Button Family Portraits.

They are all the range, they’ll cost you between £10-20 depending on the size you go for, and they’re cute additions to living rooms, nursery’s and playrooms.

The button family portrait.

As with all my blog posts, everything I make is a combination of curiosity and a refusal to pay for something I can do myself, and to spread my knowledge and resources so that you can get crafty with your kids or once your babies have gone to bed.

What you will need:

– A box style photoframe (size dependant on family members, I have used a 7×5) I buy mine from Tesco or Wilkos, starting at £1.50

– White paper (cheap printer paper!)

– Buttons (Hobbycraft or In2Crafting, Wickford)

– PVA glue (cheapest you can get, Pritt stick will also work providing the buttons aren’t heavy!)

– Felt pens or colouring pencils (I use Crayola or Sharpies because I have them in, but just grab some felts or pencils from the supermarket or 99p Store!)

– Stamps (search for eBay user ‘martyn110’, £2.04)

– Ink pad

Please note: stamp kits aren’t necessary but I don’t bode well with writing small, because it just looks messy and I prefer the stamp effect.

I estimate you can muster up the entire lot for about £6-10, but that’s just an initial outlay and based on not having any of the above in. They make fab gifts and once you have the basics you can create these wonderful portraits for friends and family, for all sorts of occasions.

I decided to do mine for my son’s bedroom; he has a shelf with toys that his Dad bought, or were bought for his father before he passed (as well as some of my old toys and things I’ve made), and I wanted a ‘family portrait’ a little different to a photograph.

(if you want to read more on mine and my sons backstory and how we came to be ‘just us’, head over to my parent blog ‘Cancer Crutches Babies’)