VINTAGE BUTTON BOX

In September I am organising a Button Bonanza in the One Craft Gallery. Some members of the co-operative are making buttons in their particular craft and I have arranged for a guest artist who makes fabulous wooden ones. As a mixed media artist, I searched for something I could sell that wasn't just an artwork incorporating buttons.  I looked into my button boxes and sorted and washed the vintage ones that were suitable to mount and sell in sets. I had an idea to mount them onto collaged cards in such a way that they could be easily removed for people to use, leaving the design of the card intact.

I am calling my cards 'Vintage Button Box' and have designed a logo with instructions on detaching them to be put on the back of the card.  Here is my first design - collaged flowers, using paper and fabrics with a combination of glueing, hand and machine stitch. It felt appropriate to use fabrics and stitching to show off the buttons.  For once I did not use my paint media for the artwork!

I am making four cards at a time.  I do a background for all four, cut it up and then add the fabric and make up the design for each card. It is then stitched and stuck onto the card stock with double sided tape and then the buttons are sewn through all layers so they can be detached from the inside of the card.  I did a birthday card for a friend at the same time, which can be seen below.  Instead of adding the buttons, I did extra embroidery as she is a textile artist and we studied embroidery together many years ago.