Crazy 8 swap

I signed up for a swap called a Crazy 8 basically we send 8 different items, but 8 of each item.

 I chose 8 paper clips, 8 clothespins, 8 pieces of ribbon, 8 project life cards, 8 stickers, 8 tags, 8 buttons, 8 stacks of sticky notes.
Here it is spread out:

 I realized after putting it all back in the bags, I forgot to put out the buttons:

Here's what I got from my partner:

 embossed paper:

 stamped images:

 washi samples, ribbon, gemstones:

 Die cuts:

 Die cut sentiments:

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.

Button Floozies Christmas Swap

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?

New Swap

Hi All,
I just signed up for a great new swap:

Basically you make a book about 4x6 and create pages with buttons. It's a minimum of 30 buttons and max of 50.
Sign-up period: October 16-31, 2014

Notification of swap partners:  November 1, 2014

Mailing deadline: no later than November 22, 2014

You get to choose whether you want to do fabric or paper, and you get a very neat creation back.
If you want to sign up, click on the button above.

I'm so glad this appeared. I was saying the other day on my other blog I really needed some handmade swaps because they cost less than just buying presents for people (I always use what I have on hand for handmade). Now, the real dilemma is paper or fabric, I told Laurie I didn't have a preference. It would be really cool to get a fabric book, but then I'd have to make one in return, and while I don't mind making one, I'm not sure I can get it done in time. My last fabric book took the better part of 2 weeks and that was when I had a plan and way more time. I think a paper book would be really neat too. Either way, I know I'll get something very cool back.
Why don't you join me?

It all began with an owl...

I've had creative block lately. Yesterday, I made the following:
I think it will be a wall hanging. It all started with the owl pendant I received in a swap. I knew, when I saw it that it wouldn't be a necklace. Sunday night, I got it and a piece of fabric that looked like a tree branch, then I decided he needed to be sitting in a night sky. The background fabric has black sparkles in it too, but I decided to add some of my vintage buttons as stars. Then I needed a moon, I couldn't find exactly what I wanted until I found a napkin in my stash. Now it's all sewn together but I still need to add a hanger, something to stiffen it up and a backing.

What do you think?

Button swap

I signed up to do a button swap through the blog, Button Floozies. My partner was Victoria of Things I learn from Bear. We had to decorate an Altoids tin and fill it with buttons and send it off to our partner. Here's what I sent her:
The top is decorated with some metallic papers. Starting in the lower left hand corner and going diagonally up, here are the embellishments: a metallic fabric flower with a faux pearl flower in the middle; a coppery/fabricy flower with faux pearl beads in the middle; and a flower pin that I trimmed the back off of.

My favorite thing to do lately is cover things in dictionary paper, so that's what I did with the sides and the bottom of the tin.

I just looked through my pictures and realized I never took a picture of the buttons I sent Victoria, oops.

Here's what I got from Victoria:

A beautiful button necklace with a nice orange flower, and my Altoids tin. I believe she decorated it with popourri, it smells so nice.

And here are the buttons I got

These are my favorite buttons:

I love the green ones, cause they're green, love the sparkly ones cause they're sparkly. The big one in the front is my favorite, its some kind of plastic that's been worn on the light parts. The bigger metal one is really heavy.

Thank you Victoria.

Check out other tins and buttons from this swap here.

Buttons!!!

Here is my collection of buttons:
This table is about 4 feet long by 2 1/2 feet wide.

These are two color buttons

These are mostly shank buttons.

These are my purple buttons

These are my hearts and a few with anchors imprinted on the front.

These are white shell ones, and ones with printed words on them.

These are my metallic buttons.

These are the red ones.

These are brown ones, balloons, and some round ones.

Here are my white ones and some of my orange ones.

Here are my orange and some of my yellow ones.

Here's a better look at my yellow ones, and some more of my shank ones.

Here are my blue ones.

And my pink ones.

And my green ones.

Here's a better shot of the new/old ones I got a few weeks ago.

These are interesting, they're edges are cut sorta like gears.

The colors are a little off because these were taken at night on a dark table, they're mostly bright colors.

Any ideas on what I should do with my buttons?