a button wreath tutorial, but you didn't really need me

Really. You didn't. You guys could work this one out. But I had requests, so here's how I do it.

You'll need:

• PVA Glue - a white general crafter's glue that dries clear, important to note, CLEAR drying glue! I can't stand glue guns and hot glue and it bloody hurts when you inevitably end up burning yourself. Trust me PVA works fine.
• A piece of board at least A4 in size to use as backing for the wreath, nice dense board at least 2mm thick and preferably with a coated paper one side. I've used crocodile board.
• A printout of the template at 100% or scale it to suit your needs, this one is for a 145mm diametre wreath.
• Buttons! Lots of them. Decide your colour theme. I've used a mixture of new, vintage and scrapbooking buttons. Also, different sizes and textured buttons make for an interesting wreath.
• A piece of ribbon or whatever you'd like to use to hang your wreath, previously I've used a linen tape, this time I'm using a vintage green velvet ribbon.
• A buckle to assist with the hanging, I've used a vintage mother of pearl buckle.
• Scissors

Ok, here we go.

Firstly. Get your template, cut it out and trace it onto the piece of board you're going to use, then cut it out. If you have a few rough edges you can sandpaper them or use an emery board to smooth them.

 

Now the fun begins. Get your cardboard wreath and grab the biggest buttons you are going to use. Start laying them out onto the wreath and add the other buttons to get an idea of placement and to have a play. At this point you could take a photo and keep it available as a reference. This will also give you an idea of the amount of buttons you might need so you find out sooner that you need more!

 

Start gluing. I glue the largest buttons down first. I usually lay the largest buttons down and arrange them to get an idea for placement and then start gluing these in place. You don't need to go overboard with the glue, apply glue to the back of the button and stick it down. See in the image below how you can see some of the glue, it doesn't matter, this glue dries clear. Once it's dried, all gone.

Keep on adding and gluing buttons on. See below, I'm adding more and more and starting to overlap some. Buttons that have a flat shank (not a metal loop) can also been used and are good for sitting on top of other buttons to fill in smaller gaps.

Keep on adding more and more buttons, filling in as many spaces as you can. You don't want to see much or any of the board if possible, even overlapping the edges slightly on the inner and outer of the wreath. In this case I like the croc pattern on the board and don't mind if it peaks through. I prefer my buttons to sit as flat as possible, so when layering I try not to have many on angles. Once you've filled in as much of the board as you can, start your layering. Adding some buttons over the top of your base. It helps to also have some itty bitty scrapbooking buttons to fill in small spaces.

 

Then, once you've added as many as you'd like let it sit to dry overnight. Make sure it's on a flat surface as the board might have buckled when you started adding glue, once it starts to dry it should flatten out.

Next. You want to add your ribbon/buckle for hanging. I like to use a buckle and ribbon and hid the knotted ribbon behind the wreath. Tadaaaa! You're done. Enjoy. Add a picture of your wreaths to the existing flickr group "Button: Wreaths, Trees, Balls and Flowers".

EDITED: 5/11 - Here's a pdf of the tutorial including the template for you to download and print. Download Button-wreath-tutorial-craftapalooza.

And here's a couple I've previously done.