Sweet friend, there’s a jar on my kitchen shelf that’s been there longer than I can remember. It’s got a crack in the lid and a label I never made — just a collection of buttons in every size, color, and shape you can imagine.
Wooden ones from an old linen blouse. Tiny pearl ones from a thrifted coat. A handful of bright red ones my daughter sorted by color on a slow Sunday afternoon while her baby brother napped in the carrier.
If you’ve got a button jar like that — or even just a handful rattling around in a sewing box — this post is for you. Button crafts are one of those beautiful, almost-free things that keep little hands busy and turn out surprisingly lovely.
Whether you’re looking for a simple Sunday school craft, a rainy-day project with your littles, or something seasonal to hang on the wall, there’s something on this list for every celebration and every age.
And if buttons aren’t the only thing quietly accumulating in your home, toilet paper roll crafts are another wonderful way to use up what you already have rather than making a trip to the craft store.
20 clever button crafts to make with spare buttons
These are loosely organized by theme and season so you can scroll to what fits your moment. A jar of craft glue and a few sheets of cardstock are really all you need to get started on most of them.
1. button tree art
Trace or draw a bare tree outline on cardstock or watercolor paper, then let your little ones fill in the branches with buttons in fall colors — burnt orange, deep red, golden yellow. Use a glue gun if they’re older, or craft glue for littler ones who have more patience than speed. It makes a stunning piece of seasonal wall art, and my kids ask to do a new version every single autumn.
2. button rainbow art
Draw arching rainbow stripes on a piece of cardstock and fill each arc with buttons sorted by color. It’s a lovely fine motor activity for little hands — sorting, placing, pressing — and the finished piece is cheerful enough to brighten any windowsill. If your littles already love color-sorting activities, rainbow crafts for kids will keep that joy going long past the button jar.
3. button picture frame
Take a plain wooden or cardboard frame and cover the border in buttons — mixed sizes and colors, or a specific palette to match the photo inside. These make the sweetest handmade gifts, especially for grandparents. Tuck a photo of the kids inside and you’ve got something that cost almost nothing but means everything.
4. button fish craft
Cut a fish shape from cardstock and fill it in with overlapping buttons to look like scales. Blue and green buttons work beautifully here, but honestly — the wilder the color combination, the more the kids love it. Add a googly eye and a paper fin and you’ve got something charming enough to hang in a little one’s room for months.
5. button ladybug craft
Draw or paint a large ladybug shape, then glue red buttons on the wings and black ones for spots. Add a black pipe cleaner for antennae and you’ve got an adorable little critter that holds up surprisingly well on the fridge. If your littles are in a bug-loving season, these bug crafts for kids will keep the critter fun going all spring long.
6. button christmas tree
Layer buttons in shades of green — darkest at the base, lightest near the top — in a triangle shape on cardstock to form a Christmas tree. Add a yellow or gold button at the very top as a star. Simple, festive, and genuinely beautiful displayed on a mantel or tucked into a holiday card with a handwritten note inside.
7. button butterfly craft
Trace butterfly wings onto cardstock and fill them in with buttons arranged in whatever pattern your child loves best — symmetrical, rainbow, or completely chaotic, which is also charming in its own right. Twist a pipe cleaner in the middle for the body and antennae. Hang it in a window and watch it glow in the afternoon light.
8. button vehicles craft
Cut simple vehicle shapes — a car, a truck, a train — from thick cardstock or cardboard, and use buttons as wheels. Fill in the body with more buttons in contrasting colors. This one is especially beloved by little ones who are obsessed with anything that moves. Add a button headlight or a button steering wheel for extra detail and watch them light up.
9. button owls craft
Stack two large buttons — one for the body, one slightly smaller for the head — and glue on small button eyes, a felt beak, and paper wings. You can make a whole family of little owls in an afternoon. They’re sweet displayed on a branch centerpiece or tucked inside a handmade card as a gift.
10. button fall craft
Cut large leaf shapes from cardstock in autumn colors and fill them in with buttons in matching shades — rust, amber, deep burgundy. Punch a hole in the top, thread a piece of twine through, and hang several from a curtain rod for the simplest, coziest fall garland. This is one I set out on the kitchen table each September and let the kids work on over a few slow afternoons.
