Quick Gift in 15 Minutes

I've spent every spare minute this weekend checking out everyone's space on Karen Valentine's **My Desert Cottage**: Where Blogger's Create 2011 event.  If you are checking out mine, please click on the link to the right titled Welcome to My Sanctuary.  Karen, I'll be sending you a gushing thank you for pulling that all together!

Almost everyone I visited this weekend had a stash of buttons in every known container out there...jars, crystal dishes, bins, apothecaries, you name it.

Since I work full time and am quite forgetful, I am always looking for quick gift ideas for last minute invites to gatherings, open houses, teacher gifts, get well, etc.  I enjoy something that doesn't take very long to throw toegether and still is creative.

When my mother-in-law moved in to a retirement home, we were cleaning out her house.  I gathered 1 salt shaker (who knows where the pepper is) and a batch of buttons (score)!  Next time I went to my sister-in-law's house for a gathering I brought her a little surprise.  Who needs the pepper shaker?  Plus, since I'm a better crafter than a cook the gift was more appreciated than a hot dish or pie.

Instructions:

Simple, Simple.

A length of floral wire. I chose green.  I threaded the wire into the existing button holes or shank, looped it through to the back, and twisted.  I cut the wire to the right lengths and arranged a group in the existing shaker holes.

I imagine you could use any sort of wire you have around your space.  The floral wire is very thin, so something thicker may yield better results. You could wrap with floral tape or ribbon.  I imagine you'd have a bit of trouble with the resulting stem being too big for the holes, but you could solve that by enlarging the hole with a punch, drill or flex shaft.

I've also seen examples of this where more than one button was stacked together on the same stem that looked fantastic too.  I've also seen the shakers filled with beads, pearls, rice, sand, glitter.  The list is endless.  Have fun!

Please leave a comment if you've already done this project and have come up with a variation or tried something that worked (or failed completely!).  That's the goal of my website... an exchange of ideas and  sharing of experiences.