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.

3 comments:

Laurie said...

Wow you two had a fabulous swap! Pat is lucky that she got a very thick book (I'm sorry if my directions were confusing!) and yours from her is just full of magic! What fun!

The Junque Seeker said...

Both your and Pat's books are wonderful!

Unknown said...

Both books are so festive!