Book & Button Flower Bouquets

I’ve been making small bouquets of flowers to sell with the vintage bottles I’ve embellished for the craft fair next month. I’ve seen button bouquets done before, but putting old book page petals on them gives them a fun little twist (you’ll appreciate that pun later, read on.)

This project almost explains itself with the photos, it’s really simple if you collect up all the right supplies. My big find was a roll of thin, vintage cotton-coated radio wire, found in a box of junk somewhere. (I’ll pick up most anything at a garage sale or thrift store if it looks utilitarian, and hope I can find where I put it later when I need something like that.) Be sure your wire is small enough to fit through the holes of the buttons you’ll be using.

For the paper petals, I used aged book pages from distressed books. It’s a good idea to Mod Podge the page and dry before punching out flower shapes. That keeps them durable and less likely to rip when stringing onto the wire. I have several size and shape punches for this project.

I’ve been hording buttons lately, eBay and Etsy sellers are a good source for large lots for not a lot of dough. For most of these bouquets I stuck with white and off-white buttons. Shaped and colored buttons make fun arrangements, too.

Once you have all your pieces, get your wire cutters and a good movie. These flowers are extremely easy, just a bit time consuming.

Measure wire pieces twice the length of your finished flower stem plus a little to account for twisting. Fold wire in half and start stacking buttons and petals. Depending on the strength of your wire you can determine how much button weight it can handle. To thread the petals, I score (cut a small X) in the center of the flower shape, or for bigger shapes, I use a small hole-punch.

Once the items are threaded and stacked, start twisting. None of my twists are perfect, and I think that gives them a nice primitive, handmade feel. (See how I justify imperfection, ha ha.) You can bend petals up or down for a nice effect. For small floral spray pieces to pop out of the bouquets, I wound tiny buttons spaced apart. To finish bouquets, bring several stems together and wrap with wire, then if you prefer, trim the ends even.