Buttons: A 1/2 year of flowers

I started making flower clips for my daughter this past July. I used some gerbera daisies I had around the house (like they had been stuck in a vase for a few years) and used buttons as the center to try a different look. I made a white one, yellow one, and pink one.

Sometime in the early fall I was having a serious case of the mommy blues. I spent all day chasing after two little ones along with some other serious health issues happening to my mom. I really needed an outlet or a hobby to take my mind off of things so I decided I would try and sell flower clips. Luckily I have the best support team at home (husband) and the greatest buyers (Jaymie, Jill, Mindy:) who bought up all sorts of flowers for their adorable girls (my nieces and cousin). They truly allowed me to be so creative and just come up with cute flowers.

Here are some of my other favorites from the past year:

Thank you to everyone! Each flower I make is my new favorite and I sometimes have to make two just so Lila has one also:) I'm excited for new opportunities in the new year and have lots of new ideas and creations! One idea that I am most excited about is Awareness flower pins. There are so many great causes and why not wear a flower pin to support it! Organ donation and March of Dimes are my favorites. What cause would you love a flower pin for??? Happy New Year!!!

Felt is oh so fun.

While looking at my daughter's intricate handmade stocking, I noticed cute little felt lollipops and thought, "That would be a cute clip." So I dug through my felt gifted from my grandmother and got right to work creating some new clippies.

I am kind of in love with this Christmas tree and jingle bell. My daughter is too. She loves to shake it and hear the jingle.

I made a little rose to go with some of her black holiday attire and think it turned out pretty cute.

Lastly I made a lime/red rose with a red rhinestone. My daughter thought it was food and kept trying to eat it.

Felt offers so many color choices so let me know what type of felt clip or pin you would like to see!

Merry Christmas from our home to yours

Retro Kaleidoscope Holiday Card

For hundreds of holiday card designs, click here.

View the entire collection of cards.

The winning flower

Here is the flower pin Mary Ann chose for winning the giveway.  It is a mini-red rose with a clear gem center embellishment.  It is such a cute addition to your holiday outfit or even pinned onto your winter coat.  Enjoy mom!

And the giveaway winner is...

Thanks to everyone who entered my holiday giveaway!!!  I have the list jotted down and there are 15 entries. It goes:
1 and 2 Jaymie
3 and 4 Mindy
5 and 6 Marti
7 Mary Ann
8 and 9 Amy
10 Becky
11 and 12 Katie
13 Dianna
14 Jill
15 Kimberly

I then went to Random.org and used a true random number generator and put in numbers 1-15.  The lucky winner of a free custom flower pin or flower clip was entry....

Number 7...Mary Ann!!!

Congratulations Mary Ann (aka...my mom!) your red rose flower pin will be made just for you!

 

Holiday Giveaway!

In honor of the holiday season, I have decided to do a Button Blossoms giveaway!  This giveaway is for anyone who loves a flower accessory.  I have made flower clips of all sizes for sweet little girls and flower pins for fun adult women.  A flower clip/pin just makes people smile and be prepared to get lots of compliments!  The winner will win a custom made flower clip or flower pin!  This is perfect for the holiday season.  You could give it as a gift to a sweet little girl or get a pin for yourself to jazz up a holiday outfit.

To enter:

1. Become a follower of Button Blossoms (if not one yet...anyone can even if you don't have a blog!)

2. Leave a comment on what type of flower accessory you would love to have for the holiday season. (Please leave an email so I can contact you)

3. To get extra entries post a link to this giveway on your blog/facebook/twitter and leave a separate comment telling me you did so.

4. The winner will be drawn on Monday, December 6 and announced the same day.

Here are a few examples of custom flowers I made this month.

Mini-green and white daisy with red gem center

Zebra flower pin and mini-brown and hot pink flower clip

Red velvet poinsettia with sparkle black button center

Leopard daisy with gem center and mini-brown/leopard daisy with gem center

Good Luck!!!

Prematurity Awareness Month

 Every November is March of Dimes, Prematurity Awareness Month.  March of Dimes and preemie babies are a cause near and dear to my heart.  In 2006 I was pregnant with my first child, a little boy, and he was due April 10th.  I was having the perfect pregnancy.  No complaints!  My doctor always told me how easy it was when I was in for my visit b/c my blood pressure was perfect, weight gain was right on track, belly measured perfectly, heartbeat was spot on each time.  Then on Sunday, January 29th, everything changed.  I went into pre-term labor and delivered my little boy, Brendan Paul, on Monday January 30th, 2006 at 30 weeks.  He was pink and screaming and itty-bitty.

Brendan in NICU: One week old

They do not know why I went into pre-term labor and went on to deliver him 10 weeks early.  There are so many unknowns and that is why we love March of Dimes and all the work and research they do to promote awareness for all these tiny miracles.  My son is now a healthy soon-to-be 5 year old and keeps us on our toes!

