50 Button Crafts: idea #9 – button cats

Posted on March 5, 2015 by tellingfamilytales

button cats by Gatti Bottonuti via Facebook

Got a box or jar full of buttons carefully saved by your mother or grandmother? For 2015 I’m in search of great ways to put those buttons to use. Here is this week’s idea:

The moment I saw these whimsical cats I knew I had to share them. They are amazing. No idea how they were made. The Facebook page is in Italian and I’m not too good and getting Google Translate to work. But they are inspiring. It looks like one of the keys is the ears. This person used heart or triangle-shaped buttons. Not sure my stash has any of those but you could add some contemporary buttons or use something else. It would be so much fun to figure out how to make lab puppy button figure. I would probably have to use something besides buttons for their ears. I’m super excited about this. Hope it inspires you too.

It would be a good idea to document where the buttons for your project came from and any relevant stories or information about that person or family. If you are looking for more button crafts, check out my Pinterest board.

Family Trees: 3D colorful family tree

Posted on February 26, 2015 by tellingfamilytales

3D Family Tree from eHow.com

With spring around the corner, this would be a fun family project. It would make a great time to get the kids involved in a hands on activity. Click on the photo above for step by step tutorial. I also think it would also be fun to put together a kit and send to grandkids that are far away.

50 Button Crafts: idea #8 – button hair ties

Posted on February 23, 2015 by tellingfamilytales

button hair ties from DreamPatch

Got a box or jar full of buttons carefully saved by your mother or grandmother? For 2015 I’m in search of great ways to put those buttons to use. Here is this week’s idea:

What a super simple way to re-purpose a special button. Love this idea. You could let a little girl pick out her favorite button from the stash and in no time at all transform it into a hair tie. Another possibility would be to make covered buttons like the one in DreamPatch’s photo from some special fabric or piece of clothing.

50 Button Crafts: idea #7 – button headbands

Posted on February 17, 2015 by tellingfamilytales

button headband from SugarBeeCrafts.com

Got a box or jar full of buttons carefully saved by your mother or grandmother? For 2015 I’m in search of great ways to put those buttons to use. Here is this week’s idea:

These button headbands are such a sweet idea. Mandy of SugarBee (photo above) adapted the tutorial from LittleMissMomma (photo below) to make it more kid friendly. This is a great project to teach kids about their grandmother, especially if you are using her buttons, and some really basic sewing skills at the same time. Perfect for a girls and granny day or the sleepovers I did with my nieces when they were young. Little Miss Momma has two version of her button headband. The second one is a no sew project. Click on any of the photos for step by step instructions.

button headband from LittleMissMomma.com

no sew button headband from LittleMissMomma.com

Family Trees: scrabble style

Posted on February 10, 2015 by tellingfamilytales

Here is another non-traditional family tree. It looks like so much fun. I really want to do a Scrabble style display for all the puppies we have raised. Here are some more ways people have used Scrabble tiles for their family names. Click on the photos to get more info on each idea.

50 Button Crafts: idea #6 – button heart pillow

Posted on February 10, 2015 by tellingfamilytales

button heart pillow from MayArts.com

Got a box or jar full of buttons carefully saved by your mother or grandmother? For 2015 I’m in search of great ways to put those buttons to use. Here is this week’s idea:

Valentines Day snuck up on me again this year. There are lots of fun ideas incorporating hearts and buttons that I pinned on my button crafts board but I choose this was for my post today. Not sure way but maybe two reasons, the simplicity of the design and its versatility. I can imagine this with multicolored buttons or with white buttons on a dark background. If you button stash is like mine there are lots of small rather nondescript white buttons that would work great for this. Click on the photo above for a step by step tutorial.

Family Trees: magnetic

Posted on February 3, 2015 by tellingfamilytales

magnetic family tree from VisitingTeachingSurprise & StoriesByMe

This is a great idea for a growing and changing family. With the photos on magnets it is easy to rearrange to accommodate new members. It would also make a fun game to see if family members know who goes with who in your family tree. I didn’t find any directions for making the magnetic family tree. The original idea was on StoriesByMe’s blog for a product they sold but they don’t seem to be in business anymore. So you are on your own. But I think the concept is good and it should be too hard to figure out. If you figure it out or find a tutorial let me know and I’ll add it here.

50 Button Crafts: idea #5 – button flowers

Posted on February 2, 2015 by tellingfamilytales

button flowers from craftandfun.com

Got a box or jar full of buttons carefully saved by your mother or grandmother? For 2015 I’m in search of great ways to put those buttons to use. Here is this week’s idea:

This is a really fun way to use buttons. Makes me want to grab some scraps of yarn, a crochet hook and buttons and try this out. The website linked above is in Italian but the step by step photos are very clear. Plus you can use Google to translate if you need to. I go to our local elementary two days a week to listen to a couple of third grades read. I think they might just like some button flowers too.

50 Button Crafts: idea #4 – button bookmarks

Posted on January 26, 2015 by tellingfamilytales

button bookmarks from iheartnaptime.net

Got a box or jar full of buttons carefully saved by your mother or grandmother? For 2015 I’m in search of great ways to put those buttons to use. Here is this week’s idea:

A big chunk of the button crafts I’ve found are jewelry so I thought this idea would be a nice change of pace. Plus it is super simple. All you need is buttons, paper clips, hot glue and some scraps of felt. Click on the photo above for I Heart Nap Time’s tutorial. If you have buttons from someone who loved to read these bookmarks would make the perfect opportunity to share a story about that person’s favorite book. I might just make a few of these for the kids I tutor in reading at the local elementary school. I think they would love them.

Family Trees: a colorful clan – InDesign Template

Posted on January 22, 2015 by tellingfamilytales

version of the colorful clan for Apex (the first puppy we raised for GDB)

A couple of weeks ago I did a post on colorful clan family tree for a 4″ x 12″ panoramic frame. I’ve put together a simple Adobe InDesign template to recreate the one from Parents.com. As I was working on it I realized that I didn’t need to have different colors of paper. With a color printer I could just print my background color.

For a sample I decided to show Apex’s (the first puppy we raised for Guide Dogs for the Blind) family tree. As you can see I don’t have all the birth dates and I don’t have any death date though some of these dogs have certainly passed away. But I though it would work to show what the template is like. Of course when you open the template up in InDesign you will be able to customize anything you would like from the fonts to the background colors.

You can download the Panoramic Clan Template here from Dropbox. When you open it up in Dropbox it will look like crazy gobbledegook. But once you save it to you computer and open it in InDesign it will work fine. I made this template in InDesign CS6. Let me know if you have problems or suggestions. I’m hoping to make more templates this coming year.