Monday, June 27, 2011

Buttons, Buttons Everywhere

If you're like me, you spend ridiculous amounts of time on Pinterest. If you're like me, you find ridiculous amounts of projects and inspiration (pinspiration, if you will) on Pinterest. If you're like me, you get overstimulated by all the ideas and inspiration Pinterest gives you and you must turn off the computer lest your head explode.

Can anybody relate?

I recently found this bad boy on Pinterest:
Source: flickr.com via Ginny on Pinterest

I saw the pin and thought, I can make this! I made it without looking very closely at the actual tutorial and I used a combo of fabric glue and hot glue, whereas the buttons were sewn on in the original tutorial. I can guarantee you my version took a lot less time, although it was probably harder for me to layer my buttons.

Here's what I did:

Materials:  Huge letter, hot glue, fabric glue, canvas, buttons

First, I printed out a huge K.  I used Times New Roman font with roughly a size 600 font.  I cut my letter out very carefully.

Then, I traced my K onto my canvas.  Now, you are going to think I'm silly, but I bought a 12 x 12 canvas to stretch over a 10 x 10 canvas I already had.  I know, super silly.  The sillier thing is that when I bought the piece of canvas in the scrapbook section of Michael's, I thought it was burlap.  I was relatively new to the crafting game, okay?  Judgment free zone here guys, so keep the snickering down.

After I traced my K, I stretched my canvas over my canvas (quit laughing) and stapled it to the back.  Not pretty, but it worked.

I began gluing my buttons.  I started with the edges and used little dabs of fabric glue for this part.  I decided to go with fabric glue mostly out of curiousity; I had just bought it and wanted to see if it worked.

It does, in case you were wondering.

After my edges were glued, I began filling in the middle.  I learned that you'll have to layer the buttons to fill in gaps.  I used hot glue on this part because some of the buttons would need to be glued on top of each other, thus rendering the fabric glue useless.


After an hour of gluing buttons, I was finished.  Cute right?

So, let me ask you:  should I have sewn them on?  Or did glue do the same thing?

Linking up here:


 A Marvelous MessTip Junkie handmade projectsA Crafty SoireeSomewhat Simple Join  us Saturdays at tatertotsandjello.com for the weekend wrap 
 up           party!

post signature

16 comments:

Unknown said...

i made one a long time ago, an ampersand made out of buttons from my mom and grandmother and from etsy, all in my favorite blues/teals/greens, and it took HOURS! and unless you are up close you can't even tell it is sewn. but it is sturdy. if i ever make another one, i will be using hot glue!

Andrea @ Keepin it Thrifty said...

I LOVE YOUR pins!!! YES i thnk we are both a little addicted!!! OMG LOOOVE this ps im PINNING THIS!!!

XOXOXOXO

LifeLessOrdinary said...

I'm a pin-addict too and this project is definitely in my future...with hot glue, of course!

City Life to Ranching Wife said...

I would have gone with the glue. I try to avoid using a needle whenever possible! :) This turned out super cute.

Nicolette said...

Sewing this project would have taken time away from you pinning things so I agree, glue was the way to go. Plus, I'm not sure how the layering would have worked if they were sewn. Anyway, I think it turned out great.

Eve said...

This is really awesome! I wouldn't sew when glue works just as well and requires less time. Time of of the essence as we all know! I don't do Pinterest. I'll have to check that out...

Nebuchudnessar said...

That looks fantastic, glue worked perfectly

Carrie said...

Very fun! My mom is a button collector, she'd love this!

Anonymous said...

That is super cute!!

I actually think I might maybe be able to do that too!

Anonymous said...

oh so cute! i agree the glue is easier and faster...my kind of project!
where will you put it?
and again, with you on the pinterest thing...mind-blowing!

Sharde said...

very cute! i love it gin!

Rach (DonutsMama) said...

That is a great idea! Love it!

Unknown said...

LOVE THIS! I just pinned it. haha! I love the glue ideas. New follower from link party. Hope you'll stop by my blog some time.

Terri @ A Creative Princess said...

It looks great!! I really like yours better with the dark buttons. No, do not sew them on, it would be too frustratin! Thank you so much for linking up!

Stacy@thealmostwholepackage said...

This is great! I'm totally doing this at our house! Love it!

Andie Jaye said...

just started on pinterest last week! it's ah-maze-ing! what a great find too! yours looks great! thanks for linking this up to last week's tip-toe thru tuesday party! hope to see you again this week!

Home