Busted Button

Hi fellas! I’m excited to share my latest 100% button project with you!

It’s a button fire truck!!! I haven’t been doing too many projects this summer, because I’ve been busy with the fam. I hope you are all having a fabulous summer. We are having a blast. Here is photographic evidence of our fun in the sun:

…more like depression in the recession, but at least I look good, right? It is so hard to get a photo with all of my kids… let-alone one where they are all happy! I think I’ll just stick to selfies from now on… like this one:

Baby’s first selfie!!!!! I’m so proud.

Okay, enough about me, let’s talk about you. You want to make this button fire truck for your son who loves fire trucks, or your uncle who was a fire chief? Perfect. Let’s get started!

The first step to creating any button picture like this is to draw out your image. Keep it as simple as you can, and draw it out on paper first, until you get an image you like. Feel free to use my designs, just give me a shout-out if yer nice. And try to sell them as ‘unique button art’ if you are not nice.

The possibilities with this craft are endless- Here is some of the artwork I’ve created using only buttons:

(click the collage to see my Facebook album with even more! And while yer at it, LIKE ME! REALLY, REALLY LIKE ME!)

Back to the fire truck… no more interruptions, I promise!

After you’ve copied your image onto an 8×10 canvas board, thin out some paint and begin to add color!

This is a pretty important step, although it doesn’t need to be perfect, the idea is to not have any white showing through the button holes.

Speaking of buttons…

I love them. My absolute favorite buttons for this kind of project are called ‘Favorite Findings’ by Blumenthal Lansing, and you can get them from Joann.com (AND THEY ARE ON SALE FOR 50% OFF, I SEE!!!) They are nice and flat, and come in perfect colors! So snatch those up before the sale ends.

Now you must start buttoning!!! To see a more-detailed tutorial I did on this process, you can check out my button elephant tutorial here. Or you can check out a freakkkishly detailed massive tutorial of my button mermaid here.

My #1 tip for filling in a picture with buttons is to start around the edges, and work your way in. Overlap where you need to, and you will get a nice, crisp edge.

And eventually you will wind up with something worth framing!!!

I hope you found this tutorial helpful and/or inspiring!

Since I’ve got you here, I wanted to share a little preview of something I’m working on for Autumn!

I created these tiny acorn earrings out of felted wool balls and real acorn caps! Cuteness overload. I can’t wait to list them in my Etsy shop in September 🙂

Speeeaaakking of my Etsy shop, I am trying to clear out some stuff to make way for my Fall/Winter collection, so if you want some fun/cute/pretty/unique earrings etc. head over to my shop and use the code ’25OFF’ at the check out to get 25% off of everything!!! You can find my shop right HERE.

Well, I should stop ignoring children… I’m good at that. I’ll share a pic my sis just took now, so you can have a behind-the-scenes look at how I work…

Soccer mom hair, check. Pajamas, check. Eyebrows in desperate need of plucking, check. Toddler getting a computer screen-tan, check! Mom of the year, I know.

If you’re interested in some more behind-the-scenes info about me, you should check out the interview I did for the lovely ladies at Tansy Dolls! 

SO, Happy Fire-trucking and eyebrow-plucking!

~Dot