Illustrated Wine Charms

I don't know why I didn't think to make shrink plastic wine charms before, the very fact that they are illustrated means that they are perfectly suited for making matching sets. These are the first four sets that I've made but I plan on making loads more of them. The only thing I've yet to figure out is how to display them. I tried using a card for the button ones that I made but they don't do them any justice. I think I might get bracelet boxes to match the other ones that I got, it would make them more substantial.

I've listed them here in my etsy shop at €15 per set, I was in two minds about the price. Looking at other handmade charms on Etsy they are much more expensive, but I know I won't sell that many if I price them any higher. I'll have to see how they go and adjust accordingly.

Update: My bracelet boxes arrived sooner than I expected and they work perfectly. I'm much happier with them displayed like this and they would make a really nice gift for someone in this cute presentation box.

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I've Been Busy With Some Buttons

I've been buried in buttons over the past few days. I'm trying to build up lots of stock for the new co-op craft shop that we will be opening next month. It will a crazy balancing act trying to get things up and running, to get stock made, and to keep my market stall going all at the same time. But I have had to be Superwoman in the past before and I can do it again, I'm too excited about all this to give anything less that 110%.

Button Rings matched up and ready to be assembled

Button hair clips...I like when the postman brings me new supplies to play with

Button wine glass charms.....do you like my packaging?

I have thousands of buttons in my studio, I sell some but mostly I like making stuff with them. It gives me an excuse to take out my 'good button' boxes and sort/play with them. Finding the right colour in the right size is the main challenge to making work with buttons. It reminds me of playing with my box of Lego when I was a child, I never seemed to have a 'four piece' in the right colour, or if it was it was a flat instead of a brick. I'm pretty lucky that part of my grown up job reminds me of playing with Lego, sitting at a desk 40 hours a week certainly wouldn't bring back such fond memories.

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How-To Button Wine Glass Charms

Can I just preface this how-to by saying I won't be using my retro app again for photographing step by step guides, after uploading them I realised that I got a pretty blurry account of the project, so apologies now for the fuzziness of the pictures....

I saw this cute how-to on button wine glass charms, and thought I would give it a go. It turns out the link isn't a how-to at all, just a finished picture telling people how easy they are to make....which they are, after a while that is.
What you will need:
Snips or a tough scissors
Flat buttons of various sizes and colours
Wine glass charm rings
Wire(I'm not sure what gauge I used, I just had some laying about the studio)

Glass charms are usually sold in set of 6, with each one having their own distinctive pattern or colour, I picked out red, yellow, blue, green, purple and pink and chose complimentary colours for the top buttons. I know this sounds really silly but I had no idea what the purpose of these charms were until last year, it's so people don't get their glasses of wine mixed up at parties, each person gets their own colour, what a smart idea!! I'm obviously not a grown up and I need to go to more dinner parties, I should have copped onto this yonks ago!

It took me about a half hour to figure out how to do the wire wrapping,(in the end I gave up on trying to go through the 4 button holes) and I broke a few buttons, but when you figure it out it's really easy after that. Cut approximately 6" of wire, weave your wire through the buttons, leaving about 1" one one side at the back.

You'll have to use your imagination here to picture that I've twisted the wire together with the pliers, make sure the end of your wrapped wire is tidy.

Push the twisted wire against the button so that it's flush against it, then loop around your longer piece so that the loop pops up about 2mm over the top of the button.

Leave about 1" of wire sticking out from the bottom of the button and cut. Again we put on our imagination caps to see that I've wrapped this piece of wire tidily with my pliers around the base of the loop, tucking in the end of the cut wire.

Then simply put your wine charm ring through the loop that you created, and repeat 5 more times to get a set of button charms you can wow all your dinner party guests with(just make sure to tell them that you learned how to make them on this fantastic blog!)

Quite simply as cute as a button!
Update: Since I scheduled this post I've added a jump ring so that the buttons sit better on the wine rings. Also I will be listing a bunch of these sets in my etsy shop when the postman arrives with my rings, I made loads of sets the other day, it was button heaven!

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