The Music of Life: Vintage Button Earrings

Saturday, August 18, 2012

Vintage Button Earrings

Here's a surprisingly simple craft for you today that yields a super cute pair (or pairs!) of earrings.

Things you need:
Buttons
Earring studs
Glue

You may also need:
A nail file
Pliers
Scissors

Step 1: Find some cool buttons. I found a jar of vintage buttons at a local estate sale. It took me a bit, but boy was it fun going through them! Here's a picture of my (mostly) sorted buttons.

I've found that if you have a lot of buttons, sorting them on newspaper or a piece of felt makes it that much easier to clean up when you're done. I also use felt when working with beads - they don't roll as much.

Step 2: Find a pair you want to turn into earrings. Make sure the back is flat - not all buttons will work with this. On plastic buttons you can often use pliers/scissors/etc. to snap the backs off. (But be careful - you could damage your button too). Some buttons have metal hooks that can be twisted or cut off. I even had a few leather buttons that I cut the back loops off. After removing the back piece, if necessary, sand down the back to make it flatter and easier to adhere to. This isn't always necessary, but for the leather ones especially I had to do this with a nail file.

Step 3: Use jewelry glue or craft glue to glue your earring studs on the back of your earrings. Let dry.

Experiment with different glues, especially with different buttons made of different materials.

I had a ton of fun with this project and it is super easy! Here are some of my favorites. (All of which are available in my etsy shop, plus much more.)