It’s Day Four of the Christmas Countdown and we’re in the button box!    You’ve probably noticed I love buttons and use them frequently as embellishments for crochet bits and pieces.

I’ve got a particularly precious box of mother-of-pearl buttons and these I like to use to make the sort of decorations which will come out of the box year after year as family heirlooms.  They just seem too fragile to stitch on to clothing which then gets hurled into the washing machine at regular intervals.

This was the heart I made last year.  It’s very simple, you can find out more by following the link below…

Next, a simple and effective way of making a unique card, and also inspiration for making a wired tree decoration as above, worked into a different shape.  The buttons here are quite standard, but look really pretty mixed together. (It’s always worth checking your local charity shop for button tins, and sometimes the most unprepossessing old garments have gorgeous buttons worth salvaging)

I think these are tree decorations, but wouldn’t they make fabulous earrings?

This is spectacular, isn’t it?  You would need a seriously large button box to make something as gorgeous as this!

And back to the mother-of-pearl buttons again.  I think this is made in much the same way that I made the crochet string of balls and beads in this post, but there’s lots of scope for the imagination to make garlands for the tree.  You can space things out along the thread for a delicate look…

…or knot them closely together like this…

I think I would be tempted to pop that last one in my jewellery box after Christmas!

So with that I’m off to find more seasonal inspiration, and I’ll be back tomorrow.

See you then …x