Cute as a Button-A 'Welcome Baby' Gift

I think buttons are cute. I have a ton of them, and I'm always buying more sizes, more colors, more, more, more, and maybe one more.


Last week a gal I work with had a baby. We have a sunshine committee at work that arranges gifts for this sort of occasion. I volunteered this go-round. I went with the 'as cute a button' theme b/c I had a bunch of button projects I wanted to try out I've seen around the internet....
I bought this little chocolate mold at The Cake Carousel (a local cake shop). The day after I made these I also saw Bakerella posted about a store that sold this exact mold online: http://www.bakeitpretty.com/. I love her site!

I dyed some white chocolate the three shades I had gone with for this gift (blue, green, and yellow). I filled the button drops. It was actually kinda a pain. I spooned the chocolate in (as usual), but they were so little, and so shallow. Attempt two, I ended up just spooning a huge drop on the tray, and taking the edge of a knife and running it back and forth across the top to push the chocolate down in the holes, but it left a chocolate film on the tray. This is fine for a 'one person gift,' but I probably wouldn't want to make multiple little bags of these, whew, talk about labor intensive. Actually, it's something I'd probably do, but I wouldn't want to want to do it!

Bagged and beribboned.

Next up. I bought some flowers and a vase. I also bought some wire, and some buttons, and made these little button picks to mesh with the flowers. I've seen bouquets of buttons before with many more/decorative buttons, but here's my budget version using all the buttons in a mixed button bag I bought at Michael's from the sewing section, and some real flowers.
The button stems.

The flowers came with multiple blooms on each stem. This drives me a little crazy (short drive) since they are different heights. I like uniform bouquets, so I cut off the flowers, bundled them up in clusters with a button in the center,

floral taped those together,

and then floral taped my bundles together.

I'm aggressive with my flower 'arrangement'.
I added my ribbon,

and moved on.
Last, I saw this recipe for Button Cookies awhile back on gourmetmomonthego. I kept the idea in the back of my head, I was looking for a reason to make a slew of buttons.

Recipe: I halved the recipe, and it made about a dozen. I adjusted it to simplify it b/c I was tired, and today wasn't the day I was going to change my inner self and worry about perfection, or anything in the ballpark of even professional. For the HALF recipe I used a fork and mixed 1 c. all-purpose flour, 1/8 t. salt, 1/4 t. baking powder. In a separate bowl I used a mixer and combined 1/2 stick butter, softened, and 1/2 c. sugar. I added half an egg (now that's interesting, but I do it all the time), and 1/2 t. vanilla. Then I added my dry ingredients and continued mixing. I divided the dough into three pieces, and added my color. I then put it in the fridge for 30 minutes. I didn't roll it etc into a log as she suggested. I took the dough out one color at a time. I placed the dough directly on my stone cookie sheet. I pressed it out with wax paper, and the palm of my hand, and then cut the dough directly on the tray. The dough is REALLY soft (at least mine was), and so it was easier to do it this way than to try to transfer the circle.

I just used the edge of the cookie cutter to shape the inner (messy) circle, and then I used the tip of an icing tip to pull out the center pieces.

I baked at 325 for about 15 minutes.
My buttons were not as beautifully defined as the recipe on the site I pulled the idea from. The holes in the middle closed. I can live with it though, and that's all that matters....to me.

I wonder if I had cut out the shapes, put them back in the fridge, and then baked cold(er) if it would have spread less? Just a theory someone else can test. Or perhaps if I had followed the recipe as it was written? Novel idea, I know. But, where's the fun in that?
And in the end, all my button pieces came together for new Mom, and her baby, who I'm sure is 'as cute as a button.'

Imagine this with a tag that says, 'As Cute As a Button." Imagination will have to do until I go figure out if I have any ink in my printer.
Linking To:
Keeping It Simple
Metamorphosis Monday
Just Something I Whipped Up
Santa's Gift Shoppe