Finished Button Box

I was amazed at how many people also had lovely memories of rummaging and sorting their Grandmother's button box!  I always had a theory about scrapbookers... if you ask a scrapbooker what pretend game they most enjoyed when a child the majority will answer that it involved playing with stationery...  pretend games of being a post mistress and doing a lot of stamping and thumping of envelopes and selling stamps etc, or being a teacher and having lots of little homework books to mark or a secretary with all the memos and things and they all stationery and the playing with it in common.  Next time I ask a scrapbooker the question I am also going to ask if they liked to sort the buttons in their Grannies button tin!!  Stationery and buttons obviously lead to a love of crafting in its many forms...

I finished the button box off yesterday and it is now residing on a shelf looking pretty happy with itself!! ;)

After so many questions about it I thought I would add some details on how it got the way it did. So it started off as a normal lidded box.

You will also need pretty serviettes (decorated paper napkins) and Mod Podge and a couple of brushes. Paint the box with the Mod Podge and then add your pieces of serviette, making sure you cover each piece with Mod Podge as you go along. The serviettes I used were in two layers, so I removed the back layer which left me with the tissue paper thin design layer only.  The pieces look better if you keep the edges of each piece curved or wavy... straight edges show up more.  I used two serviettes for my box as I have about 5 Eiffel Towers on the top of my box as they are layered one on top of each other to give the required depth of colour.

Decorate the top of your box as you wish, I added buttons and a flower with a chipboard button as its centre and some lace down the border.  I wanted my box to have a hinged lid so I cut through the two corners and gently moved that side piece back and forth so it would lift easily.  I hot glued it to the base and then added three black brads to make sure it didn't come loose.

Add your letters down the side and Mod Podge some more serviette into the inside lid and bottom of box if you wish.  I added satin material to the bottom of the box and attached it with double sided tape.

Fill with buttons and stand back and admire!!

It seemed a good idea at the time...

I had bought lollipops to hand out to the kids for Halloween and I thought I could make them into little ghosts... another of those leaky elbow moments I am afraid to admit... but I have the lollipops, the material and the ribbon...whether I have the time is debateable.  13 down 185 to go!!

Oh and I made up the cover to a mini book that I am going to teach to the ladies in the compound and used one of my lovely brooch finds from yesterday in the flower and on the title!!  Not bad.... for 8p!!  LOL

Shopping Bargains!!

OhI just love to get weird and wonderful things at bargain prices.  The other day I was looking for some buttons to finish off the jewelry organisor that I am making... I know, its been a while but it only needs a few buttons sewn on and it would be done!!  Well, I spied these buttons... big gorgeous buttons!!  I had to pick up a few as I think they would look great on a book cover or in the centre of a flower.  Now the buttons were about 30 pence each so I didn't go mad....

Aren't they lovely?? 

Then I went into Jubail on the ladies bus this morning and into my favourite shop... Big World!!  It has everything in it... ribbons, jewelry, tacky jewelry... and I found these brooches!!

I think they will be perfect in the centre of a big flower... and the brooches were all 8 pence each!!  LOL

Now I don't feel so bad that I can't get my mitts on all the lovely Prima flower centres.... and I bet they are more than 8p a piece!!

LOL... Julia raises a good point... because a lot of the ladies would never have ventured into a shop like Big World (it is all complete tat unless you are a scrapbooker) but now the place gets mobbed when we go into Jubail as they are looking at it all with different eyes!!  We have ladies now taking apart the gaudy gold wreaths and re-doing them in ribbon and berries for our doors at Christmas... ladies wripping the awful bouquets of flowers apart and making nice centerpieces for the dinner table... and nobody thinks I am completely mad anymore.... well, maybe just a few!! ;)