Button Floozies

Each year our local Evening Star Button Club gathers to share a Christmas party and button-related handmade gifts.  If you'd like to see and read more about it, please click here to view it on my   Vintage Connections blog.

Hi there~ I have been knitting so much -and crocheting too-an awful lot of gifts for the Holidays!! I made up these 2 earwarmers~ ( a free pattern you can find on ravelry ) I was looking for the perfect button to add to these, when I remembered some buttons I won from fellow Button Floozie, McAnaraks...( You can see that post here , and here's another post about their buttons here ). I thought I would need to find a button with a shank for the loop to fit securely around, and these didn't have one... but I thought they were too perfect for the headbands, so when I went to stitch them on, I just when up through the underside of the headband with the yarn, through the first and second hole, then wrapped the yarn around those 2 threads underneath the buttons, to make the buttons sit higher and make a sort of shank, and then took the yarn back to the underside of the headband and wove in the ends~Perfect!

Snowman, by me.

(a creation/gift from Linda ) I'll bet you have some button beauty on your tree, too.  Do show us!

Christmas market cuteness!

Here's a button craft I bought at a craft fair a couple of weeks ago: So simple and sweet! It was made by Simply Stated Crafts; you can find them on Facebook here .

  reposted from  BethLeintz.typepad.com An antique dealer once told me that since most dealers don't go to school to learn the "trade", we get our education from our mistakes.  Usually those are mistakes in what we buy.  Even though I've been doing this for 15 years, I still make mistakes.  I guess that means I'm still learning. At an estate sale last weekend, I saw buttons, lots of buttons, buttons on cards.  Buttons in a bag or a jar will make my heart beat a little faster.  Buttons that have been put on cards by other collectors make my heart skip a beat. They're special, because someone went to the trouble to collect them, lay them out, attach them to cards. When I saw this button card at an estate sale, I was overcome with button lust and I bought the card without really considering my purchase. My first mistake was assuming these were glass buttons.  They LOOK like glass, but I think they're all plastic....

Yesterday I had a chance to attend the Worldwide Antique & Vintage Show , which takes place in Denver 3 times each year. It's a big antique show held in an expo center -- full of friendly vendors and TONS of beautiful things... like this "poke bowl" full of buttons!  Did you see the charm string sitting just to the left of it?  I HAD to take it home with me! Someone who loved her buttons put it together... and added some other little trinkets, too. The buttons are not particularly valuable but I thought it was so charming that, for $10, it was irresistible. I also grabbed these little "gems" from the poke bowl: a large rhinestone-metal button, missing a few stones but I love it anyway, a pink plastic flower with a sparkly paste center, a two-toned yellow plastic, diamond-shaped one, a velvet fabric button, and a "tight-top." Here's what they look like on the reverse. Buttons just make me happy!

Do you visit the Tag Tuesday blog ?  Every week we work on a hand made tag based on the same theme. This past week's theme was "Beads, Buttons and Bows" -- so you have to go see some of the great button-y tags!  (Scroll down for the ones titled, "Beads, Buttons and Bows".) Maggie's was my favorite this time, so far!   I'm still working (against the clock!) on mine!

It's funny how one thing can lead to another, isn't it? It happens a lot while perusing the Internet. I was roaming around, trying to find a button-worthy topic to write about here and was lead to a blog post about a (button) artist by the name of Augusto Esquivel.  I followed the link and was lead to his  website where his amazing installations/sculptures are shown.  Candy store Coke machine  Piano Fountain My favorite! Noticing the word "Koumpounophobia" under his name and wondering what it meant, I looked it up online and found that it means a fear of buttons . It may be a textural phobia (plastic buttons), fear of accidentally swallowing or inhaling small buttons, or a phobia of old buttons, as they may harbor germs. So, as one thing lead to another, a few things were learned today.

  I was going to make black organza flowers to use with my collection of beaded, sequined, and lace leaves on a suffrage crazy-quilt project.  After about the third organza rose  I was bored and found bits of trims to gather into a circle.  I used a vintage glass button for the center. How cool are these? Victorian black hats were my inspiration.     These are some of the trims! And these are the leaves to use with them.

I received permission from the Facebook administrator of the National Button Society's Facebook page to copy some of their photos for us to enjoy here on Button Floozies (thank you, Mary Anne!)  As you may know, the National Button Society holds a meeting annually, and it took place several weeks ago (August) in Wisconsin. A more seasoned member helps judge a Junior member's tray in the Junior Competition The show always begins with a competition, where members of the Society submit "trays" (buttons mounted on mat paper, sometimes framed) and a prize goes to the best for each category. Dedicated volunteers judging the button trays on opening day During the show, which runs about a week, they have classes for members to attend.  You can learn much, and some specialized and detailed button information; and, if you have more questions about anything button-related, just ask one of the other attendees.  So many are experts, and NBS members are very generous...

Just wanted to share a package of pretty vintage buttons I picked up from the Country Living Fair in Columbus this past weekend. I have a few plans for some projects. They looks so nice together, I haven't even opened the package yet to look at all of them ! You can read more about my day right here :)

Viola's blog has been a favorite of mine for years now.  Today she has the most wonderful free gift on her blog: this button card she designed -- and she gave me permission to share it with you! To download the file from her blog, click here .  Thank you Viola!

I bought some antique clothing at an auction the other day, and it came with some really cool buttons! Now that's what I call a bonus!  You can see all the clothes (and buttons) on my blog, here .