Button Trees

Again with the Pinterest inspiration!

I saw so many cute versions of button trees online, and some on Pinterest, but they all required just a little more artistic talent than I felt like I have. They were a little wispy and needed at least a bit of believability (that's a word, right?) in the realism of the branches. But inspiration comes from strange places - this time from a Crate and Barrel dishtowel I own. Weird.

It occured to me to do a sort of stylized tree, more than a realistic one. THAT, I could handle. I had a big box of buttons from my grandmother's sewing box that obviously I would never use for their intended purpose. I had access to Hobby Lobby. I had the inclination. I had my dishtowel.

With a 2 pack of canvases, a brush, an acrylic paint set, some satin archival finishing spray, and my trusty buttons, and I was ready!

Since these would be in my bedroom, I wanted a soothing sort of vibe, so I painted the background the same color as my bedroom walls. Really. It was from the same can. It's Benjamin Moore Aganthus Green, if you're interested. Then, using my dishtowel as a guide (I daren't post a shot of it because of an unfortunate ugly hole I have already burned into it.) I painted my tree trunk. When it dried, I gave it a couple of coats of my archival spray, more to get the sheen I wanted than to protect it.

After that dried, made cut a large circle in a sheet of paper and laid the holey part (not the circle cut out) onto my canvas as sort of a button placing guide/stencil. I filled up the hole in the paper, using the buttons I thought looked the best. After taking the paper off, I started gluing down my buttons. I HAD intended to sew the buttons on, but after seeing how darn many I used, that was not happening. I used S2000 adhesive. I had to open the windows. Heady stuff!

For the rectangle one, I cut out another guide/stencil but followed the same steps.

I'm really happy with how they turned out! Using my grandmother's buttons was nice, and more emotional than I anticipated. Thinking about how she was the last person to touch them, having to pull out the threads and tiny pieces of fabric still sewn to them, thinking about how people of her generation used everything they were given - I'm glad I was busy laying out buttons and halfway knackered from the S2000 fumes or I'd have been a blubbering mess!




What do you think? Be nice! I'm fairly fragile.