Every semester, Ken and I find ourselves adjusting our schedule to accommodate new classes, projects, and ministry opportunities. This semester, his evenings are pretty packed with activity. He has Upward practice on Monday and Tuesday evenings, college small group on Wednesday evening, college worship service on Thursday evening, and of course church on Sunday mornings and evenings. The past couple of weeks, he’s had a Saturday night church activity as well, and now he has Upward games on Saturday mornings too. I’m thankful for Friday evenings.

So with Ken away, I’ve dusted off some old hobbies, and decided to do some crafting. Not wanting to spend money to buy crafting supplies, I’ve gone to my stash of leftover items from crafting exploits of the past.

I started collecting buttons about 10 years ago, I think. It started as saving the extra buttons off of clothing purchases, or buttons that had fallen off of clothing that I never bothered to sew back on before the item landed in the Goodwill pile. Finally, I ended up with a jar like this:

Having plenty of wire, crimping beads, a short length of chain, and miscellaneous other beads left over from crafting projects of yesteryear, I had the needed supplies to create something like this from Lenora Dame (which costs $105):

I started by choosing roughly similar pairs buttons from my pile. (I dumped my button jar out and this is what pattern they landed in. I kind of like it.)

I narrowed it down to these.

I put them in a roughly symmetrical pattern — not totally matchy matchy, but similar. If I were less obsessive-compulsive, I would totally wing it.

I am not less obsessive-compulsive.

I strung the buttons on 28 gauge wire, attached it to the chain length with jump rings, and in no time, had a fabulous new necklace to enjoy!

 I think it turned out pretty cute! Not bad for crafting from the scrap pile!  I can’t wait to have a little girl to introduce to the wonderful world of making crafts from random objects!