Tic Tac Toe, Noughts and Crosses and buttons DIY

One of the things I always remember as a child was my Nans then my Mums button tin.  Such a source of amazement and wonder sorting through and playing with the buttons. Plus they came in handy for when you needed buttons of course. Over the past years I have slowly built up my own tin and it still feels like a wonder going through and discovering the right button for what you need or imagining what they belong on.

Today though, I was on the search for buttons for a game of noughts and crosses as we tend to call Tic Tac Toe here in England.


The idea came about knowing I had a few of these little cotton drawstring bags left over from another project a while ago. Having seen little games in similar bags I set out to make a set of my own for something the granddaughters could possibly play with on a rainy day or when bored.

Went for a rummage through my bag of vinyl and heat transfer vinyl scraps and found a perfect size of silver holographic HTV. It was fairly quick and easy to make up the grid in Cricut design space by manipulating squares into long lines and welding them together when in the right layout.

Pressed the HTV onto the drawstring bag and filled with7 buttons each of 2 colour flower buttons. I know you don't need 7 for a game but a few are probably at some point going to get lost.  If they all do then the girls will just have to discover the delights of a button tin themselves and come and find some new ones.

All in all a quick and easy satisfying project. All things were on hand just laying around my craft area somewhere. I'm really embracing this use what you have challenge I have myself doing.  It's making me look at things a little differently and thinking up new ways to use older supplies.

Thinking about it if you didn't have or can't use HTV you could used fabric paint or markers to make up the grid, It really is quite adaptable. All sorts of things could be used for the counters to.  Obviously needing to be age appropriate due to choking hazard etc.

Crayon Roll

I have seen this around on pinterest etc for a long time. I have also wanted to try the bag version with the crayons on the outside of a bag so you can gift the bag with a colouring book in it.  But on a Facebook group I am on Just Sew they just announced a weekend challenge of making something with a fat quarter or scraps that make up same amount of fabric. My granddaughter is very artistic and loves to colour, draw and create so I made this one for her

The roll is kept closed with a hair band sewn in and a ladybird button.  So cute isn't it?

Hardest bit was choosing which 12 crayons out of the box of 48 to use here

I think only complaint I will get is it isn't pink! I think a few more for gifts, and in different sizes may be on my horizon. I can see this sort of thing being useful for make up brushes, pencils, sets of  double ended knitting needles,all sorts of things

Take care and stay crafty

Jules x