Buttons, Buttons… whose got buttons? Boy, I sure do… I’ve had a button ‘collection’ forever! In fact, I somehow absorbed my grandma’s tin of old buttons when I got married, and have added to it over the past 35 years. I’m so glad to have used a few of the vintage buttons I have, on this easy and fun craft, DIY button magnets. With this super strong glue, I’m hoping these button magnets will last a long time.
In the kitchen of our 100 year old house, we have this antique ceiling tin we use to put special artwork and photos on:
Because the surface of the antique tin tile is bumpy, I need extra strong magnets to hold well.
Here are the magnets I picked up a couple of years ago… I don’t recall where, (but here are some at Target that actually would be better because they wouldn’t stick out so much)
They worked well, but they weren’t all that cute.
One day while upstairs in the 3rd floor maid’s-room-turned-sewing-and-craft-room, rummaging through the vintage buttons I’ve had forever, it struck me, I put two and two together…
I selected 10 unique buttons, some with shanks, some without. (the ones with shanks I snipped off with sharp wire cutters)
Then I got my glue ready…
This stuff is strong! It’s Gorilla Glue brand, in single use tubes. (this pack from Home Depot seems a bit pricey, but actually there are 12 tubes in it, so you can get a lot of projects done with it!) There are several different types of Gorilla Glue, but this particular variety is what I felt would work the best for this project.
Gorilla Glue does make a super glue, but this one is not, this glue does take a few hours to fully dry. I laid down newspaper and wore gloves… I can be a little messy. 😉 This glue is also water activated, so you need to get the surfaces of whatever you’re gluing, damp before applying the glue.
So for my button magnet project, I simply got a paper towel wet and wiped each magnet top and button back before applying a dab of glue.
The gorilla glue will expand, sort of like that foam insulation stuff, but not as much.
You can see how after about 2 hours the glue foamed up through the button holes. Fortunately I spotted this before the glue was totally cured, so I was able to scrape the expanded, slightly hardened glue out with a toothpick.
Now that they’re totally dried and cured, they seem very strong and stuck on the magnets.
I think the old vintage buttons on the magnet board are fun!
Some buttons when you look at them individually are really detailed. Like this old avocado green floral button, leftover from one of my grandma’s project back in the 1960’s or so.
Or look at how cute that one is… the ship’s wheel… so much detail.
So if you have some vintage buttons and are looking for a way to display some, maybe this is a craft you’d like to do.
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