Birthday Buttons

I have several tatting projects I want to be working on, but for some reason, I’m having a hard time spending my time on them.  That doesn’t mean I don’t want to or am not tatting, I’m just doing other things.  Easy things, like tatting around buttons.  These take little thought, mostly it’s “does the thread color compliment the button color?”  They are easy to carry and easy to make.  Add a pin on the back or maybe sew them to one end of a ribbon and, wah-lah! a fun little gift.

While at my daughter’s a few weeks ago I took thread and buttons to tat with in the evenings or quiet times.  One afternoon while working on one my grandson asked me about them; how long did it take to make one, was it hard? Can I have one?  How could I say no to that?  He admired the one with the red button.  I just had to put a safety pin on the back before giving it to him.  He proudly wore it on his T-shirt when we went out that evening and on the T-shirt he wore to school the next morning.

I was visiting my daughter to help celebrate my granddaughter’s birthday.  She had already opened her birthday gifts when she saw that her brother had a tatted button.  Of course, she wanted one, too. She is very much into pinks and purples and I happened to have just the button and thread to make the perfect one for her.  She was quite pleased with it.

Everyone, where I work, is supposed to wear their ID badge out where it can be seen.  The office furnishes badge reels to make this easy.  I decorated mine with a tatted doodad, which has been known to draw a few eyes.  Recently, when a friend of mine at work celebrated her birthday, I mentioned I would make her a badge reel decoration if she would like one. She enthusiastically said yes.  Her color of choice was purple.

I used a button for hers instead of a doodad.  I didn’t have beads that would work with the thread so I added a bigger bead to the center for a bit more bling.  I thought I had it all worked out by taking glue to work with me to attach it to her badge reel.  I was wrong.  The glue I took didn’t hold at all.  She knew of someone that had glue that might work.

The glue worked.  It also added a little extra bling to the tatting as well.  You can see the original thread color on the button while the outside is all dark and glittery.  Yes, this is what it looked like after it dried.  My friend was very happy with the result.

I wish I had remembered to take a picture of it before it was glued down.  Not that it doesn’t look okay now, but a before and after picture would have been nice.  I didn’t get pictures of the buttons with my grandchildren, either.  As many pictures as I take you’d think I’d remember to do this.  The import thing is that all the recipients are happy with their buttons.

It makes me happy when I can make others happy.  Isn’t the point of giving gifts to bring happiness to others?

“We all get so caught up in the moment of what we’re doing every day, it’s hard to hit that reset button and get pulled away from all that and see life from a different perspective.”  Tony Stewart                                                                                   brainyquote.com