Button Art: Framed Designs

Growing up, I always liked sorting through my mom's buttons - sifting through little piles of color, selecting my favorites. I also remember reading a book about a certain bear who embarks on an epic mission to find a certain missing button (aw, yeah, remember Corduroy?). Unfortunately, as a teenager I rebuffed my mom's attempts to teach me the art of sewing, so my affinity for buttons remained a stifled interest until I recently began to discover other decorative uses for them. And, in a sense, this is a return to the historical use of the button. Don't believe me? Check it! According to Ian McNeil (cited by Wikipedia), "The button, in fact, was originally used more as an ornament than as a fastening, the earliest known being found at Mohenjo-daro in the Indus Valley. It is made of a curved shell and about 5000 years old."

So, who says that such ornaments have to stay in the realm of fashion? Not I! While it's true that buttons are made to be sewn, fabric ≠ clothing. Check out some of my hopeful future DIYs:


<--- This pillow with button leaves is from Etsy (click to enlarge).

This amazing monogram (made with a burlap canvas) is also an Etsy find. --->

I don't know where I curated this image from, but I really liked the combo of fabric backings and buttons.

Back Story: A few years ago we lost my grandmother, and while sorting through her personal effects, my mom and I discovered a large coffee can brimming with her button collection. Seeing the cascades of buttons, I knew I wanted to use some in crafts that would get them out of their coffee can and into the open. I began searching around online and was struck by a few of the images above, so I decided to try my hand at creating my own framed button design with my grandma's buttons.

Reproduction! But you get the idea.

The color scheme of my bedroom is navy blue, cream, tan, and a light mint green (think nautical, without the lighthouses). I might go into further detail in a later post, but what's pertinent for now is that I found a nice variety of blue buttons in my grandmother's collection (I also nosed around my mom's as well - hey, my button collection consists of the extras that come with nice sweaters and button-downs, so it's itty bitty). Once I sorted out the colors that went with my palette, I had to settle on a design. It's important to find a design that's detailed enough to be read from a distance, yet simple enough that it can be created with little circles. I eventually settled on a fleur de lis and played around until I found a button layout that worked. I used cross stitch fabric (aida cloth) and pencil-marked each button's position on the fabric before simply sewing them on individually. I didn't take any pictures of the process at the time, but at right is a rendering of what it looked like. Once the buttons were sewn on, I trimmed down the fabric and centered the design in an 8"x10" frame (disregarding the glass). And I think it turned out pretty well - I added a lone cream button and a few brown buttons from my mom's collection into the mix to give it a little more color variation, and I think it fits nicely with the rest of the wall hangings.

Since the fleur de lis is a symmetrical design, I wanted to map it out on the cloth ahead of time. However, when I took some of my grandma's maroon/pink and cream buttons and made a little heart design for my mom, I was able to be much more flexible. Basically, all I did was arrange the buttons in the design I wanted and took a picture of it:

 

Then I simply used the picture as a guideline for attaching the buttons to my aida cloth. I tucked the finished design in a little frame (probably a 3"x4"?), and the result was a sweet reminder of my grandma (with a little bit of me mixed in) for my mom to keep on her desk:

So, if you have some buttons that have sentimental value (or you simply find them fascinating), but you aren't a seamstress, don't fret - there are all sorts of creative ways to incorporate them into your modern (read: not country-chic) decor!

Craft-Wrapped Candy Hearts

Boooooooooring!

