Create a Button Snowflake

This project begins with my mom's old sewing box.   

Even at 96 years old, Mom was sewing on buttons and hemming drapes that were just a bit too long.   "I think this blouse would look better with short sleeves." she said as she examined the blouse that her then 91 year old sister had sent her.  Mom was all about repurposing.  She was "green" before her time.   And she saved buttons - oh, did she ever save buttons.  I sometimes worried that she would actually remove the buttons off of garments before donating them to Goodwill.   I remember our extra large mason jar full of buttons - so that we could add a missing button to dad's milk man shirts at a moment's notice - buttons of all sizes and shapes.  Read more...

I haven't thought about those buttons for years, until last week when my daughter and I were looking for a sewing needle and the only place I knew that had a chance of having one was... mom's old sewing box.  We did find a needle and that's when I saw all the buttons.

I remembered an ornament a friend of ours had created this year for their family Christmas tree.  I thought it might be fun to recreate the ornament using Mom's recently discovered buttons for our January Fireflies' theme - SNOW! (Even though the Christmas tree is getting ready to be put away.)

Materials:

• craft sticks
• buttons
• hot glue gun or thick tacky glue (for younger crafters)
• white paint 
• ribbon for hangin' or a dowel for stickin'

1.  Glue the four craft sticks together.

2.  If you paint your craft sticks white, you won't have to worry about seeing the sticks between your buttons.

 3.  The finished product.   I love the various shades created by using Mom's old buttons.   All that is left is gluing it to a dowel or ribbon for use as a plant or window ornament.

This is a fun and easy project to do with young children.  It will take extra time when using tacky glue instead of hot glue gun.   Why not make a few, put them in some purchased house plants, and deliver with your children to a local nursing home or hospital?

Mary Byrne Kline [our Fireflies blog book reviewer and the author of "Reflections] has the best Grandma-name ever:  Button!  I'll let her share in a future post, how that precious name was given to her, but I've always thought it was the best name ever!  This snowflake creation is for "Button" Byrne Kline and for the woman responsible for so many rich family memories in my life - the button-saver, my Mom.

Deni Corbett