Crafters’ Blog Hop! Get Inspired –

Today is the kick off of the Crafters’ Blog Hop. Hop along to all the blogs listed at the end of the post for great ideas for quilters, knitters, crocheters, beaders, embroidery lovers and of course seamstresses. Plus make a comment at the end of this post to win a lovely craft book gift pack. More on that in a bit!

In case you were unaware, March is National Craft Month. We unfortunately don’t get the entire month off to sew (don’t worry, I’m lobbying Congress to get that fixed) but Craft Month has forced me to think more about the crafty side of sewing.

I am primarily a garment sewer, but I love taking a break from sewing clothes to make cute, easy projects for myself. Here are a few beads and things I’ve saved and collected over the years.

One of my secret hobbies is beading and making fun jewelery. Like any good fabric hoarder, I do indeed covet a number of different beads and baubles in my sewing room too.

And, this is a project I am working on for a bracelet. Aren’t these fun!

As part of my indoctrination in to all things sewing my grandma would take me to button shows and button shops when I was a kid. I still go to local button shows and pick up unique, generally inexpensive buttons to use in projects.  I picked up some black and orange buttons with metal keys in them. They weren’t expensive, perfect for making a bracelet. And, here is a tutorial on how to make one yourself.

Button Bracelet Tutorial

Use your extra, mismatched or specialty buttons to make a one-of-a-kind button bracelet.

Materials Needed

1. Chain link bracelet with or without clasp
2. Assorted buttons with shank attached
3. Jump rings in matching color to chain link bracelet
4. Jewelry pliers

Display the chosen buttons on a table and experiment with layout and color combinations. For a really dense bracelet plan on placing one button on per link. For a less dense bracelet place buttons every three or more links alternating sides of chain.

Take the chain link and measure where you will need it to fit comfortably on your wrist. Mark with a bit of scotch tape.

T0 shorten the length on the bracelet simply remove the necessary links from the chain.

Once the layout has been determined take one jump ring and using the pliers gently, with a slight twisting  motion spread the ring open.

Thread it through the shank of the first button. Next, thread the opened jump ring with the button on it through the chain link and pinch the jump ring closed with the pliers.

Jump ring attached to bracelet chain.

Alternate sides when attaching the buttons. Do this until all the buttons you have chosen are on the chain link. If you don’t like they way it’s looking you can easily remove the jump ring and re-attach.

Here is the back side of an bracelet I made earlier. This one is quite dense with a button on every ring.

When all the buttons are on the chain link, wrap the bracelet across your wrist to make sure the buttons and placement are to your liking. Check to make sure it’s comfortable and if it’s the appropriate length.  If not make adjustments now. To secure with a clasp follow the same procedure as attaching the jump rings.

The chain links come in a variety of finishes such as black, copper toned, patina, silver and ‘antique’.

Once you make one bracelet you’ll never look at lost and mismatched buttons in the same way. This bracelet could easily be made into a necklace.

If you are a quilter then making quilted crafts is a great way to blow through your stash. And, making crafty stuff takes no time at all. Plus, for intermediate quilters these projects will be a snap. For those new to quilting techniques these small quilted crafts are a great way to easy into larger more complicated projects.

I love bags of all shapes and sizes. This project is a great stash buster for any type of sewer. The Scrap Happy Tote from Amanda Jean Nyberg is the perfect bag for crafters, sewers, knitters or quilters. You can get the pattern for this today and be done in a weekend!

What crafty project I’m working on now is making a business card holder out of this lovely spring inspired fabric designed by Ann Lauer for Benartex from Timeless Treasures Fabric.

I’ll be posting a tutorial on the Sew Daily blog on how to make your own business card holder. Look for it on Thursday March 17! And in the mean time please check out everyone out on the tour!

Here’s all the tour stops! Be sure to check them out, many have giveaways!

Monday March 7,  – Sew News
Thursday, March 10 – Beading Daily
Monday, March 14  – Fons & Porter
Tuesday March 15 – Quiltmaker
Thursday March 17 – Sew Daily
Monday, March. 21 – Crochet Me
Wednesday  March,23 – Knitting Daily
Thursday March 24, – Martha Pullen
Tuesday, March 29 –  Creative Machine Embroidery
Wednesday March 30 – Keepsake Quilting
Thursday, March 31 – McCalls Quilting

The winner from this blog post has been announced. Thank you for commenting!

Tell me what crafty things you like to sew. Do you like making crafts that don’t take a lot of time. Do you like to knit, bead or crochet? Maybe you like to do them all?

Let me know in the comments section below! One winner will be picked and announced on the Sew Daily blog.

 {Images Supplied by Graphic Stock}