Last Christmas I received this 1 inch button maker from my husband. While some women would be a little bit upset that they did not receive jewelry, I was so excited, I think I was jumping up and down. I have been wanting a button maker ever since I worked on this story for Martha Stewart Weddings. For a while I was a making buttons like a crazy lady. I have probably made at least 50 of each letter by now.
I thought I would show you how I make these cute buttons and use them to wrap special gifts. To the untrained eye, it looks like calligraphy written with white gouache onto black paper, but it’s much easier and quicker! (The buttons featured in the Martha Stewart story used actual calligraphy writing.) Using a pointed pen nib, and black ink on white paper, I wrote out the capital letters A-Z and scanned it in at 600 dpi. I saved each letter as a separate file. I dropped the letters into Illustrator and reversed the letters out on a 1.5 inch black circle background and I printed them, in this case letters A-F out on my laser printer.
Using this 1 1/4 sized circular punch I cut out each letter. I gathered the parts that come with the button maker, shown here:
I pressed them in the button maker, video demonstration here, and viola! I love the simplicity of gifts wrapped in kraft paper, tied with black hemp twine. The calligraphy initial tied at the top makes the recipient feel special and the package feels finished without being overdone.