Our healthy miracle!

If you would like to help I will be donating a portion of all my November sales to the March of Dimes.  Check out their website,March of Dimes to learn more about prematurity awareness.

Christmas card outtakes

I'm in love with the card my husband and I picked out from Shutterfly!  I'm keeping the actual card a secret so our friends and family are surprised:)  Here are some of the pictures from our photo shoot to get the perfect card picture.  I totally took advantage of the 60 degree November temperature which is unheard of in our state. 

I turned one of the flowers on her dress into a flower clip! 

She loves her big brother!

What is the theme this year???

Our family loves a get together with a theme.  Every year for Christmas our adult gift exchange has a different theme varying from Toys, Red, White, and Blue, First letter of your name, and our latest, Year you were born.  We have such a good time opening and exclaiming what we got and it is fun to see how creative we all can be.  Well Thanksgiving this year is getting a theme, Animal Print Thanksgiving, and I immediately had to see if I could find animal print flowers to make for all the girls!  I hit the jackpot and found the cutest snow leopard and zebra flowers.  My sister, cousin, and aunt all gave me their orders and I got busy working.  Look at how cute these turned out! 

Snow leopard flower clip, hand sewn with large gem center on brown crocheted headband

Zebra flower clip, hand sewn with large gem center on white crocheted headband

My adorable nieces modeling their flowers and my silly son.

Snow leopard flower pin.  Great addition to any sweater or jacket!

Zebra flower pin.  What a fun way to accessorize your outfit.

I cannot wait for Thanksgiving to get a big group shot of all of us girls sporting our animal print accessories!  Pictures to follow:)

 

Holiday Cards from Shutterfly

It is November!  Can you believe it???  Now is the time to start thinking about your holiday cards and I always love to browse the newest designs that Shutterfly.com has each year.  I'm so excited to dress Brendan and Lila up in their Christmas outfits and, of course Lila will be wearing a custom flower clip, and take the perfect picture of them for our holiday cards.  I also get so excited when I open up a Christmas card and see our family and friends pictures.  Shutterfly.com has so many new designs this year it will be so hard to choose my favorite.  Here are some of my top choices:

Pretty Poinsettia Print

 Retro Kaleidoscope


Ornament Bubbles

Lovingly Wrapped American Lung AssociationLovingly Wrapped American Lung Association
I absolutely love the cards where 10% is donated to different organizations.  What a simple and easy way to help out!

Another idea I love for the holidays at Shutterfly.com is their wall calendars.  It is so easy to pick your favorite photos from the year and insert them into Shutterfly's templates and either gift it to the grandparents or keep it for yourself. 
http://www.shutterfly.com/calendars/wall-calendars
 

So many choices!  Go ahead and take a look.  Which card/product is your favorite?

P.S.  Bloggers get a special deal.  Check this out and see how you can get 50 free cards for the holiday season! Click here!!!

Custom orders

I love working on custom orders.  It is a great way to be creative and to design a flower for a specific occasion or holiday.  Recently I have created flower clips for a baptism, school homecoming parade, sports team inspired, Christmas, and everyday wear.  Check out some of my custom orders.

Detroit Red Wings inspired flower clip. Four-layer hand sewn with large black button center.

Detroit Lions inspired flower clip.  Three layer mini-white rose hand sewn with black button and blue gem accent.

New Haven  homecoming flower clips.  Mini white daisy hand sewn with dark green button center.

Michigan State inspired flower clip.  Mini white and green daisy hand sewn with green button center.

Baptism flower. Large 4 layer white daisy hand sewn with clear gem center.

Red poinsettia with jingle bell center, mini-pink rose with button center and white headband.

Lila modeling the "jingle bell" flower clip.

Custom everyday order: 2 mini-pink roses hand sewn with button center and 4 elastic headbands

Custom Christmas order: 2 mini-ivory flowers hand sewn with gold sparkle button center

Everyday custom order: one mini-red rose hand sewn with white sparkle button and clear gem center, one MSU flower, one mini-white rose with sparkle button center and two elastic headbands

Some of my upcoming custom orders include animal print flower clips, animal print flower pin, and everyday Christmas flowers.  Stay tuned and let me know what your custom flower clip order would be.

Welcome!!!

Welcome to my Button Blossoms blog!  Button Blossoms are handcrafted flower clips for girls of all ages.  My daughter, Lila, is my inspiration because I love to accessorize her with all different types of flowers and headbands. Recently, I have begun making a lot of custom orders for friends and family and I have so much fun crafting new designs for so many sweet little and big girls.  My flower clips range in prices from $2.00-$5.00 and my headbands are .50-$1.00.  Check out more of my creations on Facebook, keyword search, Button Blossoms and check back soon for more pictures!