Buttons

Hands down, one of my favorite materials to work with is buttons.  Most of the items in my Etsy shop are dressed with a button or two.  I love them for so many reasons.  1. Their versatility: they can convey a casual or dressy look, they can be used as a focal point or a detail.  2. Buttons are whimsical.  Who doesn't love whimsy?  3.  They beg to be stacked, and the colors played off of one another.  4.  They're cheap and easy to find.  5.  Buttons always add a finishing touch to any project.

 
I have bins and bags and boxes of buttons.  If you don't believe me, just ask my husband.  I don't know why, but he is not a button fan.  Unless they're on his shirt or pants.  Then he LOVES them.  Something to do with keeping his clothing fastened...  I digress.

I wanted to share a couple of quick ideas, and maybe some inspiration to find some buttons and make something cute!  The first thing I do with my buttons, is sort them by size and color.

I usually find my inspiration as I'm sorting new buttons or looking through my collection for something completely unrelated.  That's when I fill my work table with piles of inspiration... like this:

Once I've done that (completely abandoning my initial project at this point...) I search through my printer's drawer that houses all of my ribbon:

I find just the right ribbon to complement my buttons.  I like to use embroidery floss to give the buttons a finished look.  It's also handy for affixing buttons to one another.  Once they are sewn together, I line a 40mm snap clip with 5/8" ribbon (tutorial forthcoming), and glue the button to the clip.  Voila! 

Another super-easy project is to string buttons together using elasticized string, and make a unique necklace or bracelet.  It's a great project for kids - and you'll enjoy wearing it much more than a macaroni necklace!

Excuse #38

I haven't posted anything new on Etsy in a few days.  I haven't finished my tutorial.  I haven't made any new products.  Sheer laziness?  No.  Unmotivated?  No.  Uninspired?  Definitely not.  The reason is simple.  And sad, really.  My studio, my beautiful craft studio, a room all to myself where I can leave out all my projects and materials, and never worry about anyone complaining about the mess, is in the basement.  So?  Well, after a few heavy rains this past week, we recently discovered a drainage issue, and the ship, as they say, has taken on water.  Boo.  My craft studio was spared (thank goodness!).  But the room right in front of the studio had to have the carpet taken out and dried out, and all sorts of other fixes.  So, while there is no problem in my studio, I can't actually get in because the door is blocked by a big wad of carpeting.  The good news in all of this is 1) we found the source of water entry, and the fix is pretty easy.  And 2) I had my printers drawer and every spool of ribbon out of the studio before the leak occured, so I was able to finish my ribbon reorganization.  Now I just have to photograph the final product and write a bit about it!

Believe me, as soon as I can get back in my studio, I will!

Organization is key

In trying to come up with relevant and interesting topics to blog about, and potentially write tutorials about, I decided that ribbon-ry and hairbow-ery isn't where it's at. It isn't all that interesting or groundbreaking. And heck, let's face it...anything you want to know about making hair accessories can already be found online. It's where I learned all the basics.

I needed to find just the right thing to tutorialize, and by George, I think I found it! Creative organization! I was inspired by one of my recent projects to organize all five gazillion spools of ribbon that seemingly have no place in my craft studio. I am still in the process of this project, but wanted to give a heads up that a tutorial is forthcoming. I've been documenting my project with photos, and it's nearly ready to debut.

Here's a sneak peak...

I'm repurposing, upcycling, dumpster diving (or rather, saving something from the dumpster)...whatever yawannacallit...this:

 

To organize this:

 

The wheels are spinning, and I am coming up with other blog tutorial ideas that can transcend craft room organization, and just might inspire those just looking for interesting ways to use a space.

Until the next time... Craft on!