The little things that make me happy here on Bliss Road~~Emily Keaton

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Button, Button

Happy Spring!! Finally, the first day of spring is here. I am soooooooooooooooooooo ready for it. We actually hit 70F on Friday and were enjoying some fabulous spring weather, but it has cooled off since then. But that's OK. I know there's more where that came from!

This week's Tuesday Trigger in the Moxie Fab World features vintage buttons cards. Lots of stamp companies (including Stampin' Up! and Papertrey Ink) have been bringing very cool vintage button card stamp sets to market recently. They are oh, so tempting but not in my budget. When I inherited my gramma's sewing basket over a decade ago, her collection of buttons came with it. Not only was there a treasure trove of vintage buttons, there was a nice selection of button cards as well. I do love my buttons, so I was thrilled to receive these! And they immediately jumped to mind when I saw the Tuesday Trigger photo inspiration:
I fished around in my button collection to see if I could find an actual vintage button card to use in my TT project. I found several that were promising. Not wanting to immediately use up this precious vintage resource, I decided to try scanning one (then printing it out on Neenah natural white card stock and cutting it out) and had fabulous results. Here's the card I came up with:
I sewed on an assortment of "fashionable" vintage buttons in neutral colors from my stash and mimicked the ribbon treatment seen in the inspiration photo. (BTW, you know those sometimes annoying ribbon loops sewn into the shoulder seams of tops and blouses? A new shirt of mine had those--and the first time I wore it, the loops kept sliding out of the armholes for all the world to see. Annoying! While folding laundry yesterday, I decided to make them annoying no more and clipped them out. Fixed! And as I did so, I realized that the ribbons were the perfect color for the scheme I had planned for this card. And that's where my ribbons came from! I love repurposing.)

Do you like the look of vintage button cards but have no source of your own? I'm happy to share the one I used on this card. First, click on the image below (to see it full size) and then right click on that image to save a copy to your computer's hard drive. Feel free to resize as needed and print out for your own projects!

I wrapped a few other challenges into this card, including
OK, now that you've made it through the description of one of my projects for this weekend (another post will be coming your way soon with the other one I tackled), here's a little family update. Today our second-grade son celebrated his First Communion at church. He was so excited and did a wonderful job. We're so proud of him! And our sixth-grade daughter wrapped up a big project for science. They have been studying a unit called "Building Big," all about the science and engineering of constructing buildings. Their project was to use the building principles they'd learned to design their own building and then make a model of the building framework. With guidance from dad (which was allowed as long as it was in the form of teaching and side-by-side working), she built this awesome model. My dear hubby did a fantastic job of teaching her how a real house is built--that the walls are built in sections on the floor/ground and then stood up in place as you go. He helped her figure out what size to make the wall sections, etc., and then she built all the walls. He taught her how windows are braced, how loads are carried, about floor joists, roof rafters, laminated beams, and more, plus how all of these things could be translated into the miniature. And then she went to town and built the pieces she needed. Today, the two of them worked together to assemble all the parts into this beautiful DD-designed house. It's been a wonderful experience for both of them; a valuable learn-by-doing experience for our daughter and memorable teaching opportunity for my husband, one that neither of them will soon forget. :)

All right, let's wrap up this long post now. Thanks for stopping by to check out my little slice of bliss for today! Have a great week this week--and I hope to see you back again soon. :)

PS Oh, one last thing!! (Sorry!!) I just realized that this is my 199th blog post. I can't believe it! Anyway, I've decided that with my next blog post (yup, that will be #200!), I'll be offering some blog candy to celebrate this milestone. Be sure to come back to check it out!!

Card Recipe:
Stamps: Unity Little Me and {ippity} Just Wanted to Say
Paper: SU not quite navy CS, MFP kraft CS, Neenah natural white CS, The Girls' Paperie On Holiday DP

Ink: Palette burnt umber, Ranger tea dye distress ink
Accessories: SU small oval punch, foam tape,sponge dauber,salvaged satin ribbon, needle and thread, vintage buttons from my stash, sewing machine, mulberry paper flowers, hemp twine, scissors
Techniques: hand stitching, machine stitching, ink distressing

20 comments:

Jean Martin said...

Emily this is STUNNING!!! You totally rocked this sketch! This is my fave so far!!! So glad you could play with us at WMSC! :)

Marisa said...

Great take on the insp. piece! Love your brilliant little brain for thinking of scanning the button holder too :) You smart girl you! Darling card.

A HUGE congrats to your daughter on her frame!! That is one amazing house. Congrats to hubby for his fabulous lessons too. Trusting you took some great pictures of them working on it together - what a precious memory!!

Julia Aston said...

Love your button/banner card Emily and thanks SO MUCH for the photo of the card!! I probably have some of these in my mother's and MIL's boxes of buttons -must go check! What a wonderful weekend for your kids too - great news for both!

thanks for playing with the WMS sketch this week GF!!

Erin (Homemade Cards by Erin) said...

well done on all of those challenges in one card!

Rachel B said...

I love how you used the Tuesday Trigger to make this card to use some of your fabulous buttons! Thanks for playing along with Clear It Out. And for your Daughter's house, what a great father/daughter experience and she did such a fabulous job! The house looks awesome!

Teresa Zuehls said...

Love your take on all of the challenges and really like the blue color.

Jessi Fogan said...

What an amazing project your daughter's made - she must be just about bursting!!
Congratulations to your son on his First Communion as well :)
And, how I ended up here - I love your card! The vintage button card is lovely (thank you for sharing!!) and I love the buttons you chose to go with it. Fabulous how you got the ribbons, by the way - I did the same thing recently, and of course, you have to keep those things...they might come in handy!

Lynn Mercurio said...

Your banner card is just so adorable. Good for you to find a way to re-cycle those pesky shirt hanger things that clothing manufacturers THINK we need...LOL

I'm happy you chose to play along with the Waltzingmouse Stamps Sketch Challenge this week.

Pam said...

Your card is fabulous!! I have a hard time using the original button, snap, etc. cards. What a great idea to scan them! Thanks for sharing yours!!
Pam

~amy~ said...

Your card is gorgeous! Such a fab mix of challenges!

Benzi said...

Emily, I absolutely love your vintage button card and those wonderful buttons. What a fab card you created.

And, what a super project your hubby and daughter did..I think you have a 'builder' growing up in the family.

Unknown said...

wow, these are amazing!!!
love them all
Thanks for playing with Clear It Out

Lisa said...

Wow, gorgeous! Thanks for joining us at Papertake Weekly :)

Linda Beeson said...

What a cute card, that button card is perfect. WOW on the little house the lessons to go with it.

Paper Crafts & Scrapbooking Editor said...

Hey Emily! What a sweet approach to this week's Tuesday Trigger in the Moxie Fab World! Thanks so much for playing along! :)

chickadee3357 said...

Your button card makes me think of PTI stamps that they just put out. Super cute card!

Bonnie said...

Emily, I love the neutrals with this shade of blue and the blue thread through the buttons, and the repurposed ribbon and the layout! Congrats on your son's first communion. I know you are proud of him and your daughter looks like she's on her way to becoming an architect!

Clare said...

gorgeous card, love the buttons! thanks for joining us this week at the WMSC!

Joanne (jojot) said...

I just love your vintage button care....fabulous choices all around...and how clever to scan and old button card.....AND how sweet of you to share...I saved the pic and hope to play with it someday.

Heather Rogers said...

This is beautiful! Love the vintage button card. :)
Thanks for playing with us at Bring Beautiful Back.