March 3rd!
March 3, 2009 at 9:18 pm | Posted in book reviews, buttons!, chatty, contributor news | Leave a commentToday is the official release date for Button It Up — yay!
Pearl celebrated with me by trying to eat the book! It is hers, after all…
So I just wanted to update about a few button-y things. Now that it’s today and official and all, I’ve added a bunch of new stuff to the site — project extras and patterns like these patterns and tutorials for these three lovely sewing projects,
plus my favorite resources for button shopping and reading-about, and the reviews it’s gotten so far. And I started a button it up flickr group for spotlighting vintage buttons and projects, I’d love it if you wanted to join and share some treasures over there!
I also added two signed copies of Button It Up to my Etsy shop — all the proceeds of these first two copies are to help out Baby Ike and the Roy family. So if you would like a signed copy, I would be very honored if you supported the fundraiser. (Rachel just posted about some really cool crafty things folks are doing near and far too!)
And I’m so pleased that some of my favorite sites are doing very generous giveaways. First, Button Sampler Tote designer Diane Gilleland is offering up a copy: tell her a button story by Wednesday at noon and you’re entered to win! I love the comments people have left so far. Awesome.
Natalie at CRAFT: did such a nice review + giveaway too — leave a comment letting her know why you need your own copy of Button It Up by 10 am Wednesday and you could win one of two copies!
And Michaela at CraftStylish wrote an absolutely lovely post welcoming the book, with a special spotlight on the projects my fellow CraftStylish writers Diane, Kayte, and Linda created. Leave a comment by next Tuesday and you could win a copy there too!
Last, a huge thank-you to Rachel Hobson of Average Jane Crafter for her thoughtful and generous review of the book today! I am so grateful that people are enjoying the projects and the photography and illustrations, but it means the world to me that people like the me-parts — the vintage button history I really enjoyed writing up, and the button-love itself.
Thanks, y’all!
more giveaways and a whole month of button projects!
March 2, 2009 at 1:52 pm | Posted in book reviews, buttons!, contributor news, crafty | Leave a commentI’m so happy that CraftStylish is celebrating Button It Up with an entire month of button-themed craft projects! Such a cool surprise.
I did the very first how-to, a fun little set of shrink art buttons, and there will be dozens more all through March.
Keep an eye on CraftStylish for some wonderful craft book giveaways all month, including copies of Button It Up. A huge thank-you to my editor there, Michaela Murphy, for organizing the button love!
My lovely guest designer Sally Shim is also hosting a book giveaway on her Shim + Sons blog, so be sure to stop by and comment by Friday, March 6. Sally made the gorgeous pencil canister and magnets set… I love that one!
And Sarah Schlosser-Moon of Sewer-Sewist wrote a fantastic review of the book this weekend too. I especially loved these parts:
Susan is a true button aficionado. Button it Up begins with a sweet introduction from her about her button memories as a child, playing with both of her grandmothers’ button stashes. As I was getting ready to write this post, I looked back on some of Susan’s old West Coast Crafty posts about this book, and I was struck by how many comments on this post in particular connected with a similar memory. It seems that there is something nearly universal about a childhood fascination with buttons, and this book is a warm reminder of that.
If you’re familiar with Susan’s jewelry-making book, Bead Simple (a well put together and highly approachable book, if you’re interested in jewelry making), you’ll appreciate that Button it Up follows a similar format–lots of great “recipes” (that’s how I think of them) for making unique projects, this time using buttons. This is definitely one of the strengths of the book — it gives you all the tools you need to unleash your own creativity — not simply replicate a project from the book.
I think Button it Up would be a great resource for a crafty afternoon with friends or family — have a potluck, bring some buttons to trade and share and use this book to create some fun, affordable, one-of-a-kind projects together.
button stashes + book reviews
February 27, 2009 at 12:11 pm | Posted in book reviews, buttons!, contributor news | Leave a commentTags: book reviews
I just announced the winners of my giveaway over at West Coast Crafty — Lyndsay and Hope won copies of Button It Up,
and miss james and essymar won button stashes!
Thank you so much to everyone who commented — your button stories and ideas and tips were really wonderful to read! So many of us fell in love with buttons as kids, and reading about other people’s favorite childhood memories of playing with buttons was such a treat, and so familiar too.
And I’m so excited that my dear friend and guest contributor Diane of CraftyPod posted the first-ever review of Button It Up today! She was kind enough to say, “I had a little glimpse into the making of this book, and got to watch Susan acquire insanely-beautiful buttons from all kinds of sources. I think that’s part of the fun of Button It Up – not only are the projects wonderful, you also get a huge dose of button eye-candy. Yum yum.” Thank you, Diane!
And right after that, I saw this lovely review from the Buffalo News, written by Home & Style Editor Susan Martin — a wonderful surprise. Thank you, Susan!
See you next week, with more giveaways on some of my favorite crafty sites, and some updates here: resources, project extras, and more. I’m so excited that the book is officially out on Tuesday!
another button giveaway!