11. button nativity craft
This one is one of the most meaningful on the list. Use different sizes and shapes of buttons to create the figures of the nativity — Mary, Joseph, the baby Jesus in a manger, the wise men, the star above. It’s a beautiful Advent project to work on a little at a time as you read through the Christmas story together. If you love weaving faith into your craft afternoons, these prayer crafts for kids are full of sweet, scripture-grounded ideas for little ones.
12. button halloween craft
Cut pumpkin, bat, or ghost shapes from orange and black cardstock and fill them in with buttons. Black buttons on an orange pumpkin look surprisingly elegant — like something you’d find on a handmade craft table at a fall market. Keep it cheerful rather than spooky and it’s perfectly sweet for even the tiniest littles in your home.
13. button valentine craft
Fill a large paper heart with red, pink, and white buttons for the coziest little Valentine’s Day keepsake. Add hand-lettered words — “made with love” or the child’s name — above or below it.
14. button easter craft
Decorate large paper egg shapes with buttons in spring pastels — pale yellow, soft lavender, mint green, blush pink. Arrange them in rows, stripes, or scattered patterns. Hang several eggs on a branch set in a jar of sand or dried beans for a simple Easter centerpiece. He is risen — and what a cheerful thing to make while you talk about why.
15. button mother’s day craft
This is the craft I’d most want to receive. Have your little one glue buttons into the shape of a flower, a heart, or even just their handprint outline, framed on a piece of cardstock or linen. Add the date and their name in pencil. Tuck it in a simple frame. That’s the whole gift — simple, real, made by little hands that will only stay little for one more season.
16. button spring craft
Glue buttons onto a watercolor or painted background to look like a spring garden — stems made from green pipe cleaners or painted lines, buttons as the flower heads. Pastel and bright colors both work beautifully here. For more ways to bring the garden indoors with your littles, these garden crafts for kids are full of ideas for little hands that love to dig and create.
17. button thanksgiving craft
Make a turkey out of buttons — a round body, a fan of colorful buttons for tail feathers, small buttons for the face. Or press buttons into a cornucopia shape spilling over with harvest colors. Either way, it’s a simple afternoon project that gives little ones something to do while the pumpkin pie cools on the counter.
18. button 4th of july craft
Arrange red, white, and blue buttons into a flag shape or a star on cardstock. It’s simple, patriotic, and requires nothing beyond what’s already in your sewing supplies. Display it with a little flag on the porch table for the most effortless holiday decor you’ve ever made. For even more ideas to celebrate the Fourth with your littles, this roundup of patriotic crafts for kids has some really sweet options to try.
19. button flower craft
Use a large button as the flower center and glue smaller buttons in a circle around it to form petals. Add a felt or paper stem and leaves. Make a whole bouquet and tuck them into a mason jar for a no-wilting arrangement that lives on the windowsill all year. This is the most classic of button crafts and still one of the best — it never gets old.
20. button bookmark craft
Cut a strip of cardstock or thick felt and glue a row of buttons down the center — or just one beautiful button at the top for something simple and elegant. Laminate it if you want it to last. These make wonderful little gifts tucked inside a book, and they’re the kind of thing kids can make almost entirely on their own once they’re past the mouthing stage.
what you’ll need to get started
The beauty of button crafts is that they need almost nothing. Here’s a simple list of what to gather before you settle the kids at the kitchen table:
- A jar of spare buttons in a variety of sizes, shapes, and colors
- Cardstock or thick paper in multiple colors
- Craft glue or a low-temp glue gun for older children
- Scissors and a pencil for tracing shapes
- Optional: pipe cleaners, felt, googly eyes, watercolor paint, twine
That’s really it. If you find yourself short on buttons, thrift stores and estate sales are wonderful places to find whole jars of them for next to nothing — and half the fun is sorting through them together on a slow morning.
a few tips for crafting with little ones
If you’ve got children under three — welcome to my world, sweet friend. Button crafts can absolutely work with toddlers, but a few things make the whole experience gentler for everyone involved.
- Watch for small parts. Buttons are a choking hazard for babies and young toddlers. If you have a little one who still puts everything in their mouth, use only large, flat buttons and keep close watch throughout. Babies often do best as cheerful observers while older siblings handle the smaller pieces.