In case you haven't noticed, Valentine's Day was this week. Personally, I celebrated by working on my graduate thesis (yes, LAME). However, I did spontaneously purchase a package of boxed candy conversation hearts last week, and since I really don't need to eat eight boxes of candy hearts, I thought they would be fun little gifts for a few friends. However, their packaging was a bit plain... so, you know what that means! ;)


In keeping true to this blog's name, I began scouting around for some inspirational ideas that I could recreate with materials I already had. A few weeks ago I scored some fun things at Target during their after-Christmas clear-out:

The cute little owl ornament (I think it was 20 cents?) now sports some bright ribbons that camouflage his little hanging loop and perches on my desk in pretty much the same spot as in the photo. I found the baker's twine for a dollar (incorrectly mixed in with clearance, but still, it was only a dollar!) and have been seriously digging it for the past few weeks - I even purchased brown parcel paper to coordinate with it, which it does, marvelously. And who doesn't love some decorated wooden buttons? At any rate, the baker's twine was the main design element that I wanted to incorporate, so I Googled something to the effect of "Baker's Twine Valentine's Day Decorating Ideas" and got back a slew of results - here are a few:

Top left (from here): Liked the idea of sewing with baker's twine (heads up, it's a bit difficult, even with an oversized cross stitch needle)
Top middle (from here): My new favorite decorating aesthetic - brown parcel paper wrapped with baker's twine
Right (from here): "Stitching" a button on with baker's twine (again, a bit difficult, especially because baker's twine tends to unravel when you mess with it too much... i.e. fuss with it using a needle and needle threader)
Bottom left (from here): SUCH a cute heart garland
Bottom middle (from here): Aha! A way to include my favorite medium: old book! :P

In the end, I chose to wrap my boxes with book pages over brown parcel paper, keeping the baker's twine as an accent and incorporating some of the ideas from above. I also raided my sticker collection (yes, I'm five) and found some great 3D flower stickers that I'd tucked away that introduced a nice blue to the red/pink/white color palette. 

Hmmm, which ones are more awesome? ;)

 I recreated the heart garland with some glittered/patterned cardstock using double-stick tape (a girl's best friend, imho). I did manage to incorporate a button in one design - the difficulty of threading the baker's twine through the needle, then the button, was enough to put me off from trying too much more. So there you have it - it wasn't difficult at all to simply wrap up the boxes (gift-wrapping 101) and decorate with what I had on hand - and they turned out just so gosh darn cute!

QR Code Cross Stitch

I like to cross stitch. I really like to cross stitch. True, this hobby has lain dormant from time to time, but if you choose your projects well, you can nurture an interest such as mine for years. However, there is serious burn-out potential if you are overly ambitious in your pattern-choosing - beware! :P

A lovely nineteenth century sampler

Warning aside, another danger of crafting is clutter. Not the oh-I-went-a-little-crazy-at-the-Michaels-clearance-bins clutter, more like piles of finished projects that have no home. I usually craft with a purpose to avoid this, and one of the best purposes is gift-giving! The only problem is that cross stitch often has an aura of old-fashioned staleness lingering about it, and for good reason (see at left). At best, most probably don’t see cross stitch as terribly trendy (again, see at left), but I have recently discovered how ridiculously digital-friendly cross stitch can be, thanks to pixelation.

Pixelated Images

Pixelation is a classic feature of early video games, especially, making classic icons from games such as Mario (see right) easily translatable to cross stitch.

 Another digital icon that lends itself well to cross stitch is the QR code. For those of us who don’t have smartphones (and some who do), QR codes or Quick Response codes are those little square barcodes that adorn products, magazine ads, everything nowadays. In short, they simply act as hyperlinks for smartphones to read - you take a picture of one, and bam! it takes you to a certain website. What’s cool is that you can personalize this feature, which is what I did for a few friends this past Christmas, using their Facebook profiles as the source sites for the codes. It was a fun way to incorporate some of my favorite aspects of gift-giving: personalization, hand-madeness, and shared interests (all of us have taken DH classes together). To see my creative process (and how to make your own cross stitch QR codes), just scroll down through the instructions below! 

Step 1: Choose a website - my friend Nigel's Facebook page is http://www.facebook.com/nigel.lepianka?fref=ts (in the case of FB, you can either use the stand-alone link or the ref=ts one).

 

Step 2: Generate the QR code, which is pretty easy. I use the site http://qrcode.kaywa.com/ - paste your website in the blank and click “Generate Free.”

