Button Bracelet Project!

For some reason lately I've been on a huge bracelet-making kick. It all started with the $2 box of beads that I bought at an unclaimed freight store. One night while I was up in the craft room (or as Shad calls it, "The Store") I noticed that I had a huge jar of buttons that I really hadn't been using very much. I played around with some buttons and Stretch Magic and the Button Bracelet project was born.

The first step is to gather and then carefully arrange (or if you craft like I do, dump out all over the table) your buttons to get an idea of possible color palates. I tend to be rather monochromatic and use medium-to-large buttons, but anything you choose should work fine. I would, however, recommend that you choose the buttons that have either two or four holes that go completely through the button rather than the "hidden" attachment buttons.

I usually pick out more buttons than I think I will need just so I'm not going back into my buttons toward the end of the project. The Stretch Magic that I used for this project was .5 but I have used the 1.0 as well. The .5 is a little easier to work with and does not show up as much, but I found it to be a little harder to safely secure at the end of the project. The 1.0 tends to distort the shape of the bracelet when it's not being worn, but it's not a problem once you get the bracelet on. I think the diameter of the Stretch Magic used is solely a personal preference thing.

It's important to remember to run the Stretch Magic starting at the back of the button so that the more decorative button elements are facing out with the least amount of Stretch Magic visible. If you use a four-hole button, it seems to work best if you use the holes that are diagonal to each other rather than using the side-by-side holes. Make sense? I like to use extra buttons for my bracelet so there is an overlap to create some additional visual interest.

After all of the buttons are threaded, secure the Stretch Magic with whatever series of knots works best for you (I won't even try to describe my knotting techniques, but suffice to say that it's more complicated than the Gorgon knot....) The bracelet should be snug, but not cut-the-circulation-off tight on your wrist.

Take a few seconds and make sure that all of your buttons are facing the right way and you're good to go. This entire project (including chasing down the errant buttons after I dumped them out on the table!) took less than 15 minutes and the results are.....interesting....if nothing else.