- Keep it short. Little ones don’t need a two-hour craft session. Twenty minutes at the kitchen table with a clear purpose is plenty — and it ends before anyone melts down. We do better when I set out the supplies, show them what we’re making, and then step back and let them work.
- Let it be imperfect. The button flower with all the petals on one side is my favorite thing on the fridge right now. The glue drips are part of the story. Resist the urge to tidy while they’re working — just let them make it theirs. If your kids love hands-on, textured projects, you’ll also find a lot to love in these sensory crafts for kids — wonderful for little ones who learn best through touch.
button crafts for every season and celebration
One of the things I love most about this list is that it covers almost the whole year. From the button nativity we work on slowly through Advent to the red-white-and-blue flag we put together in early July, there’s something to pull out for nearly every season that comes around the bend.
Seasonal crafts have become one of the quiet rhythms of our home — a way to mark time, talk about what’s coming, and give little hands something meaningful to do.
She looks well to the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. — Proverbs 31:27. That verse has always felt like it’s about more than chores. It’s about intentionality. About making space for beauty and creativity inside the ordinary week.
The faith-filled crafts on this list — especially the button nativity and the button Easter eggs — have opened up some of the sweetest conversations we’ve had around our table. My oldest asked me last Advent why the wise men brought gold, and we talked about it for the rest of the afternoon while she sorted buttons into colors. That’s the kind of thing you don’t plan. It grows out of slow, unhurried time together.
If you’re looking for more ways to weave faith and creativity into your everyday rhythms, these church crafts for kids are a beautiful place to start.
go dig out that button jar today
Sweet friend, the button jar has been sitting on your shelf long enough. Consider this your gentle nudge to pull it down, spread a sheet of parchment paper on the kitchen table, and make something beautiful with your hands and your littles’ hands this week.
Button crafts are one of the simplest pleasures of a slow, homemade life. They cost almost nothing. They require very little setup. And the results — a rainbow made of mismatched buttons, a butterfly glowing in a window, a tiny nativity scene arranged on a piece of linen — are the kind of ordinary beautiful things that fill a home with warmth and intention.
And if you’re looking for even more ways to craft with what’s already in your home, this roundup of paper crafts for kids is another no-fuss, always-on-hand option for creative afternoons at the kitchen table.
Which button craft on this list are you making first? Drop it in the comments below. I’d love to know which one is calling your name.
With love,
Betty
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frequently asked questions
are button crafts safe for toddlers?
They can be, with some thoughtful adjustments. For children under three — especially those who still mouth objects — stick to large, flat buttons and supervise closely throughout. Babies and very young toddlers often do best as cheerful observers while older siblings handle the smaller pieces. As your little one grows past that stage, buttons become a wonderful fine motor activity for sorting, placing, and pressing into glue.
what kind of glue works best for button crafts?
For kids working on their own, regular craft glue (like Elmer’s white glue) works well, though it takes time to dry and buttons may need to be held in place for a moment. A low-temp glue gun is faster and holds better, but should be handled by an adult or a careful older child. For fabric-based projects, fabric glue or a simple hand stitch will hold up better over time than craft glue alone.
where can I find spare buttons for crafting?
Thrift stores and estate sales are my favorite source — you can often find whole jars of vintage buttons for a dollar or two. Fabric and sewing stores usually carry them in bulk as well. The most homesteading-friendly approach of all is simply saving buttons from worn-out garments before they get tossed. Over time, that jar fills up without spending a thing.
are button crafts good for sunday school?
Absolutely — especially the faith-themed ones on this list, like the button nativity, the button Easter eggs, and the button bookmark. These work well in a Sunday school setting because they require very few materials, can be completed in a short time, and give children something meaningful to carry home. The nativity project in particular makes a beautiful Advent activity that ties directly into reading the Christmas story together.
how should I store buttons for crafting?
A glass jar is my preference — you can see what’s inside at a glance and it sits beautifully on a shelf. If you have a large collection, sorting by color into smaller jars makes project prep much faster. Old spice jars, mason jars, or any small lidded containers work perfectly. Storing them somewhere visible also tends to invite more spontaneous creativity from little ones — which is never a bad thing around here.
