread buttons with embroidery floss and tie. Adhere to card with adhesive dots.
If you’d like to see more ideas on how to use Buttons Galore and Stampendous together, be sure to visit the blog hop at Stampendous!
Christmas is coming faster than it seems – there’s only 73 more days left! It’s time to start thinking about crafty holiday projects like cards, gift wrap, and home decor if you don’t want to be scrambling at the last minute.
This Christmas gift tag will make a festive addition to any package or bag. With plenty of room on the back to write a message and the recipient’s name, it’s practical as well as pretty. The wire heart is finished off and brightened up by a button, which also serves as a convenient anchoring point for the embellishment.
Supplies:
To begin the tag, use your die cutting machine to cut tags and hole reinforcer from the two different papers.
Trim the top off of the brown patterned tag to turn it into a rectangular panel. Stitch the edges of the panel with your sewing machine.
Ink all edges. Glue down the hole reinforcer and the stitched panel.
Glue crochet trim to bottom of tag. Thread small buttons and glue on top of trim.
Create the wire heart using wire and jewelry pliers. (Grab wire with tip of pliers and twist to create loops.) Anchor wires together at “v” of heart by threading them through holes of a 4 hole button.
Use hot glue gun to adhere the wire heart to the tag, using the button as the anchor point.
Adhere word and letter stickers on tag. Glue sequins randomly around the wire heart.
Thread ribbon through the tag.
The kraft, plaid, and buttons give this Christmas gift tag a cozy Christmas look. Pair it with a generic red or kraft bag or gift wrap to dress up a basic package!
Welcome to our new Holiday Frame series! This is the first in a series where I will be creating interchangeable inserts for a photo frame to provide year round seasonal decoration for any room in your home!
This 8″ x 10″ frame can stay out all year round, and the interchangeable inserts can be easily filed away when the seasons change until it is time to use them again.
Our first design, with the word “Autumn” and pumpkins, can take you through the fall season and both the Halloween and Thanksgiving holidays.
Supplies:
Instructions:
Cut the word “Autumn” from glitter iron-on material.The buttons provide dimension to the design, as well as providing some brown that ties the design to the frame.
Come back in mid-November for the next installment in the series – for Christmas!
Even thought it’s still hitting temperatures close to 90 degrees at blog central here in Florida, Labor Day passing means fall will rapidly be settling in at Buttons Galore headquarters in New Jersey. And fall means a chance to pull out some colors and designs that many of us haven’t used all summer!
How about the Buttons Basics in Caramel and Outlandish Orange?
Add a nice holdover from summer – some deep pink from the “Summertime” Button Bonanza – and you’ve got a great mix of fall leaf colors!
Fall brings many occasions that call for dashing off a quick note to someone. Let’s make them pretty – and festive!
Look for Outlandish Orange, Caramel, and the Summertime mix at AC Moore!
1. Cut paper in half longwise and fold to make a card base.
2. Starting near the fold, use the stamp set to stamp the arrow border once from each side, leaving a gap in the middle to place a button. Work your way down the card, changing colors as you get closer to the bottom.
3. Use the alphabet stamps to create the phrase “Happy Fall,” aligned with the right edge.
4. Thread buttons and tie them using embroidery floss and needle.
5. Attach buttons in border gaps with adhesive dots.
This versatile button card design could work for any season or holiday, simply by changing up the color scheme and the sentiment that is stamped. Try the bright primary colors in our Primary Button Bonanza (also available at AC Moore) for a birthday card, or red, white, and blue for a patriotic theme!
So, what can you do with some button basics and a pretty piece of ribbon?
Add a plain satin headband to the mix and you can make a headband that is fabulously perfect just for the young style diva in your life!
Making this headband is easy! Here’s what you need:
Instructions:
1. Glue ribbon to satin headband, turning under raw ends to finish them before gluing. If your ribbon is very thin or sheer, attach using dots of glue in locations that will have buttons over them, so the glue won’t show.
2. Thread buttons with floss and tie off to finish them.
3. Hot glue buttons to headband on top of ribbon.
That’s all it takes to get a beautiful custom accessory!
This headband is easy to make for any occasion or season – just switch up the color scheme and you have an instant accessory for Christmas, Halloween, or even school spirit! What occasion will you make a headband for?
It’s easy to whip up a pillow box on my die cut machine to hold a small gift, but keeping it closed is not so easy. Adhesive will do the job – permanently, leaving the box difficult to open and not reusable. But a little bit of ribbon and a few buttons will provide a solution: a pretty string tie! This box is perfectly sized for presenting a gift card, a difficult item to wrap creatively.
To make this box you need:
Instructions:
1. Cut out and assemble your pillow box. Adhere doily on top of box.
2. Cut ribbon slightly longer than needed to wrap around long dimension of pillow box. Turn under ends.
3. Sew buttons loosely onto ends of ribbon.
4. Tie piece of jute string around the thread holding one of the buttons, between the button and the ribbon.
5. Wrap the ribbon around the pillow. Fasten the ribbon band by wrapping the string in a figure 8 around both buttons (similar to fastening a string clasp envelope).
This gift wrap could be great for any holiday or occasion. Changing the colors of the ribbon band and buttons could make it seasonal for any holiday, or match the decor of any event (such as a wedding).
What gift do you plan to tie up with a button-fastened ribbon band?
Even though summer is in full swing, Halloween is sneaking up on us (boo!). Today’s project will show you how to use some Halloween products without having to wait for Halloween – and how to kick it up a notch with buttons!
You won’t have to wait until Halloween to give someone this card! With it’s message of love, it can be delivered anytime during the Halloween season.
The buttons are a critical element in this design. They add a pop of color that breaks up the dark purple, but more importantly they add dimension to a design that would otherwise be entirely flat.
