Countdown to Button Day - One Month To Go!

Just like some other very important event happening this July.....(we can't mention names but we've heard there's something big happening in London!)...... we are excitied to announce that there is exactly a month to go before our Button Day!

Running on Saturday 28th July, Button Day will be a fun filled day celebrating all things buttony!

Throughout the day there will be Button themed "make and takes" - suitable for all ages - whether your 5 or 105 there is always something to love about buttons! From just £3 per person per project, our selection of brand new make and takes will inspire and excite you! Projects include a felt button penny purses, button coasters and button heart hangers!

You can spend some well deserved "me-time" at the Button Jewellery Work Station or enter our Button Card Making competition. (We have extended the closing time until 3pm on the day!)

There will also be a chance to add to our giant Button Mural and there may even be some buttony refreshments on offer as well! 

 So come and join in the fun - in store, at The Button Company and The Eternal Maker's home - 41 Terminus Road, Chichester PO19 8TX (01243 775462) any time between 10am and 5pm on Saturday 28th July 2012

(This is not, by the way, what we mean by buttony refreshments!)

We're All Winners!

Well, well, well, we hope you all enjoyed the Jubilee celebrations and particularly your long weekend! We hope the weather didn't dampen your spirirts too much and that you all had time to enjoy the spectacle.
In a bid to continue the community spirit and friendships we saw highlighted over the weekend we would like to reward our own online community and with this in mind we are happy to say all entrants to our Jubilee Competition will be sent a prize! Well done to you all! We really enjoyed reading your entries and could (a little bit worringly maybe) identify with all of your suggestions! (Does everyone imagine what buttons they might be - or is it just us?!?) Anyhow if "sorbetsurprise", "flyingblind....", "Gill" and "Claire" want to drop me an email at info@buttoncompany.co.uk wth their contact details, we will get their well deserved parcels in the post!

Competition Time!

Oh, and while we're looking forward to this long weekend there is just time for us to continue the bank holiday frivolities by setting you guys a competition on honour of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.

 

We at Button Company are marking the occasion with an exclusive “Diamonds Are Forever” theme bag mix.

Made exclusively for Button Club Members and competition winners only this really is a once in a lifetime button selection.

All sparkly and shiny, with a Union Flag button thrown in for good measure, this is a very special mix - fit for a Queen shall we say! 

All you need to do to be in with a chance of winning a bag of this regal mix is visit our website www.buttoncompany.co.uk have a look at our mixed button bags, then get in touch and tell us if you were a button theme bag which colour would you be and why?

Open to both Eternal Maker and Button Company customers you can enter via facebook, via the blog and/or via twitter (one entry per method per person please - so you could have three attempts if you like)


For example our button dyer Fiona choose Spring Festival "because I love Spring, it's cheerful and it reflects my multi-faceted personality"


Anna meanwhile thinks she would like to be "Alchemy" because she "would like, at least for just one day, to turn everything I touch into gold!"

So get your thinking caps on and quickly because we will be announcing the winners on Wednesday!

The Queen's Brilliant Button Banner!

I always imagined that the Queen would have good taste - and guess what? It has now been proven as fact - the Queen is a button lover extraordinaire just like little old me and all you guys out there! I just have to show you these images.......

On a recent trip to London – I was stopped in my tracks outside a posh florists by this amazing work of art. 

 It is BIG - taller than me and the image is made up entirely of pearly buttons!

Now, after plucking up enough courage to open the (very posh and amazingly clean) door ......(and act as though I wander into  top-end florists,  all the time and order bunches and bunches of floral wonderments, with no thought to the cost)......I went in..... To cut a long story short I babbled on about loving buttons and working with buttons and the propertier told me very kindly, without even raising his head from the immaculate display of peonies he was creating, that I may take picture.  He also kindly imformed me that I could purchase the said work of art for £14,000 – I think at this point my cover may have been blown by my light spluttering hastily disguised as a sneeze (all the pollen of course). 

