Pinterest Loves Button Trees (and so do I)

Hey everybody,

my first button tree

Hope you all had a great week. So, one of the very first crafts I pinned when I signed up for Pinterest was this super adorable little painting of a tree with buttons for the leafs. The more I perused Pinterest, the more versions of the button tree I found. I wanted to make one so badly so I called my friend Beka up and asked her if she wanted to have a Pinterest party and make a version of this. Of course she said yes, I mean come on, so cute. I ran out to the store to get our supplies and headed over to B's house. My first button tree turned out pretty fabulous, B's.... not so much haha. But I won't get in to that. She ended up fixing it a few days later and hers too turned out to be fabulous as well.

The thing I like about these trees is that they all turn out a little bit different depending on the artist. I don't know why. It's something with the way each crafter makes the swirls for the leaves, kind of like a signature if that makes sense. They're ridiculously easy to make and look great. I made my original to match my living room, made one for my mother-in-laws new kitchen and a third one for my 2-year-old niece L. I'm going to show you how I made L's because, IMO, it turned out the best.

what i used

Here we go, so first off you will need a canvas of any size. It really is your preference. Next, select a base color that will match the room you will be hanging your button tree in. For my first two trees I used 1 solid color. For L's, I decided to get a little crazy and make the background striped in 4 different colors that match her bedroom. You'll then need to get you a black paint pen with a thick point. A bottle of clear glue and some buttons of different sizes. You can get ALL of this stuff at Wal-mart! The canvas, the glue, the paint and GET THIS!! Wal-mart sells bags of buttons like you see in the picture in a pretty big assortment of colors. They also have smaller packs in an even bigger selection of colors. And the prices are about $2 to $4 dollars cheaper than at Michael's, which only sells the big bags of buttons.

tape off canvas

this is what it looks like once it dries

Ok, so for L's button tree I used pink, red, green and blue paint. I took medical tape and taped off the canvas the way I wanted it. As in the tape you'd use to tape up a broken finger. It's a smaller stripe and that's what I wanted to break up the four colors. Breaking the stripes up with a smaller white stripe also made it so I didn't have to wait for any of the paint to dry before re-taping the canvas off to paint a different color stripe. Ya still with me??



sketch your tree with pencil first

 Next I put the painting aside for about 20-30 minutes to dry completely. Once it was dry I took a pencil and drew my tree. What I like to do it draw the trunk of the tree first and then I add the branches. I draw it out very thin and then trace it with a black paint pen. I then go over it with a thin brush and black paint to make the branches and trunk thicker. (please excuse the sideways pictures!! Blogger is being a jerk right now and is uploading some of them the wrong way. I've been trying to fix it for an hour but it's a glitch. UGH!)



trace the pencil with black paint pen



once it's traced with paint pen I fill it in with black paint and brush



this is what it looks like when dry










glue buttons on

 Once the tree is dry you just take all you're different sized buttons and glue them on wherever you want! That's the fun part! *TIP* Make sure you let the painting dry over night laying flat. Otherwise the buttons will slide down and leave a big glue skid mark and your button will be in some weird place.   






finished product (sorry blogger is sucking and uploaded it sideways)

 So, is this project worth the cash? ummmm, Duh. I've made like 3 so of course that's a yes. And they're fun to make.
Total cost: Canvas from Michaels $2.00 (again I buy these in a 5 pack with a coupon so they're super cheap) paint-this depends, If you do a solid background then it's $0.50 a bottle at Wal-mart. for my painting it was $2.50, paint pen- $2-3 bucks at Wal-mart again. And buttons Wal-mart $3.00 to $5.00 depending on the bag size. Because I paint a lot this project cost me about $4.00.




another tree I've made


You're welcome!
The Posh Pinner