Supplies:
1. Cut a 3.5″ by 8″ piece of background paper for the card base. Ink edges. (While this is a non-standard card size, it will fill in a standard business sized envelope.)
2. Use die cut machine to cut out vine and flowers. Ink edges of all pieces.
3. Cut sentiment block from patterned paper. Ink edges and mat on patterned paper.
4. Adhere all pieces to background.
5. Sew thread through buttons and tie off. Adhere buttons on the center of the flowers.
6. Cut an 8″ x 7″ piece of cream cardstock to use as cardbase and fold. Adhere card front to base.
Who would you like to send a bewitching message of Halloween love to this season?
Pre-designed gift bags can easily run $5 or more, and it’s not always convenient to run out and buy one at the last minute. What to do? Craft up a solution, of course. Keeping a stash of blank bags in your craft supplies means that with a few minutes of creativity, you always have the perfect gift bag on hand!
To make this gift bag, all you need is:
Making this bag is super easy:
1. Start by tearing off some strips of washi tape and attaching them to the bag as stripes, varying the colors.
2. Using embroidery floss, sew thread through buttons and tie it off.
3. Attach the buttons to the top few rows of washi tape in random positions, using a hot glue gun.
4. Using a die cut machine, cut out the words “for you” from vinyl. Use transfer tape to attach it over the bottom layers of washi tape. (I used the Cricut Explore machine for this project.)
5. Tie a bow from sheer ribbon around one side of the handle.
And there you have it…five steps to a fabulous all-occasion gift bag! While my bag is a generic theme, this bag design could be customized for any holiday by selecting washi tape and buttons that are themed and colored appropriately (such as red and green for Christmas).
What occasions do you use gift bags for?
Lisa Fulmer visited us this week to share a project! We hope your enjoy her immensely creative interpretation of storage using the Farmhouse Button Bonanza!
With the right type of can opener that leaves no sharp edges, you can turn any tin can into an adorable storage container!
I used the Buttons Galore Farmhouse Button Bonanza in creams, blues and greens, along with some adorable scrapbook papers, to embellish these tin cans that used to hold mandarin oranges. A trio of these little tin can storage containers would be perfect for your desk or craft table.
Supplies:
Directions:
What would you like to store in these containers? They’d be perfect for storing buttons!
Lisa Fulmer is an artist, crafter, teacher, writer, on-air talent, as well as a marketing consultant. She’s also the author of two books – Craft Your Stash and Stylish Craft Foam Projects – and has worked with brands such as Spellbinders Paper Arts, Ranger Ink, DecoArt, SmoothFoam and Plaid. She’s currently a columnist and blogger for Bella Arts Quarterly magazine. To learn more about her work, visit her website.
Buttons can bring new life to all sorts of crafts – and a rubber band loom is no exception! This project uses pink flower buttons with a shank from the Bazooples collection as charms on a rubber band charm bracelet.
Pictured above is the entire supply list for the rubber band charm bracelets that I’m showing you today:
These beautiful Bazooples flowers aren’t the only buttons that can be used as charms for this project. Try it with the Fun in the Sun collection for a rainy day project for the kids during a beach vacation, with the Happy Halloween collection for festive wear, or with Sweet Delights as a birthday party make-it-take-it.
Using the buttons with your loom is easy – just thread the buttons onto the rubber bands and then weave your loom as usual. For this bracelet, I placed 2 empty rubber bands as spacers between each rubber band with a button to ensure that the buttons weren’t overlapping when the bracelet was complete.
A properly threaded button will have a loop of rubber band on each side of the button shank. Just pull those loops and place them over the loom as usual.
The finished bracelet will have the buttons sitting up on top of it, with the shanks down in the weaving.
Has the bloom worn off of summer vacation, and bored kids are asking you what to do? Visit our 3D button selection, dig out that rubber band loom, and set them to work creating rubber band charm bracelets with buttons!
When I got my hands on this gorgeous Tutti Fruity Button Bonanza pack, it just called out for some card making. The beautiful yellow, orange, pink and mint green palette is so summer-y and happy!
Probably the most frequent card I reach for out of my card stash is a thank you card. Paired with some burlap and a few other supplies, some orange buttons from the assortment give me a thank you card that is perfect for just about any occasion: baby, wedding, or everyday. It’s bright, a bit rustic, and very on trend with the burlap!
Supplies:
A button makes a great cheat to perfectly finish off a wrap of baker’s twine – no more messy bows that just aren’t quite right, or knots that look messy! And a button is always a great substitute for the center piece of a flower.
The tiny square button on the sentiment block actually serves two purposes. It completes a visual triangle of orange highlights that lead the eye across the card, and it also “anchors” the text block to the background visually.
What kind of card are you inspired to make by Tutti Fruity Button Bonanza?
The Fourth of July is right around the corner, and for many of us that will mean taking our food outdoors for a party!
A $1 bucket can be a practical and festive way to hold your party’s utensils, with the addition of some jute ribbon – and of course, buttons!
Buttons used in this project came from the Buttons Galore Patriotic Value Pack.
Constructing this project is easy:
1. Cut a length of ribbon that will fit around your bucket. Sew patriotic themed buttons from the Patriotic Value Pack along the middle 3/4 of it. Use adhesive dots to adhere the ribbon around the bucket.
2. Cut another length of ribbon, and tie into a bow. Sew star buttons to the end of the bow’s streamers.
This concept could be adapted for plenty of holidays just by changing button theme pack. Need a utensil holder for that holiday buffet? Try the Christmas Button Grab Bag instead. Or make it a holder for Halloween candy with the Scary button assortment. The options are as limitless as our button selection!
