My grandmother lived through the Great Depression and was what I call a "saver". When an item of clothing wore out, she cut off the buttons and saved them for a rainy day.
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| Button Christmas Tree |
After she passed away, these buttons were handed down to my mother (who is also a "saver" by the way). My mom had sorted the buttons by color, but there they sat in their little Cool Whip containers...
So we decided to turn them into Christmas trees!
Note: These are a bit time-consuming, but it was kind of fun and relaxing to sort through the buttons together and choose which ones to use.
1) Decide on a color scheme. We started by finding 5x7 frames that we weren't using and chose buttons to match. We simply removed the glass from the frame and cut a piece of matching scrapbook paper to fit. Note: Keep the glass, most frames will allow you to put it behind the scrapbook paper for storage (and additional stability) before you put the back on.
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| Button Christmas Tree |
2) Sort through your buttons and lay them out on your scrapbook paper where you think they will approximately go (this was a bit like a puzzle). I am a symmetrical person, so I put the larger (matching if I could find them) buttons on the bottom and worked my way up.
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| Button Christmas Tree |
3) When you are pleased with your basic tree shape, use your hot glue gun and carefully start attaching the buttons to the scrapbook paper. Be careful to keep the edges and top/bottom approximately centered.
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| Button Christmas Tree |
4) When all of the larger buttons are attached, it is time to fill in some of the gaps with smaller buttons, which creates a fun, dimensional shape.
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| Button Christmas Tree |
5) When everything is glued on, center your tree in the frame, then stand back and admire your handiwork! (My mom and sister like theirs so well that they leave them up year round!)
If you have any "heirloom" buttons, these make very nice keepsakes. Let me know how it goes (and email me if you have questions).
I think my grandma would be proud!
