Buttons Galore & More Hop with Designer Craft Connection

Button, button who's got the buttons?  Buttons Galore & More, thats who!

What do you do with a bag of  buttons?  I was given five little bags of buttons and had some fun coming up with ideas to use them for more then just sewing on a shirt or blouse.

Today begins a blog hop coordinated with Buttons Galore & More, Viewtainer and the Designer Craft Connection, with what I am sure will be many, many crafty ideas with buttons.  Come and hop through the participating blogs and see what has been created and then take a chance to win a prize.

Go to this link:   Buttons Galore & More Blog          
Here you will find details of the list of blogs, the prizes and what to do to win.

Now on to a few things I came up with.  First bag contained some very cute little bee buttons. Flowers and bees seem to always be found together, so the little bees were used to add the perfect embellishment to some die-cut felt flowers on a headband and a hair clip.  Both pieces could be worn by any little girl during the coming Spring and Summer days, either as a daily accessory or for special occasions.  Any lady out there attending a summer wedding could wear this headband to an outside, casual wedding. The hair clip can easily be made without the clip and used as a lapel pin or a boutonnière for a wedding attendant.

Take some big black buttons and a length of ribbon and what do you make?  How about stringing them together with some black thin cord, adding a die-cut flower shape and a sparkly center and create a necklace.  Make two, slightly graduated sized loops from the ribbon piece, add one left-over flower-button at the center and attach it to a barrette for a matching hair adornment.

The third assortment contained a variety of coordinating white, off-white, yellow buttons.   Had to make a choice on how to use that many in the best way.  I went with the first idea of a decorative neckpiece.  Once again I went to my favorite tool, a Big Shot and dies, to cut a heart shaped base for the necklace.  Here I used two layers of white felt and one layer of Coats & Clark"s new "Phoomph™" in white. Some interesting edging was glued around the outside edge of the heart with Fabri-Tac glue. The whole collection of buttons, minus three, were arranged on the surface of the heart and then glue in place and allowed to dry well. (NOTE: Beacon Gem-Tac was used for this process.) Holes are made near the edge trim, on both sides, and braided organza ribbon is used for the band.  Form a small bow to add to one side for a little extra "pouf".  **Extra: the second idea was to sew these buttons on a decorative "cuff" made from felt or any desired fabric.

Next were four, large, brightly colored buttons.  Immediately I knew they would make the perfect colorful center to a flower.  Though the buttons are large, they are not overly bulky, so I used them to create easy note cards for "thank-you's" or personal notes or a cute, colorful place card embellishment for a DIY wedding or shower. All I added was a die-cut flower shape using a sweet, tiny printed paper and a small felt leaf.  Make them a little fancy by using a decorative edge punch along the lower edge.

The last collection was an assortment of two different sized buttons in a bright colors with a black, stitch design around the edge.  Here I decided to use them as the embellishment on a little black, velvet, wrist clutch I created. The clutch was made a layer of black velvet, black felt, with soft black "Phoomph" in between.  The sides of the clutch are sewn and some hand sewing completed the flap sides.  A magnet closure was added before adding the buttons to the top flap. Finally, a wrist band was formed from a strip of black felt, using Fabri-Tac and the ends sewn to the inside top of the clutch.

So there you have it, just few ideas for those buttons most of us love!  Hope you enjoyed my post and ideas.  Take some time after hopping through all the posts the Buttons Galore & More website and their blog.  Like them on Facebook.  Take some time to check out the Pinterest Boards.

Don't forget to go back to the blog and leave a comment for a chance to win the prize.  The winner will be announced on March 17th.

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