DIY - Making Your Own Buttons

We live in a fast-paced world. We want things easy and we want things quick. I call it the drive-through mentality. Drive-throughs are quick, inexpensive and the easy option and I find many people in the world now use this type of convenience shopping to make their lives easier.

I love shopping in my local craft store. I see gorgeous things in pretty packages all wrapped up begging me to buy them. I try to be thrifty and I make sure I recycle as much as possible but i have realised I shop with the drive-through mentality I was talking about. I hardly ever stop to think about how to make these products.  I decided I wanted to understand the hard work that goes on behind the scenes to create products we love.

I decided to try to make my own buttons! Wow, what a challenge. I didn't know where to start - I thought of plastic and clay, but I wanted something cheap and original, plus I love the look of chunky buttons and wanted to recreate them.  After a while of brainstorming I finally decided to try an old recipe I played with as a kid - Salt Dough. It is simply a mixture of two parts all-purpose flour and one part salt, mixed with a tablespoon of cooking oil and water to mix, which are ingredients we all have in our kitchens. 

I mixed these ingredients up in a bowl and then formed a soft dough which I rolled into smaller balls and flattened to make into button shapes. I use the back of a ballpoint pen to create little holes in the middle and then laid them all out on a baking tray.  They were a little rough around the edges, if I am honest, but they resembled buttons at least!

I then baked these little buttons in the oven at 170* for about 20 minutes until they were very hard.

Once they cooled down, I used a nail file to smooth the edges then painted them with acrylic paints.  They looked great and I was very pleased with myself!

 I decorated each button in a different  way but my favorite was this one shown on this card. I smoothed the edges, covered it in some tissue paper  to give it texture and then painted it with acrylic paints. I covered it in three layers of Mod Podge and left it to dry solid.  It almost looks like the real thing.

I'm not sure on the life span of salt dough buttons but I think they look brilliant for cards especially. You could create other shaped embellishments from this dough too - the possibilities are endless. It is a great project to undertake with your kids and a great way to get them involved in your crafting.  I hope you give it a try too.