Tuesday, November 27, 2012

A Handmade Christmas - Week 7 {Button Snowflakes}

 This past week we got snow here at our place that I think will stay the winter. I am talking about real snow that Aaron has been diligently going skiing on every chance he can get (this morning he asked me if perhaps there might be a race he can enter)- inside however I have been having fun making some button snow. So this week I thought I would present to you two kinds of button snowflakes.
The first kind is very easy button ornaments for your tree or if you are like us and don't have a tree then you kind find all sorts of other ways to decorate with them. I haven't put them up yet at our house but I may hang them in windows, nestle them in greenery, have a bunch hanging from the light fixture over our table or hanging from the ceiling. You will have to check back later to find out. :-) They would also look very sweet attached to a gift.

  You may, like I, have seen this idea before using Popsicle sticks. I made one like that but realized we were nearly out of Popsicle sticks (we don't buy Popsicles and I have bought the sticks before - a couple of times in my lifetime- but Jonathan majorly depleted our stash when he was into making planes from Popsicle sticks ) so I worked at thinking outside to box to figure out what would work from what we already had on hand.

  For us that ended up being strapping that we had saved when it came on flower boxes. We simply cut it to the appropriate length and glued them together.

Basically to make the snowflake you need 3 strips, a ribbon or lace or something to hang it with and buttons and glue. Glue your strips together, glue the lace onto one tip and then cover it all with buttons. A very simple project that can be done with kids.
 The other thing that I thought would be fun to do is to make a snowflake with button art. I have been seeing neat button art - Initials, trees, cupcakes, etc- all over the Internet but I haven't seen a snowflake so I decided to give it a try.

 Though I think this design could definitely be improved on it was fun to try and I have it hanging up in the living room now.
 The project was a nice one because it used various items that I already had on hand.
 I used:
  • An old frame missing its glass
  • A piece of cardboard/poster board (repurposed from an old folder)
  • Fabric
  • Buttons - many of them coming off of old dress shirts of Ken's that I will use to make something else.
  • Hot glue.
 My fabric was thin enough that I was able to draw the basic snowflake shape onto the poster board with a black marker and then be able to see it faintly through the fabric.
 I covered the poster board with fabric securing it in the back with glue.
 I just started gluing on buttons.
 After I got the basic shape done I still wasn't real satisfied (above) so then I started adding in more buttons - some on top of others for more dimension and I liked it quite a bit better.
 We enjoy snow outside and decorating with snowflakes inside here at our house. I am sure we will be doing a lot more of that before long (through the end of November the fall decorations will stay up however). We will be cutting paper snowflakes, quite likely making 3D paper snowflakes and I also think it would be fun to make some snowflake gift tags. You might be seeing more snowflakes around here before the year is over.

Have you been working on anything - gifts, decorations, etc at your house? I would love to hear!
Please tell me all about it in the comments! If you have posted on your blog about your projects I would love it if you would leave a link so that I and others could come visit your blog and see what you are doing!

7 comments:

Keren Ruth said...

those are cute!

Greg and Donna said...

Abbi, So can I ask why you don't do a tree? Just curious. We stopped putting one up last year. Thanks!

Abbi said...

Thanks Keren!

Greg and Donna, I grew up not really celebrating Christmas at all because of the pagan origins of it as well as all the commercialism associated with the holiday. When we were first married we didn't celebrate either but then I realized that Ken was missing it and so after some thought on my part (and some study of Romans 14) I realized that I wouldn't mind having a simple family celebration (and we laid down rules for ourselves in order to help us make sure to avoid consumerism) but I still wasn't comfortable with the idea of a tree. I always get that song of "O Christmas Tree" going through my head which sounds so worshipful to me and bugs me.

Anyway - that is our long (but still shorter than I could be!) explanation of why we don't have a tree. I certianly don't condemn others for having one - I just prefer not to.

Clint Baker said...

Those are some pretty! I will have to post what my wife is working on when she is done with it!
http://theredeemedgardener.blogspot.com

angie said...

Abbi, I am going to pin these button snowflakes as I think these would be wonderful ornaments for my daughter and I to make together.
Thank you for sharing.

Greg and Donna said...

Sounds good Abbi! My husband and I both grew up with big Christmases ~ trees, lots of decorations, etc. What started out as simplifying the chaos actually led us to the verses in Jeremiah that talk about the pagans custom of cutting down the tree, stringing it with gold/silver, etc. That did it for us. We have cut way back on everything now. And in fact have given our gifts to others at Thanksgiving as a blessing during the time of thankfulness. Thanks for answering my question!

Anonymous said...

Those snowflake ornaments are simple and pretty, and just the thing to make with my little ones. I have LOTS of white/pearly buttons, just like you used, in my button jars. I will also need to come up with something else to use other than popsicle sticks. Thanks, this is the perfect gift for my 6 yr. old girl to give to her Grandmas! Shauna

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