Button craft activities for children

We don’t do much crafting in our house.

I used to make greeting cards and jewellery to sell, but then had no time, and now blogging has taken over…note to self, really must sell all the beads I still have floating around the house.  And N usually has better things to do with his time, like play outside, go on the farm, or just generally do other things involving wheels, Lego, books and role play.

But this week he’s gone to my craft supplies and I’ve found him at the kitchen table after school, being creative, three days on the trot.  Here’s some simple button craft activities for children that he enjoyed.

The first day, he found my mixed pack of craft buttons.  I caught him trying to stick them to a piece of paper unsuccessfully, so got him out some glue dots (until they ran out and then the glue stick had to come to the rescue), found the 2 remaining mini canvases, and let him loose on them.

He was quiet and focused on it for about 30 minutes which is pretty impressive for him and we now have 2 little pictures.

Then he had an evening where he wanted to do Hama beads.  So we now have a star coaster that he’s very proud of.  Probably because he ordered me to tell me what I can complete and where.

The third evening he had the buttons out again.  I didn’t really want my craft stash being used willy nilly for his random sticking projects, so suggested that he make a button Christmas tree.

I couldn’t access my beading wire which would have been easier to use, but found him some gold thread and a needle.  Yes, I set my 4 year old loose with a proper sharp needle.  And he was really good at using it.  Forward and back through the buttons, stacking them up, and he didn’t prick himself once.

N decided on a random colour theme, I stuck with greens. The only disappointment was the size when he asked ‘why are the trees so small Mama?’.  Next time, I’d get bigger buttons so I could graduate the size of them better.  Using craft or jewellery wire would be better too to ensure you only feed through once with it still being secure.

But they look really effective and would work really well on a small tree, or as place holder decorations or the like.

Do you craft with buttons?  What crafts have you and your children being doing recently?