February 23, 2009 at 12:43 pm | Posted in buttons!, contributor news, vintage treasures | Leave a commentThe lovely Sarah Johner is offering up a very special giveaway this week: one lucky blog reader will win a handmade button tree like the one she contributed to Button It Up! This is such a magnificent project, I can tell you from admiring it firsthand that it is just incredible in person and covered with gorgeous vintage buttons from top to bottom. Hurry over to her Let’s Celebrate! post and comment to be entered in the drawing.
Here’s her son Jack showing off her beautiful project, too. So cute!
Don’t forget, tomorrow (at midnight, Pacific time) is the deadline to enter to win copies of Button It Up or button stashes, too… so please stop by and leave me a note about your favorite buttons if you haven’t already.
button notebooks + sewing machines
February 17, 2009 at 7:28 pm | Posted in buttons!, contributor news | 1 CommentI thought I’d start off posting some fun button things I’ve spotted this week… I just adore this lovely embellished notebook cover project by my friend (and Button It Up contributor) Diane Gilleland! It’s such a cool idea, I especially love the circle pattern she did.
The complete tutorial is posted over here and you can see lots more of Diane’s craft projects here and here.
And my friend Kathy Cano-Murillo‘s new craft book, The Crafty Chica’s Guide to Artful Sewing, is out today! To celebrate, she is giving away a fantastic prize package — including this amazing Janome sewing machine, which she decorated with lots of fanciness, including some colorful rows of buttons.
One grand prize winner will receive:
* A custom-decorated Janome ThreadBanger TB12 sewing machine, decorated by Kathy herself, and featured in The Crafty Chica’s Guide to Artful Sewing (courtesy of Janome)
* A copy of The Crafty Chica’s Guide to Artful Sewing (courtesy of Potter Craft)
* Thirty (30) Jars of Crafty Chica Glitter (courtesy of Duncan)
* A custom-made Crafty Chica Picture Bracelet (courtesy of the Crafty Chica herself!)
All the details to enter are here on the CRAFT: blog… good luck!!
Today is two weeks until Button It Up is out, I’m very excited! Speaking of giveaways, I’m offering up two signed copies of the book and two hand-picked button stashes from my collection over on West Coast Crafty — just leave a comment on that post with a favorite button story or tip and I’ll randomly draw four winners a week from today.
I love the button stories people have told so far, don’t miss the comments!
vintage buttons + Coraline!
February 9, 2009 at 10:53 pm | Posted in buttons!, chatty | Leave a commentI was so lucky to see the world premiere of Coraline here in Portland last week, and it was amazing! I won’t give any secrets away in case you haven’t seen the film yet, but if you’re interested, I wrote up a post about the evening here at West Coast Crafty, and all my photos are here in a flickr set.
So in honor of Button It Up, I wanted to spotlight some of the super cool button-related stuff that I’ve seen on the Coraline site and at the premiere! The ticket to the afterparty was this button key. If you’ve seen the film, it looks very very familiar…
I got to wear some of my favorite pieces from the book to the premiere: the Silver Spotlight button drop earrings, the Pearlescent knotted necklace, and Nicole Vasbinder‘s lovely Shades of Gray Evening Bag.
After the screening, we walked over to the afterparty (keys in hand) at the art museum. There were button-embellished luminaries to guide everyone over, through the park — a really cool and spooky series of path markers.
The party was amazing — Laika had some of the most elaborate sets brought over from their warehouses and we got to see them up close, which was so cool. (More on that here.) There were also some fantastic spinning button-lights projected on the floor — I took this tiny ten-second video of one of them.
Speaking of videos, there are a ton of amazing crafty ones from behind the scenes of different parts of the film up on YouTube — and don’t miss this one on koumpounophobia (fear of buttons). And of course, you can do all kinds of cool button-crafts on the Coraline website! This beautiful poster is a free download,
you can make yourself into a button-eyed portrait, and if you have time to explore the site, there are all kinds of spooky rabbit holes to wander into there.
If you saw Coraline too, I’d love to hear what you think — or see your button portrait!
button it up!
February 6, 2009 at 1:13 am | Posted in book events | 4 CommentsI’m so excited to announce two book events here in Portland to celebrate the March 3 release of Button It Up! If you’re local, I would love it if you can stop by either or both of these, I think they’ll be a lot of fun.
The very first one is at Powell’s Books on Friday, March 20, at 7:30, all the way upstairs in the lovely Pearl Room. I’ll do a reading, sign books, and offer up some favorite bits and pieces from my own button collection to do a craft project with, too: button hairclips! Some of my Portland contributors will be there too, along with lots and lots of the 80 book projects. The Bead Simple event I did there last year was fantastic and I’m really looking forward to this one too, thank you to Powell’s for having me again.
Powell’s Books, 1005 W. Burnside St. in downtown Portland, 503-228-4651
I’ll also be doing a crafty event with my local contributors at Bolt Fabric Boutique the following weekend. Stop by the shop on the afternoon of Saturday, March 28 at 4:00 and do a craft project with me: button magnets + pushpins! Anyone who buys a copy of the book from Bolt will get a vintage button grab bag as a thank-you, and we’ll also be giving away a fantastic prize package during the event — fabric, gift certificates, buttons, and other crafty surprises. I’ll post some pictures when we put everything together!
Bolt Fabric Boutique, 2136 NE Alberta St in Portland, 503-287-BOLT
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