I found the buttons!!!

If you remember, back in November I accidentally dumped all my Mother of Pearl button boxes. Well, I actually did get around to fixing them up real nice and neat with the help of my friend, Dale. When I went to his lace in, he gave me two real nice big boxes I could keep them in.

So, after a little bit of brain storming, I figured the easiest way to keep buttons is the way they come from the store originally, on little cards. Heather had the idea of gluing them down. I don't like the idea for mother of pearl, especially dyed ones, but it's great idea for plastic and Bakelite buttons. The next best thing is sewing, yikes! So I made my own little cards with a real big craft punch. It felt like I sat for days and days on end trying to sort and organize them.

I think the end result came out pretty well; as you can see, in one of the boxes some of the buttons are on strings -- still as they are sorted. I just haven't finished stitching all the buttons to cards yet. The card are set up in two ways: one way is all of one kind of button; the other way is a card with no two buttons the same on it. These are my one-of-kinds that would get lost the way I stored them before.

Also, since then I actually have received more buttons as gifts for Christmas, I have to sit down some day soon and add them to this box. I may need a third box by the time I am done. Those, the Christmas ones, aren't even pictured here. As you can see, not all of the items are buttons, but most are mother of pearl or shell and a few are metal vintage/antique buttons, too. What I think is real neat are the antique buckles.