  

**Update: Kaywa has changed their website interface - they now designate their options as 'Dynamic' and 'Static' instead of 'Safe' and 'Free.' The default setting is (of course) Dynamic, which requires creating an account on the site. To generate a QR code for free, click the little slider to select the Static option, then click the gray button.

Step 3: Save/Enlarge QR code - right-click to save the image as a file. I like importing the image into Microsoft Word for enlarging, labeling, and printing.

 

Step 4: Choose a dark/vibrant thread color - I researched this a little - it’s not really recommended that you invert colors (i.e. dark background and lighter thread) and you need to make sure the color is dark enough that there is a contrast. I’ve used black, a bright cerulean blue, a vibrant red, and a deep blue - all scanned fine. It’s hard to test the limits, though, without potentially wasting a lot of time and effort. 

Only $1.99 at Michaels!

 Step 5: Stitch! The pixels form their own pattern - each pixel translates to an X, resulting in a finished piece that measures about 3"x 3" - Michaels has these cute square magnetic frames for $1.99, which work perfectly for this project. I used the inset to cut out a piece of black cardstock for backing, then trimmed down the fabric and attached it to the cardstock (I used double-stick tape!). When you are done, you have an awesome, personalized, tech-friendly homemade gift that isn't antiquated at all - if anything, it's biggest danger is obsolescence! ;)

It really scans!                                                                                   Shot of the Back

Photo Letters

Thanks to Laurie for reminding me about this one! A fairly recent trend (within the past few years at least) has been photo letters - you know, where people spell out words with artsy photos of objects that look like letters? Groupon still sends me deals from time to time for "Custom Alphabet Art" - and seriously, it's overpriced. I mean, this one was a deal at $50 (originally $150!) and this one was $60 for $135 worth of art. I'm sure the majority of the cost is in the framing, but if you can get away with matting (or at least a cheaper frame), this type of artwork is really easy and low-cost. In the past, I've taken two different approaches in creating this type of art - frame first and name first (yes, they rhyme).

Frame First: A few summers ago I found some three-photo frames at really low cost (*cough* Wal-Mart *cough*), and I was struck with the realization that hey, initials consist of three letters! So, I snapped them up and got to work! I knew I wanted to make a piece for my brother, whose initials are T-J-H, so I trekked around the outside of my parents' house in search of my letters. I found the T in a birdbath in the backyard, my J was a decorative lantern hook out front (I removed the lantern for the sake of the photo!), and I discovered an H within the mortar of the front steps. Collected, my original photos looked like this:

For a more polished look, I used iPhoto to recolor them, and the end results were this:

They fit pretty well in the frames, but I will add a word of caution here: Don't zoom in too much! I used my local Walgreens' Photo Center to print the photos, which means mere cents a print; however, it also means a bit of auto zoom/cropping. Add to that any insta-cropping that occurs when you insert the photo in the frame, and you might discover that your letters aren't so crisply defined anymore (which is important - if they bleed off the edge too much, they lose their clarity). My T above was a bit large, but it worked out fine in the end (whew).

For the seventh opening

Name First: In this case, all you need to do is choose your word (or name!) and begin brainstorming. I knew I wanted to make my friend Laurie's name, so I began scouting around for angles and curves around the house - some I found, some I artistically created. ;) The trick with creating an entire name is that it practically necessitates ordering custom matting. I found a 2-pack of 7-opening mats on sale from this site, but I would definitely recommend browsing around to see what's out there. Since Laurie's name is six letters, I added an artsy photo at the end to complete the piece. It's up to individual preference whether or not to take the extra step and frame the finished piece, but I thought it looked nice the way it was (frames can be so bulky... and, let's face it, pricey!). I don't have a photo of the finished product, but here's the next best thing:

As you can see, I made good use of my parents' yard again, but I incorporated a few indoor shots as well. All in all, a project that requires a few steps (pre-planning, taking photos, editing, printing, assembling) but results in a unique, polished bit of artwork that's special to both you and the receiver!

Here is a photo-lettering of my roomie's initials (also shows the three-pic frame mentioned earlier)