This little fella would be very happily hang in a little one’s bedroom. He’s super easy to make with the help of some air dry clay and a handful of coloured buttons. Hop over to Hobbycraft to see our blog post on how to make him. Complete with template and video tutorial!
Tia & laura x
![pinwheel hairclip tutorial a]](https://thelittlebuttondiaries.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/pinwheel-hairclip-tutorial-14.jpg)
There’s a big pinwheel obsession going on in our household right now. Whilst playing around making paper wheels in the garden, I realised it would be just as easy to make a felt version that would make an awesome hairclip (/brooch/hairband/hatpin/keyring..?). This is a great one if you only have a short space of time and requires very little equipment. I didn’t have a hairclip base so I ripped an ugly one apart. Very satisfying!
You will need:
2 pieces of felt
PVA glue
Superglue
Rotary cutter (or scissors)
A coordinating button
Needle and thread
1) Begin by measuring out and cutting two 3 inch pieces of felt.
2) Take one piece and glue one side thoroughly. Attach the two pieces together.
3) with the rotary cutter, slice the rough edges away so that each piece is lined up neatly. You could also mark a line with a ruler and use scissors, but the cutter will give a better finish.
4) now snip each corner 1 inch toward the middle of the square.
5) take one corner, fold into the centre and sew in place with a couple of stitches. Repeat the process with the other 3 corners.
6) Attach a button to the centre, then glue the clip in place on the back.
and you’re finished. A wheely gweat (oh dear me, sorry!) hair accessory.
Tia x
January is renowed for diets, detox and exercise galore. We salute those motivated enough to avoid sweet treats completely, and we’re giving a nod (albeit a faint one) to healthy eating by giving up chocolate for a month. But we still need a little something to dunk in our tea, hence these lemon button biscuits. They were also the perfect opportunity to try out our new Christmas baking gifts.
We’ve adapted our recipe from one in The Great British Bake Off Learn to Bake book for ‘lemon forkies’.
Ingredients (makes approximately 24 biscuits):
250g unsalted butter
65g icing sugar
1 lemon rind
225g plain flour
75g corn flour
Preheat your oven to 180c and mix your butter with the sugar and grated lemon rind until the mixture is creamed – it should be nice and smooth.
Add the flour and corn flour. Mix into a smooth dough with a wooden spoon. Roll out the dough and cut out the biscuits. To create the button shape we used Tala pastry cutters (thanks George!) and used a skewer to make the four holes. To create the stamped biscuit below we used this set (thanks Nick’s mum!).
Bake at 180c for 15 minutes (or until golden brown). Let the biscuits cool on a rack. Then eat. All in one go!
Laura & Tia xx
We saw this really lovely craft tutorial on Country Baskets for a simple button tree decoration, so we thought it would make a perfect festive Nap Time Craft.
For this project you will need:
Begin by cutting your wire. You need to cut it to double the length of your finished tree. You also need a bit extra to tie the decoration at the bottom, and a loop to hang it at the top.
Next, thread your buttons. Start with the yellow button – the star of your tree – and then the smallest green one. Keep going until you have your biggest green button on the strand and finally add your red buttons, which form the tree bucket, on the end.
Thread the wire back through the other hole on your button to make the decoration secure.
Twist the wire at the bottom of the tree to secure the buttons and cut off any excess wire. We then threaded the end of the wire back upon itself so there were no sharp edges exposed. Make sure you leave a small loop at the top so you can hang the decoration.
Finally, thread a length of bakers twine through the top of the decoration and hang it on your tree.
~ Tia & Laura xx ~
Today’s Nap Time Craft is so quick, it can be done while the kettle is on.
For this craft you will need:
Cut the magnetic sheet to fit the back of the button. You need to use buttons that have a flat back and not the shanked variety.
Peel off the back of the magnetic sheet, and stick it onto the back of the button.
Finally stick your new magnet onto the fridge… and you’re done before the kettle boils.
These magnetic strips stick to most flat surfaces so the magnet possibilties are endless. I especially like the mustard tin magnet as it doubles as a pen pot.
Being a lover of instant film I wanted to create a magnetic Polaroid frame. For this I used the magnetic sheet and stuck a small sheet of photo paper onto it on the adhesive side. Using a craft knife I cut the magnet to the dimensions of a polaroid below.
~ Laura xx~
Little Button Diaries 
