Of Buttons and Velvet

Button Fairy , originally uploaded by ivoryblushroses.

Button Fairies caught my eye a while back. Maybe because I have loved buttons ever since I was a girl rooting around with my cousin in my Grandmother's button tin. Maybe because I now have several large tins of buttons that I can't bear to get rid of. There are buttons in all colors but I love the white and pearly ones best. What fun to pick through and find the right assortment of buttons for this fairy and how nice to be able to use a couple buttons on her that for various reasons are no longer suitable for using on clothing.

The hardest part of making this was coming up with a face and wings for it. Then as I was perusing through some clip art, I came across this lovely little maid ~ and as I've been reading Jane Austen once again, I thought it perfect. A little more searching and I realized that the this bit of rose clip art would make lovely sweet wings. A little colored pencil and some lightly tinted glitter and my first button fairy was born! I attached a magnet to the back and now she hangs from the drafting light over my work table to cheer me on!

Once upon a time, my buttons were all sorted by color into color coordinated tins. As part of my downsizing efforts I combined some of the colors. I love this mix of green, blue and purple buttons. Today while out running errands, I stopped at the fabric store to get cotton belting to make some canvas shopping bags. I discovered that they had my favorite velvets on sale. For $2.50 a yard!!! Needless to say, I failed abysmally at my vow to downsize my fabric stash. I ended up buying this beautiful assortment of velvet in these luscious tones from my button box ~ for less than the cotton belting cost! There are projects galore dancing in my head at the moment! I can't wait to get started!

Oh ~ and I also got some delicious brown, pinky beige and lucious garnet velvet too!