Tutorial: How to make your own wooden Buttons:

For the past few weeks I have been having fun making wooden buttons.  I thought I would share these lovelies and how to make them with you.

Equipment:
Jigsaw or Hand saw with a thin blade
Dremel with coarse and fine sanding drums/ or coarse and sand paper for sanding by hand
1/16 inch drill bit for dremel ( or drill and 1/16th inch bit)
Paintbrushes
Materials:
Long straight stick or dowel --mine is about 1 3/4" in diameter
Paint
Polyurethane or Sealing





Step 1: Slice your stick or dowel into disks. Mine are a little more than 1/8" thick.

Step 2:  Drill holes

Step 3:  Smooth and shape the disks using Sand paper or dremel with sanding drums.  I recommend wearing safety goggles and a dust mask while working with the dremel as it throws a lot of dust in your face.  Start with the coarse sand drums and smooth the surface of the buttons.  Then while holding the button in you hand rotate it slowly as you sand the edges into the desired shape. I mostly held my dremel at a slight angle to the disks to make a slightly beveled edge. If you want to keep the bark on your buttons be very careful while shaping the edges or you will sand or break it right off.  One the button is the right basic shape you will want to switch to the fine sand paper/drum and sand it until it feels silky smooth in your hands.

Step 4:  Clean up the dust from your work are and wipe off the buttons.

Step 5:  Painting and staining---This is the fun part.  You can pretty much do anything you want to the buttons now.  I painted most of mine but I used a little used vegetable oil to give a light stain to a few and I have use wood stain on buttons I have previously made.

Step 6:  Seal your buttons.  You can either spray your buttons with a clear sealant or brush them with polyurethane.  (I forgot to take pics of this step sorry)