Tag: buttons

Craft Projects, Jewelry, Quick and Easy Crafts

DIY Button Stud Earrings

Jessica Smith

Button Stud Earrings Cover

I ordered earring stud posts about a month ago and they couldn’t have arrived at a better time. I got home yesterday and found the tiniest package waiting for me on the counter of 50 silver studs — talk about a great way to break me out of my creative rut! I love to make earrings, but I never wear any of what I make because they are all dangle/drop earrings. I am trying to get into the habit of wearing dangle earrings more, especially after receiving a beautiful cobalt blue pair from my neighbors and a mint green pair from my family this past holiday season. But, old habits die hard… or should I say my insecurities die hard. Confession… I am super sensitive about my ear lobes! I have attached ear lobes and think they look funny. My hubby is so sweet and tells me sometimes how nice my lobes are (sounds really weird when I write it on my blog), but I still am not super adventurous in calling attention to my ears with big statement earrings.

Long story short, I really like stud earrings. I think they look a lot better on my ears. Until now, I’d never tried to make them! Last night after an impromptu dinner date with my dad and after watching an episode of Glee (another confession… I love Glee. Don’t judge too much!), I sat down in my craft room and actually crafted! Woot!

Since I’ve never worked with studs before, I made several pairs of super easy earrings using buttons.

For this project I used:

  • Buttons
  • Stud earring backs
  • E6000 glue

Yup, that’s it!

I spent about 20 minutes sorting through my mounds of buttons, hoping to stumble upon two purple buttons that matched. No such luck (which I still cannot believe)! So I pulled out a bunch of other matches that I liked enough to sport on my ears.

button earrings1

Then, I placed a small dab of E6000 onto my workstation (a Neiman Marcus box) and grabbed an old needle to spread the glue with. You could use a toothpick or a rolled up piece of paper. I just grabbed an old needle because I was planning on tossing it anyway.

e6000

Using the needle, I scooped up some glue and carefully spread it on the backing of my stud.

Glue on stud

Then, one by one, I placed an earring stud onto the back of each button.

button earrings2

I let everything dry overnight before adding plastic earring backs to each pair.

These gold ones are my favorite. The best part is that the buttons are made of plastic, even though they look like metal, so they aren’t heavy on my ears at all.

Gold button earrings

In fact, I wore them to work today (bad photo alert). I look so happy to be wearing them, huh? Haha… I swear I love them even though I look slightly pained in this photo.

Me earrings

Here’s another cute pair… cobalt blue! Love them.

Blue button earrings

I can’t forget about the orange ones I made for Dana. She loves orange and she just got her ears pierced (well… a few years ago). The novelty of making her earrings hasn’t worn off yet.

orange button earrings

I made a black pair, a teal pair and two pairs of super teeny buttons. I love them all. Now, I really need a jewelry box to store them all. Anyone have any recommendations on where to get one? I am super picky and can’t seem to find one I like online.

Hopefully this project was just the start of getting out of my creative rut 🙂

Craft Projects

Mod Podged Candle Holders

Jessica Smith

Today I’m sharing another project I made for the upcoming Trash to Treasure Fair in November. Using pages from an old book and the remainder of my burlap fabric scraps, I turned two shot glasses that my mother-in-law’s work was going to throw away (not sure why they have shot glasses…) into adorable candle holders.

Here’s what you’ll need:

  • Pages of a book (or any paper) cut into little pieces
  • Mod Podge
  • Fabric
  • Hot Glue
  • Needle and Thread
  • Buttons
  • Ribbon
  • Glass

To start this project, I cut up three or four pages from an old dictionary into little pieces of paper. I had no rhyme or reason for the shape of the paper, just random shapes.

Once my paper was small enough, I started to Mod Podge it to the glass. I put a thick layer of the podge down, then placed strips of paper on top. I smoothed out the paper as I went along to remove any bubbles between the paper and the glass. Once each glass was covered, I placed a layer of podge on top.

I let the candle holders dry for a bit before adding embellishments. They weren’t dry completely, but I didn’t mind since I wanted the stuff I was adding to stick right on top.

At this point, I flipped each glass upside down and added a slim, pink ribbon around the bottom with small dabs of hot glue.

With the pink ribbon added to each glass, I set both candle holders aside to create two oversized flowers. I cut out five petals for each flower, using scraps from an earlier project.

To connect the petals, I folded each petal at the flat edge in an accordion-style fold: down, up, down, up, down.

Then, I sewed through each of the folds. Once I had stitched my way through one petal, I went on to the next, adding petals until I was out.

When all five petals were connected, I looped the needle and thread back through the first petal to finish off the flower.

With the flower complete, I selected a flashy button to add to the middle. I added it to the flower with hot glue, then hot glued each flower to a candle holder.

OHMYGOSHSOCUTE. If these don’t get snatched up at the fair, I might not be so upset.

I like how large the flowers are on the glass, the pink ribbon “leaves,” and the randomness of the dictionary scraps. These might be my favorite candle yet. Now I just need to remake them with aqua ribbon instead of pink ;p

Craft Projects

Burlap Rosette Candles

Jessica Smith

I am excited to share that I’m participating in a craft fair in a little more than a month! On Nov. 10, I will be at the Watkins Nature Center partaking in their Fourth Annual Trash to Treasure Green Craft Fair! I’ve done this fair two times in the past, but missed it last year. I’m excited to go again — it’s the coolest fair I’ve ever been to and I am really looking forward to it.

Anyway, my new few weeks will be spent making crafts out of recycled goods, scraps, trash, etc. The goal is to repurpose things you might otherwise throw away into something neat and useful again.

For my first project, I made a set of candles using fabric scraps or burlap that were barely big enough for the task at hand. I also used old buttons and thrift store glasses. The only “new” supply I used was some pink ribbon.

My piece of fabric was about 9 inches by 7 inches, so just long enough to wrap around my candle. I cut out a strip and placed a dab of hot glue midway down the glass to secure one end of the fabric to the candle holder. Then, I placed Mod Podge beneath the fabric as I wrapped it around the glass. Once it was in place, I slathered on another layer of Mod Podge on top of the fabric.

I let this dry, then added a skinny pink ribbon through the middle of the fabric. For the ribbon, I secured it to the glass only with a few dabs or hot glue.

After the ribbon was on, I started to make a few rosettes out of the burlap fabric. (Note: It’s not actually burlap, but it looks close enough so that’s what I’m gonna call it.) To make the rosettes, I used skinny strips of fabric and Mod Podge.

To make the rosette, I twisted on end of the fabric in my fingers and added some Mod Podge. This is the center of the rosette.

I kept twisting the fabric, winding it around itself as I twisted and all the while adding Mod Podge. Once the fabric ran out, I was left with a cute rosette that I set aside to dry.

Fast forward: The glass is dry, the rosettes are dry — time to combine!

I pulled out my hot glue gun to add the rosettes to my candle holders, along with some buttons.

I glued two rosettes to one glass and on onto the other. Then, I added buttons in the center of each rose, and a few alongside each.

Ta daaaaa! Two candle holders made out of fabric scraps and buttons 🙂

What a cute pair!