25 crafts of christmas // buttons

I've discovered that I need to work within a loose plan these days, and usually that means I need to give myself the freedom to cancel what I hoped to do. Today in the 25 Crafts of Christmas, however, the loose plan resulted in my making something extra! I love that! It probably happened when I opened the button jar.

The button jar is filled with old buttons. How old? It's hard to say, and their age varies, but I can tell you that I often hold my breath when I go looking for buttons because it just has an old smell that I can't decide if I like or not. Think antique store x 10.

Buttons, new or old, have such allure for me. Like ribbons and stickers, I want to collect them and hold them and have them around...just in case. A button can even inspire its own project, which is how the holly pin came to be.



Digging through the button jar, I grabbed some red and pink buttons for berries. If you decide to make one of these, I highly recommend that you choose buttons of slightly different sizes/styles...it just adds to the charm!



Grab some green felt and cut out two holly leaves. Iron them in half so you get a nice crease in each leaf. You can freehand the shape, use my template below, or download it as a PDF.

Overlap the leaves at the straight end, then sew a few buttons on, stitching through both leaves when possible to hold them together.



Stitch or glue a pin back to the back side of the holly, making sure that your stitches don't show on the front. Or, instead of making this a brooch, you could add a hanger to use it as an ornament, or tie it onto a gift for extra decoration!



This is such a fun and easy way to show off a few pieces from your button collection! You could even make a mistletoe version to use some pearly white buttons!

For lots more Christmas button projects, try a search on Pinterest for "Christmas buttons" and then try "buttons Christmas". Would you believe that pulled up two sets of results? It's true...and there are good things with each search! I especially like the trees that were made at a crafting party!

Do you have a favorite Christmas button project? Share the link in the comments!