Bunches of Bling Buttons by Christine Lehto

I love buttons as much as I love glitter, so why not combine the two for a “cute-as- a-button sparkly” project? Store bought buttons are great, but to add to my collection, I opted to make some of my own buttons using polymer clay. And of course I decided to embellish my buttons with some wonderful Art Glitter colors. I also decided to add a glittery surface to a couple of store bought buttons to show that you can transform an ugly store bought button into something pretty. One example of a rather “blah” looking button was this gold and cream colored button. It came in a bagged assortment of buttons and I honestly thought I’d never use this particular button for embellishing any of my projects. Instead of embellishing with this button, I embellished the button itself. After I added some glitter, I altered the gold color on the button with some alcohol ink. I like how the button turned out after some glitter and alcohol ink alterations. It didn’t take a lot of effort to get some pleasing results. I used the Designer Dries Clear Adhesive, #519 Reed and #58 Brown on the store bought “blah” button. How do you think it looks?


I used the same type of materials for my polymer clay buttons. First, I added the glitter with the Dries Clear Adhesive. Then I applied some glossy accents over the glitter. Next I decided to see how the alcohol inks would look over the glossy covered glitter. On one button I had used #84 Shiney Si Ultrafine Opaque glitter covered with glossy accents and used a mix of blue and butterscotch colored alcohol ink as a last layer. This created a new and interesting color effect over the glitter. The button is shown in the following photo.


And of course I could not forget to add some of my favorite colored glitter to a few of my buttons. What color is that? It’s the #D1 Dazzlers Crazy Corn color. As I mentioned in a previous article, it’s hard not to add it to all my pieces because I love how sparkly it is and how there’s a variation of large pieces of glitter along with smaller pieces. Again, I used the Designer Dries Clear Adhesive for adding glitter to the polymer clay buttons. And I covered the Dazzlers Crazy Corn with the glossy accents to highlight the super sparkliness of this gorgeous glitter color. Look at it sparkle in the next couple of photos!


Can you count how many buttons I used Crazy Corn on?


After decorating the buttons, I made some of them into rings and some as pendants.


Supplies used for my buttons: #84 Shiney Si Ultrafine Opaque, #58 Brown Ultrafine Opaque, #D1 Dazzlers Crazy Corn, #519 Reed Microfine Opaque, #65 Old Gold Ultrafine Opaque, #184 T-Bird Ultrafine Pearlescent, Designer Dries Clear Adhesive, Ultrafine Metal Tip, Glossy Accents, alcohol inks, antique gel medium, thread, jewelry findings-ring bases & bails.