Button Letters

     So, I wasn't sure where to start in showing you some of the things that I've made..so I may as well just randomly pick something. When I started mat leave last October 2010 when my daughter Mya was born, I realized that I not only did I want to create a cute little nursery for her, but I also wanted to make sure that I didn't break the bank (since really it's not all that fun having your paycheck cut in half being on EI). So here is one of the things that I made for her room. If I had known back then that I'd have a blog one day I would have taken pics of each step of the process...but for now I guess a pic of the final product is better than nothing! 

     

     This is as simple as it gets. This little M for Mya cost me literally under $3 to make.

          Here's how I made it: 

1) buy a nice frame from Dollarama (I liked the silver one since it brought a bit of sparkle to the room-it cost me a whole $2)

2) pick any 2 pieces of scrapbooking paper that match the decor of your room (this was left over paper that I had in my pile of scrapbooking stuff...I picked pink and green since these are colours that are also throughout her room). Be sure to pick a solid colour for the background (green) and a pattern piece for the details (the pink part). Your letter won't stand out as much if it's on a patterned background.

3) buy coloured buttons (they're hard to find in different shades and sizes of the same colour..but I found mine at a shady little dollar store close to my house randomly one day and pretty much bought out the store) -for a whole package of purple buttons it was only $1 (and I didn't even use a quarter of the package for this!) 

4) cut your patterned paper to fit the frame, then cut your solid colour to fit inside the patterned paper and glue it down (I just used a glue stick) -you want just a bit of the patterned paper showing on the edges of the solid colour 

5) now get to your computer and choose any font that you like and start playing around with the letter that you're making. Knowing that I was making the letter M, and knowing that I wanted it to be kind of scrolly (don't think that's a word, but you know what I mean)... I went through a ton of different fonts until I found one that I liked. You then just have to play with the sizing..I printed out a bunch of different sizes of M's and held it up to the frame to see if it would fit. Once you find the font and size of letter that you'd like to use, make sure you use your colour printer and print the letter out in the colour of buttons that you're using. In my case I printed it out in a dark purple. 

6) carefully cut out the letter and glue it onto your solid colour of paper and start adding the buttons. I again just used a gluestick to keep the buttons glued down...which surprisingly worked! And once your buttons are all in place, put the frame together and voila! Instant personalized art--so cheap, so easy!

p.s. if you want to add the extra paper detail like I did, once your buttons are glued down just cut out 4 thin strips of your patterned paper and glue them horizontally and vertically across eachother to give it some depth on the sides of your frame. Also, I've seen other versions of this online where you could use fun fabrics instead of paper...so it's up to you!