I am so excited that CraftStylish is celebrating Button It Up with an entire month of button-themed crafty projects! Michaela came up with the idea — it was such a cool surprise and I can’t wait to see what everyone is making…

I did the first project in the series this time, since March 1 fell on a Sunday (happily, my regular day to post how-tos). After making so many projects with buttons for the book, I thought I’d make a set of the buttons themselves!

I love shrink art, so I decided to use this magical substance to whip up some simple sew-through buttons.

Using a regular old hole punch creates perfect little button holes once they’re out of the toaster oven!

Next week I’ll be making a crafty project with these shrink art buttons, and then I have three more new ideas on tap too (March has five Sundays in it!). Jennifer just posted this sushi button bracelet today, and this post offers some tantalizing peeks at some gorgeous projects from Erika, Linda and Kayte.

And I have heard some exciting details about what Diane is doing, too… plus there will be weekly craft book giveaways, including Button It Up, Crafty Chica’s Guide to Artful Sewing, Sew Darn Cute, Chic & Simple Sewing, and Sewing Green.

p.s.: on the subject of books, my father-in-law Paul Dickson has a brand-new book this week too, The Dickson Baseball Dictionary, a fantastic and lively reference to all things baseball. He’ll be on All Things Considered this afternoon to talk about it if you have a chance to tune in!