• Christmas button wreath decoration for kids to make
    Christmas - Crafts for kids

    Christmas button wreath decoration for kids to make

    November 22, 2017 - By 

    I had a tidy up of our craft materials yesterday when the kids were at school. When they got home they saw what I had been doing and wanted to get everything out! I love a bit of after school crafting. It’s the perfect way to wind down after a busy day at school and a great way to talk to my children about what they’ve been up to. They are usually so engrossed with their crafting that they actually talk to me about their lessons or who they played with. Equipment to make a button wreath decoration  Green and…

  • button fairies craft
    crafts - Fairy garden crafts - Kids crafts - Recycled crafts

    Button fairy wings craft for kids

    May 27, 2016 - By 

    I can’t believe another month has gone since our last post for the Project: recycle & create series. This month the theme was buttons of which we have plenty. I obviously use them a lot in sewing projects but I never really think of letting my children use them. This was a great opportunity! I grabbed the button box and let my 4 year old pick out her favourite ones. Then we gathered the rest of our supplies – air drying clay and craft sticks. We wanted to use the colourful buttons to decorate fairy wings so first of all…

  • Easy button pumpkin craft - the gingerbread house
    crafts - Crafts for kids - Halloween crafts - tutorial

    Easy button pumpkin craft

    October 4, 2014 - By 

    I spotted pumpkins during the weekly shop and my children were really curious about them so we bought one. It has taken pride of place in the dining room and we’ve been inspired to craft our own pumpkins with buttons. Materials required for an easy button pumpkin craft: paper orange and black paint orange buttons glue stick How to make an easy button pumpkin: First draw a pumpkin shape on a piece of paper and paint. As you can see Little Sis went a little crazy with the paint on her first attempt. We set our pumpkin paintings aside and…

  • book review - crafts - handmade

    New Wings for Old Things

    October 22, 2013 - By 

    You all know that I love to visit charity shops and upcycle the things I find in them. When I heard about a new book produced by The Children’s Air Ambulance it sounded absolutely written for me and I had to share it with you. The book is called New Wings for Old Things: Sew, Stick, Splatter and Salvage and includes over 20 projects to change preloved pieces into vintage visions for your wardrobe, home and garden. The ethos behind it is encouraging people of all levels of crafting experience to upcycle preloved (or just unloved!) items knocking about at home or in…

  • crafts - handmade

    Fabric painting with buttons

    May 16, 2013 - By 

    I thought it would be fun to use my buttons in a different way and decorate some tshirts for Little Sis. I chose a handful of buttons which were unusual and made them into stamps, using some corks and a glue gun. I left them overnight to dry and then dipped them in fabric paint before carefully applying them to a blank piece of fabric to practice. Some worked better than others and gave a clearer result so I ended up using two of the buttons on two blank tshirts. One dark tshirt was stamped around the neckline and bottom…

  • Cath Kidston - handmade - swap - vintage

    A Valentine themed Swap

    February 15, 2012 - By 

    Mary Rebecca hosted a really cool Valentine’s Day Swap 2012 which I signed up for as I love all things red and heart shaped. My partner Jennifer has a really cool tumblr blog at Vintage Enydot. She sent me an amazing box of goodies including yummy limited edition love hearts and some fab cupcake cases, which I can’t wait to use. We’re off to visit family this week and I’m looking forward to stocking up at my favourite cake shop so I can whip up something special. I loved putting together a parcel for her. Aside from some chocolate and…

  • Gingerbread house finds - sewing - vintage

    Vintage tins

    June 19, 2011 - By 

    I’ve been on the look out for a suitable tin for my button stash. I inherited a great collection of buttons from my grandmother, the buttons survived but not her old tin. Since then they’ve been stored in various boxes and even an old sweetie jar. Along the way I’ve picked up some lovely tins:   But none have been large enough, until I found this old Cadbury’s Chocolate Biscuit tin in a charity shop. I think it really complements my vintage button stash and looks great alongside all my vintage thread boxes, patterns and ric rac. I’m linking up…

  • Cath Kidston - Orla Kiely

    West End girl

    February 1, 2011 - By 

    Last week I had a cheeky trip to the West End. I say cheeky because since Edward came along I get little time to myself. Given a couple of hours I decided to go shopping even though I needed to catch up on some sleep and the house needed a clean. Anyway, I hopped on the tube to Covent Garden and I visited two shops, spent all the money I didn’t have, and came home. You can probably guess the two shops – Cath Kidston and Orla Kiely! In Cath Kidston I picked up a new phone case for my…

  • handmade - swaps - vintage

    Pincushion swap

    April 20, 2010 - By 

    Today I received an exciting parcel from Megan at Maximum Rabbit Designs who was my partner in Claire’s Pincushion Swap. Megan likes buttons, felt and all things vintage as much as I do 🙂 The parcel was beautifully contained in a round box, decorated with button stamps and plenty of space for a photograph – no guesses for whose picture I will be putting in there! The pincushion has been made from vintage fabric embroidered with flowers. Megan also included some vintage buttons, threads and some of her ‘button’ cotton reel stamps. I can’t wait to try it out for…