I’m so happy that CraftStylish is celebrating Button It Up with an entire month of button-themed craft projects! Such a cool surprise.

I did the very first how-to, a fun little set of shrink art buttons, and there will be dozens more all through March.

Keep an eye on CraftStylish for some wonderful craft book giveaways all month, including copies of Button It Up. A huge thank-you to my editor there, Michaela Murphy, for organizing the button love!

My lovely guest designer Sally Shim is also hosting a book giveaway on her Shim + Sons blog, so be sure to stop by and comment by Friday, March 6. Sally made the gorgeous pencil canister and magnets set… I love that one!

And Sarah Schlosser-Moon of Sewer-Sewist wrote a fantastic review of the book this weekend too. I especially loved these parts:

Susan is a true button aficionado. Button it Up begins with a sweet introduction from her about her button memories as a child, playing with both of her grandmothers’ button stashes. As I was getting ready to write this post, I looked back on some of Susan’s old West Coast Crafty posts about this book, and I was struck by how many comments on this post in particular connected with a similar memory. It seems that there is something nearly universal about a childhood fascination with buttons, and this book is a warm reminder of that.

If you’re familiar with Susan’s jewelry-making book, Bead Simple (a well put together and highly approachable book, if you’re interested in jewelry making), you’ll appreciate that Button it Up follows a similar format–lots of great “recipes” (that’s how I think of them) for making unique projects, this time using buttons. This is definitely one of the strengths of the book — it gives you all the tools you need to unleash your own creativity — not simply replicate a project from the book.

I think Button it Up would be a great resource for a crafty afternoon with friends or family — have a potluck, bring some buttons to trade and share and use this book to create some fun, affordable, one-of-a-kind projects together.

Thank you, Sarah and Sally!