Button Activities With Children

Book Markers

• Children can make homemade book markers with buttons. Cut decorative ribbon pieces 10 to 12 inches long. Ask your child to pick a ribbon piece and at least two buttons. Hot-glue the buttons to each end of the ribbon. She could pick out four buttons and use two on each end, gluing the ribbon between them. Your child could also glue buttons on top of each other, creating colorful stacks.

Make Jewelry

• Buttons make beautiful jewelry. Younger children can participate in this activity when you use large, chunky buttons that are not easily swallowed. To make necklaces, string the buttons on colorful yarn, twine, plastic or leather strings. Tie the ends in knots to keep the buttons strung. If the string is long enough to slip over a head, tie the ends together so the buttons do not fall off. Use the same technique for bracelets and anklets. Hot-glue buttons to plain hair barrettes for custom hair accessories. Children ages six and up can sew buttons around necklines, mimicking a necklace, for more permanent accessories.

Button Flower

• To make a colorful flower, all you need is scissors, floral wire and colorful buttons of different sizes. Cut the floral wire to the length you want the stems. Bend each wire about one-third of the way from the end, so it resembles a candy cane. Slide a smaller button up the longer side. Insert the shorter side of the wire into the top side of other hole. Push the button up until it the wire is flat against the top of the button. Repeat this with a larger button. When both buttons are snug against each other, wrap the shorter side of wire around the longer side. Now you have a button flower. Do this several times to create a bouquet.

Button Art

• With a piece of tag board, some ribbons and colorful buttons, your child can create button art. Ask him to draw shapes and designs on his tag board. Colorful crayons or pencils make interesting outlines. Use buttons to fill in his outlines and ribbon for any straight lines, like flower stems, tree trunks or fishing poles. Use a hot-glue gun or white household glue for the best results.