Anyway it turns out to be a panel created by Ann Carrington who is also creating a button encrusted banner for the back of the boat that will carry The Queen in her Thames flotilla. I’ve attached some pictures for you to look in wonder at what half a million buttons actually looks like sewn on a panel so large that it has to be lifted by forklift.

So on Sunday, while you're sipping your Pimms and munching on Coronation Chicken sarnies - pop the telly on and see if you can spy The Queen's "Brilliant Button Banner"! 

The Monday Project - Tortoise New Home Card

Has anyone seen Augustus? He's pretty suave I think, and I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one. So when Rachael asked me to make a card inspired by Augustus, it all came together fairly naturally. So without further ado may I introduce little August - and his arrival is just in time for the first Monday Project in August (see what I did there?)

you will need:

Tortoise templates

Natural/ Kraft card blank, about 6" x 4"

Lighter green card scraps (approx 4" x 6")

Darker green card scraps (approx 3" x 4")

Mixed olive green small buttons (1cm and smaller)

Fine black pen (or a good biro, I'm not fussy)

double-sided tape, glue, and a few small sticky fixers.

Rubber stamps for a greeting

Here's How To:

Make sure your card blank is folded in half. Then put it to one side, and trace and then cut out your templates.

Stick your tortoise body onto the card blank, keeping it low. Draw around the tortoise body with your black pen, and draw on a face. You can see where I've done this in a few steps time - to be honest I forgot and stuck on the shell before doing this, and had to be careful not to get pen on the shell. Do as I say, not as I do, I guess.

Score the fold line on your tortoise shell, and fold firmly. Stick a length of double sided tape on the shorter part of the shell, and stick onto your body, placing it in the obvious position. Press down firmly - and you should have created a flap.

Next, using your glue (and we use Gutermann HT2, my fave of all glues - seriously, I should get shares in the stuff I harp on about it so much), randomly glue buttons all over the shell. Be careful not to glue any directly over the fold line, because (sorry if I'm being too obvious here) you won't be able to fold it.

Get a scrap of green card (doesn't matter which colour) and write on your greeting. It needs to fit into the top right hand corner, so bear this in mind when composing your text. Decorate around the edge with your black pen - faux stitch lines are always a winner with me.

Stick on some sticky fixers - I like the greeting to be a little raised always - don't ask me why, but I always do. Stick on to your card and you're done.

Under the flap is left for any secret messages you may have, because a tortoise always keeps it's secrets under it's shell. Everyone knows that.

The Monday Project - Button Cake Flags

Here at the buttoncompany, we like to name our cakes. That's because if you don't name it, chances are you won't get to eat it either, someone else will have gotten to it before you. We like our cakes. So here are some heart button flags to ensure that you can have your cake and eat it every single time.

You will need:

Wooden Coffee Stirrers

Plain cardstock

Heart buttons, bigger than 1cm

Glue (we used Gutermann HT2, a brilliant textile glue)

Alphabet stamps and ink or (pretty handwriting and pen!)

Scissors

Cakes!

Here's How To:

Cut your coffee stirrers in half - each half will make one flag.

Cut your plain cardstock into strips about 1cm wide by 6cm long, and then from one end cut out a triangle shape.

Stamp your names onto the card flags, towards the right hand side. I always like to start from the last letter and work backwards, to make sure my spacing is okay. This is easy if you have a palindromic name like mine (anna) but requires more thinking if you are called something long with lots of letters, like, hmmm.. Madeleine?

Anastasia? Be prepared for a do-over if necessary.

Next, with your scissors, round the left hand edge of the flag. Leave a little bit of space between the edge and the name, but feel free to trim a little shorter than the original 6cm. This rounded edge will help hide the card under the button.

Next, with your glue, glue the cut end of the stick (you don't want splinters in your cake) to your back button, then the flag to the stick, and then your front button onto the flag.

Make multiples, all with your own name, and stick them in all the cakes you can find. Or, use them in birthday parties or hen do's or any occasion where you want to eat cake. Yum.

a x