Button Initials

We’re having a birthday party for our twins on Saturday. I’m hoping it may be more of an outdoor BBQ type affair but the weather this week has been decidedly wintry so I’m also clearing a space inside the house.

Both Ned and Anaïs are having their own cake. Ned wants a dog on top of his cake and Nye has asked for Strawberries. So I’ll make them both a wee layer cake and decorate them but I also wanted something that denotes the fact that Ned and Anaïs are twins, yes, but they are also very different people and have already expressed an interest in different things.

This is a very simple but pretty and fun project that you can do with children as soon as you think they are old enough. Mine, as you know, have just turned three but you may want to do this sooner or a little later.

I picked these card initials up at Hobbycraft and painted them in some emulsion I had left over in tester pots.

Then I let the kids get to work on sticking some buttons all over them. The bag of mixed buttons cost me about £1 (again from Hobbycraft) and the glue and over-sized brush are from there also. They’ve never used glue before to this was a fine way to start. I showed them how to do the first button and they took over and did the rest. I was extremely restrained and didn’t even offer an opinion on where I thought they should place the buttons.

The glue dries almost clear so it didn’t really matter that it dripped down the letters. You can still see it of course but this is a craft for little ones and I think I love it all the more for the glue splodges.

Working with the large buttons and the tiny wee ones is also really good for their fine motor skills.

I’m thinking of using up the rest of the buttons by showing them how to thread on to cotton next. I’ll make crafters out of them yet!!

All I have to do is paint the bottom of this one and we’re all set. I’ll pop an initial by each of their cakes and afterwards we’ll hang them up in their bedrooms as the initials come with hanging hooks.

These really simple and (lets face it) inexpensive little projects are fantastic and I feel that I’ve come of age myself in a way now that I’m crafting with my kids. Who knows how long it’ll last so I’m making the most of it. Sorry to those who don’t have children but to those who do I’ll post our projects on here and perhaps you’ll try some of them with your Smalls. If you do then feel free to pop a picture on to my Facebook page and let me know how you get on.

Right, I’m off to start modelling a dog out of sugar paste!!

i love you and thank you for reading

Cherry x

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