Monday, November 24, 2014

White Christmas Button Book Swap

I joined the Button Floozies White Christmas Button Book swap. Basically, we were supposed to make a button book out of paper or fabric, with 30-50 buttons showcased in the book. This is the first time I've made and bound a book, so I looked at the one Kathy sent me, and took my inspiration from that.
Looking at other people's pictures and my partners book, and going back to read the directions again, I believe I misunderstood them. They say It should have a minimum of six pages (3 pages front and back) as well as a front and back cover that is decorated. Each page of the book should be ~4x6”; they do not have to be exactly that size but please don’t go more than about an inch larger or smaller. For some reason, I was thinking a page was two pages together, so I cut 6x8" pages and folded them in half thinking I was doing it right. It does say a minimum, so it still works out, and my partner just got more pages and buttons. I don't think that's a bad thing.
Here it is:
 I used blue cardstock for the cover. This is a baby's knit mitten with gold trim on the top, a plastic silver snowflake with buttons on it.
First spread:
Left page: the front of a card layered on a frame. Right page: white cardstock, another card front and silver buttons on the top and bottom.
Second spread:
 I originally started with white cardstock for the pages and mod podged a snowflake napkin for the backgrounds. Left page: blue paper with snowflakes, a snowman made out of buttons and some domed snowflake stickers on top. Right page: ribbon on the side, I used a paint chip sample to make a tree, and glued buttons on it for ornaments.
Third spread:
Left page: I sewed white buttons into a wreath form and attached the card to the page with blue ribbon. Right page: buttons on a card attached with a ribbon.
Fourth spread:
 Left page: a 3-D snowman sticker layered on white cardstock. Right page: another card front layered on some vintage notebook paper, buttons on the side and a "NOEL" button in corner. The deer side is my favorite page in the book.
Fifth spread:
 Left page: I just added some snowflake stickers and buttons to the centers of the snowflakes. Right page: I created a pocket to hold some glass buttons.
Sixth spread:
 Left page: I added a plastic snowflake to the top and buttons to the centers of the snowflakes. Right page: I sewed a bunch of white buttons into a tree shape and topped it with a star button, I attached the tag to the page with washi tape.
Last spread:
Left page: these three buttons have the same pattern on them in different colors. Right page: I attached a button card with some washi tape.

I'm so happy with the finished product. It turned out great. I hope my partner likes it.

My partner was Pat Fields, she said she wanted to work with fabric.
So, here's what I received:

 The cover:
 First spread:
I love the green glass buttons in the pocket.
 Second spread:
I think the snowman is so cute, feel free to click on it to enlarge, it's pieced kind of like quilting.
 Third spread:
 Last spread:
I think the buttons on this heart are so cute, they all have carvings on them.
 Back cover:

Pat asked what my favorite animal was, and I told her a guinea pig. I was thinking maybe she'd find some guinea pig buttons (good luck with that), but now I see what her plan was, it's so cute.

Monday, November 3, 2014

Button Floozies Christmas Swap

http://buttonfloozies.blogspot.com/2014/10/an-invitation-to-swap-button-floozies.html
So, I joined the above swap. Basically, we make books according to a White Christmas Button theme, the buttons can be white or Christmas or winter, we use 30-50 buttons.

I'm having a hard time being inspired. I picked out my buttons for my partner, but I can't come up with what to make. I have some that aren't white, Christmas or winter, and I don't know if that's ok. I really want to do this, and I will, I just don't know what I'm going to do. Is anyone else participating in this swap? Any help for me with ideas?