DECORATING WITH JEANIE--BUTTONS

Those of you who follow this blog know that Anastasia loves to use buttons in her crafts. Just do a search on the blog, and you’ll find quite a few button projects. However, buttons can have other, more practical, uses and not just for keeping your clothes secured. Here’s one of my favorites:

Not all of us are lucky enough to have several bathrooms in our home. Many of us have to share a bathroom with one, two, or even more family members. Few of us buy different colored towels for each member of the family. We buy colors that coordinate with our bathroom decor, and that’s usually no more than two colors, if not just one. And that means your husband or one of your kids often grabs the wrong towel. Sound familiar?

To cut down on towel confusion, assign each member of the family a color. Sew a button of that color on the corner of each person’s towel, and you’ve solved the problem.

DECORATING WITH JEANIE--BUTTON POTS

Flower pots are not just for flowers and plants. I use them all the time for various craft projects, some for my own column and some for executing many of the ideas thought up by our decorating editor Jeanie Sims. If you don’t know by now, Jeanie is also our “green” editor. She spends much of her off-time hunting around for castaways to repurpose. The other day she came into the office with an armload of old clay pots and a huge bag of buttons, both about to be tossed by a neighbor getting ready to move to a retirement community.

Jeanie’s idea? Use the pots as storage containers.  My idea? Let’s use the buttons to decorate the clay pots. Thus was born Button Pots. This is such an incredibly simple craft that even a young child can do it and wind up with professional looking results.

A word of caution, though, especially if you’re going to have children help with this project: purchase a non-toxic, non-flammable, water-soluble glue. Some glues made for gluing glass, plastic, and metal emit fumes that can cause really nasty side effects. These are the glues that kids sniff to get high. Craft stores carry safer glues. Make sure you buy the safe kind. -- AP

BUTTON POTS
Materials: terra cotta pots in various sizes; clear acrylic sealer; tile cement or glue for plastic/metal/glass; assorted buttons without shanks; felt; marking pen.

1.  Make sure pot is clean (scrub well in soapy water, rinse, allow to dry.)

2.  Coat the inside and outside of the pot with clear acrylic sealer.

3.  Place the dry pot on a scrap of felt. Trace around base of pot to draw circle. Cut out the circle inside traced line so that circle will fit over pot base without sticking out beyond the bottom edge.

4.  Glue felt to bottom of pot.

5.  Glue buttons randomly around pot.

These pots can be used in just about every room of your house because clay pots come in a myriad of sizes. Some suggested uses -- storing magazines cooking utensils, bathroom or kitchen towels, office supplies, or sewing supplies; as gift basket containers; to store cosmetics, manicure supplies, combs and brushes. We  used the sample in the photo as a napkin holder.

How would you use a button pot? Let’s hear from you! Remember, if you post a comment this week, you're entered in the drawing to win a book from our Book Club Friday guest author. -- AP