Button Flowers

        Introducing my new basement apartment: I inherited it complete with green shag carpeting pieced together from various relative’s home renovations and the piece vary in color from bright lime to dark olive. In addition to the carpet, there is a black pleather sofa. I’m talking an original sleeper sofa! I’m not exactly sure how to date it, but I can say for certain, it is OLD. Accompanying the retro couch are two super 70s end tables and matching coffee table. The light fixtures look like something out of That 70s Show and in place of a dining room table I have a banquet table that seats 12 and probably came into this house at the same time as my mother came into this world. And no, we have no clue how they got it in and we accept that there is no way we can possibly get it out. Plus, it is one big old room. No separate bedroom. The closet and the bathroom have doors and walls, but that is it.

        

    Initially I was coming up with every possible idea to remake this place so it didn’t look like some place Hyde and Fez would enjoy special brownies. After a couple days the nightmare carpeting started to grow on me, and I began to see possibilities with the couch and table set. Thus I have a goal: embrace the retro 70s vibe without the headache inducing color and print scheme. Simple and cute. 

            Can I tell you how mad I am that I didn’t take “before” pictures of my basement! I jumped straight into making it liveable and I love it so much now that it makes me sad that I can’t show you the drastic improvements. One of the fantastic crafts that helped to make my basement look livable is crazy easy as well as cute. They’re framed button flowers! Let me tell you something, I love buttons! Buttons make me so happy! I buy them at garage sales, collect them from family members, and cut them off of old garments. So these flowers make me extra happy. Plus it isn't a craft that is limited to my scarily 70s decor, with the right frames, embroidery, and buttons it can work with a wide variety of decorating schemes. The best part is how fun it is as a stash-buster. I spent $0 making these.

Supplies:

            Picture Frames

            Paint and paintbrushes

            Something to protect the surface you’re working on

            Fabric

            Embroidery floss and needles

            Buttons

            Hot glue gun and glue (optional)

     I had paint stashed in my dad’s basement, so I dug that out, and grabbed some old wood frames I had laying around. My goal lately has been to stash-bust so I just used what I had but dollar store frames would work wonderfully too. One of my frames was smaller than the others, I had five total, one of which was 3x5 and all the others were 5x7. I covered my craft table and painted the frames, two dark green, three light blue. I was channeling the 70s vibe to suit the rest of my living space and these colors happened to work perfectly!

    While the paint was drying I played with my buttons! Yay buttons! I sorted my buttons into colored piles, then made pretty colorful flowers out of them, trying different arrangements until I had seven flowers of different sizes I was happy with. I packed up my extra buttons and checked my frames. Dry!

 I LOVE BUTTONS! (ok, back to the regularly scheduled tutorial)

     I cut my fabric to the size of the frames and sewed around the edges so it wouldn’t fray. I then embroidered grass, stems, leaves, and (on some) small flowers. I used three different colors of green, changing up the color combinations and shapes so each one was very unique. If you chose fabric with a tighter weave, and actually embroidered stems and leaves it could even be a very classy look.

           

      I then plugged in my glue gun (I feel like one of Charlie’s Angels when I use my glue gun, but the cord isn’t long enough for me to play butt-kicking-babe too much). I hot glued all the buttons down in flower shapes on the top of my embroidered stems, let it cool, and put the fabulous flowers into the painted frames. Ta-da! How cute! If you aren't a big fan of hot glue you can always sew your buttons down, I mean, buttons were meant to be sewn after all... 

      Check out the throw pillows, the red and patterned ones are made from vintage fabric I picked up at an estate sale to add a touch of authenticity to my 70s look, the blue one was made from an old sweater. I love the color they add to the black couch and dark basement.