Button Floozies

I'm so pleased that Button Floozies blog has reached 1,000 followers tonight! Thank you to Karla Nathan for being our 1,000th friend! To celebrate the occasion, Button Floozie Gerry Krueger has gifted us one of her beautiful hand painted buttons to give away!  You can visit Gerry at her blog Older Rose , as well as at  her Etsy shop !  However, if you've been reading this blog for a while, you will be familiar with Gerry's hand painted, mother of pearl buttons. This sweet button depicts a Robin sitting on a flowering branch, which Gerry has painted by hand onto a mother of pearl button!  Gerry's generously shared her method in this Button Painting Tutorial on her blog .  Besides pretty birds, she paints flowers, foliage, cottages, and more. Here's how you can enter to win this pretty hand painted button from Gerry: Leave a comment on this post ONLY and that is your entry!  Comment on this post anytime between now and midnight MST o...

I'm always on the lookout for extra large buttons on which I can paint cottages, barns, haunted houses etc. and they're not that easy to find at a price I can afford... So when this batch of buttons came up on e-bay this weekend I bid because it looked like it had a lot of extra large buttons in it.  I won the bid and am anxiously awaiting the arrival...  Not sure what I'll do with all the rest.  Some I can use in crazy quilting and the rest I will probably take to a retreat in September to share... When it comes and I sort it out, I'll let you know if it was a good buy or not... If I can get 12-15 buttons that are extra large (1 1/2" up) I'll very happy...

I've just come back from selling my handmade buttons at a great event in Cumbria in North West England called "Woolfest" www.woolfest.co.uk It's an extravaganza of wool related products , from real live alpacas and sheep to fleeces, all sorts of fibres for spinning, felting, knitters, and who knows what else....and also....buttons! As well as myself there was another couple of button sellers, the most well endowed being "Textile Garden" and I must admit I couldn't resist buying some myself....coals to Newcastle as they say. Here is but a small amount of buttony delights that they had on display. They have a website as well www.textilegarden.com

It seems that I've hit the button jackpot lately!  I've found some great buttons at  recent sales.  I love it when I can buy only the ones I want and not have to buy a whole tin or jar.  I'm posting a few pictures of my favorites. Yesterday I finished a bracelet for my Etsy shop with some of my new buttons.  Visit my blog:  Corgis In My Garden  for Etsy info.

It is all Laurie's fault.  I have gotten hooked on making these little needle books.  I use vintage fabrics and trims.  Buttons are added and a little seam binding tie.  I put wool felt in the middle to keep the needles sharp.  Love using feed sack material, salvaged bits of vintage embroidery and doily scraps.  Hope you enjoy them too!

I was lucky enough to be invited to the button sale of a collector who was getting rid of some of her more common, crafting buttons; most of them were vintage. She and her husband took the time (unbelievable!) to put buttons on cards for the sale. That's a button lover for you, right? I just knew you'd enjoy seeing the buttons I brought home with me! I bought some fabric and notions, too... ...but of course the buttons were the most fun to dig through! How about you?  Any button purchases lately?

It has been rainy and cold so it has been easier to discipline myself to paint. Because of the size of the buttons (1") it's only possible to work in short sessions... But I have managed to get lots of hummers. roses. cardinals and even a chipmunk... I have added them to my etsy shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/olderrose If you didn't already know about it,  I do have an extensive tutorial about painting on buttons on my blog.. If you're  interested in doing this at all, you must read it. Next will be violets and forget-me-not...  On the last batch of forget-me-nots and violets I   forgot and used a Sharpie pen instead of a Micron pen to do the lettering... Sharpie is not compatible with the acrylic sealer and the minute I sprayed  them the ink dissolved into a mess and ruined the entire batch....  I can sand them down of course but it was a lot of time lost because a senior moment. Gerry Krueger http://olderrose.blogspot.com/ http://www.etsy.com/s...

It's so fun to see our Button Floozies community continue to grow.  We are close to 1,000 followers now, and when we reach that magical number we will be having another wonderful button giveaway! Here is a lot of beautiful glass buttons I won the other day in an eBay auction: These are black glass and I have been painted with pink accents.  They are what collectors call "mother/daughter" buttons as the sets are identical except for their size (and, in this case, number.) More black glass, this time round with panted stripes: I love these two glass buttons with a painted or perhaps transferred design in the middle; I turned one over so you could see how it is mounted: These, to me, are the most special: they are glass balls and I do believe they are an example of blown glass, but it's hard to tell.  They could actually be plastic.  (I was so alarmed to see that the seller sent all these buttons in an envelope -- but by some miracle they all arrived i...