It’s Day Six on the Advent Calendar all ready, time is rushing by scarily fast.  So far I’m finding the most challenging part of posting every day is not the ideas, or writing the post, it’s finding a slot in the day with the right light for photography.

Today’s make is quick and simple and useful at any time of the year.  Do you have a pin board?  This is a great way of personalising it, and if you are making one as a present a little pot of these will complete the gift.

It’s map pins, or thumb tacks, like the ones I used in this post when I made a pin board of my own.

All you need are drawing pins, plain metal ones not the plastic covered type,  some metal self-cover buttons…

…scraps of pretty fabric  a tube of Super Glue and some small pliers.  When you take the buttons off the cards you’ll see they are in two pieces, with the front piece having a metal loop so they can be sewn on to a garment.

This is superfluous to requirements so before going any further use the pliers to remove the loop, taking care not to damage the main part of the button.

Follow the instructions on the card for covering the buttons with the fabric and clipping the back on firmly.  Once you have made up the buttons, use the Super Glue to stick the drawing pins to the button tops (again, read the instructions on the glue, Health Safety and all that!) It takes about an hour for the glue to cure and then they are ready to use.

I’ve been using my original ones for two or three years and they are still going strong even though I used the plastic covered type which tend to show more than the metal ones.   These work well for pinning up Christmas cards on boards if you’ve used a Christmassy fabric.  I’ve had this pretty little piece I bought on Ebay from somewhere in Central Europe for ages, it’s about time it had an airing!

These could also be made as fridge magnets when you could use the larger buttons and scraps of fabric left over from any kitchen accessories you made yourself.  The ultimate in co-ordination!

Have fun with this, and I’ll be back tomorrow!

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