A Button Stash for Creative Kids

Do you have a button collection for your youngsters to explore and show off their creativity?  This wouldn’t be your treasure of precious buttons or those you especially need for your own craft and fabric art projects.

Image: sxc.hu

The “Kids’ Stash” would be odds and ends of buttons you’ve collected, taken off old clothing, saved for mending and other utilitarian tasks.  These are great for youngsters to use for crafts and creativity(as long as they’re beyond the “putting everything into their mouth” stage of life).

My daughter became interested in buttons when I did dressmaking for a lady who was an avid button collector.  When Miss Ida realized Beth’s fascination, she gave Beth a jar of buttons that she didn’t need.  This certainly piqued Beth’s interest in button collecting and crafting.

So we:

• Made collages with button accents, gluing these on pictures Beth drew.
• Sewed buttons on heavy stock paper to make floral arrangements.
• Collected more buttons over the years

Beth now collects buttons and beads for her fabric art, using them as embellishments that add accents to whatever she’s doing.  Currently, Beth is sewing beads and small buttons to miniature felted quilts.

Beth also makes buttons from various materials for her fabric art.  Did her interest in buttons carry over from those days we visited Miss Ida?

Are you a button collector?  Do you have unique ways to use buttons in your art and share with your youngsters?