How to Make Button Letter Art To Hang on a Wall
If you have a collection of interesting and colorful, new or vintage buttons this creative idea to make button letter art can be used to decorate your home. It is also a fun craft you can do with your kids or grandchildren.
I love buttons and have amassed quite a collection over the years… seems I can’t pass them up when I see them at flea markets and thrift stores.
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With such a large collection, I am always looking for decorative and creative ways to use old buttons to decorate my home or to give as gifts.
If you like to decorate your home in creative ways or create art with your kids or grandchildren that they will feel proud of, then this is a very easy project to do with them.
So no more saving a stash of buttons you may have hidden away in a box, basket or cabinet to use on clothing. It is time to start using them.
Even if you don’t have a big stash of buttons, buttons in bulk can be purchased very inexpensively by the bagful or tub at the craft store or online.
How to Make Button Letter Art to Hang on a Wall
supplies needed:
- 8-1/2″ x 11″ foam board (dollar store)
- 8-1/2″ x 11″ sheet of printer paper featuring a large computer generated letter
- buttons of any type, color and style
- white glue
- glue stick
- paper hole punch
- 12 inch ribbon
- pencil
- tiny beads (optional; these may be used to fill letter after buttons)
Time needed: 1 hour
How to use a collection of new, old or vintage buttons to make dimensional letter art to hang alone on a wall or in an open frame. Depending on the buttons used and the style of letter, a letter art button art creation could be elegantly decorative to child-like.
- Choose Your Letter and Font
The best fonts to use to make button art letters are the fonts that have plenty of white space inside the letter.
Example: The font used on the (grayed-out) left letter in the image below will not work well because the center part of that A does not have enough white space. Use a font like the one shown in the letter on the right.
- Create a Letter and Print It
In a word processing program, open up a new page. Find the font you like and type the letter you want. Enlarge the letter to fill the page or to the size you want. Then print the page.
I used the font New Times Roman in 700 point size.
- Mount the Printed Paper
To make your button letter art easy to hang, using a glue stick, mount it on a piece of foam board, stretched canvas or a piece of plywood. - Punch a Hole In Board
If you want to hang your button letter art creation using ribbon, using a pencil, make a mark at the center of the top edge of your board.
Then, use your hole punch to punch a hole about an inch on either side of the mark. - Start Adding Buttons to Letter
Lay out buttons on top of the letter to find the best fit to cover the letter.
Use all different sizes of buttons—save your favorite buttons for the top layer.
- Glue Each Button
Once you like the layout, start gluing the buttons on top of the letter using the white glue.
- Begin to Layer Buttons
To create dimension, glue on a second layer of buttons to hide as much of the printed letter as possible.
- Add More Layers
Keep adding more buttons until you like what you see.
TIP: Use tiny craft store beads to fill in tight areas. Any excess glue will dry clear.
- Add Ribbon
Once the glue is dry, tie your ribbon through the holes in the foam board so you can hang your button art creation. - Tie Ribbon Into a Hanging Bow
1.Thread the ends of the ribbon through the back of the holes to the front.
2. Tie ends into a knot
3. Trim ends.
4. Hang and enjoy.
