Turn a Frame Into a Button Board!

I was recently re-decorating my office/makerspace and realized that I had a lot of buttons, so I decided to put together a display for them to hang above my workstation! I was only using stuff I had on hand, which luckily ended up working for me. It's pretty quick and adds a nice bit of color to my room, so I hope you are able to use color combos you like!

I made this using mostly materials I had around the house left over from other crafts. I'll list out what I used and some other stuff I think could work so you could also pull it together without buying anything new!

• Foam core (could also use cardboard)
• Scissors (could use a fabric cutter and/or box cutter)
• Glue gun + glue
• Fabric (this could come from scraps from other things or a t-shirt)
• Frame without glass/plastic (any old frame works, you will take out the window part)
• Optional: String (yarn, embroidery string, etc.)

You'll first want to cut the backing out to make sure it will fit. I already had this done for a project I did before this, so I don't have any pictures for this step. It's pretty straightforward though: what I did was use the frame's original back to trace the size/shape onto the foam core. Then, I cut that shape out of the foam core.

If you don't have the original backing, then you can use the plastic/glass and do the same procedure.

If you don't have any of those, then you can place the frame itself on what you are going to use, and then trace the inner shape onto the material. However, if you do this be sure that when you cut it out you leave an allowance around that shape you traced. This is because if you cut it the exact size, it will fall through the frame.

The first thing you will want to do is attach the fabric to the foam core backing. Since the fabric I used was cut up already, I decided to just add it in layers. The process will be pretty similar if you use a continuous piece of fabric.

First, determine which side of the fabric you want to face out. Take that side and lay it towards the working surface. On my images, you can see that I have the non-pattern side facing out in the final project. That means that I laid down the non-pattern side face down on the working surface.

On one side of the foam core, you'll start by laying down hot glue. Once you've done that, you can fold the fabric over quickly. If I think it is too hot and the fabric is thin, I will use the handle of the scissors to press down instead of my fingers. Once you have that side down, you can start working up one of the adjacent sides (I tried to show this in the images). Mine is a bit choppy from using different fabric rectangles, but the process is the same: put down the glue, fold the fabric over.

It's ok if the fabric is a bit loose; you'll mainly be pushing the buttons into the backing.

At the end, you should be able to comfortably turn around the board. This will be useful for part two!

At this point, you're pretty much done! You can now add in the foam core with fabric into the frame. I did this just like when you add a regular picture/glass in there. Only this time, you only have one layer to add in! Use the tabs to keep it secure in the back and you're ready to add the buttons!

And now you are done! I brought together all my pins to add them at once. I just stuck them into the board so they could stay in one spot. I hung it up with command strips at first, but then changed it to string and a pushpin so I could move it around more when I add new pins!

I hope you enjoy working on this project! I have it hanging above my computer and it brings me so much joy to look at it while I'm working :)