Easy DIY Button Art on Canvas – Tutorial for Adults

Have you tried making art using buttons? My easy DIY button art on canvas comes with a tutorial for adults, so if you’re a beginner I’ll take you step-by-step through the whole process. It’s a fun and satisfying kind of art project to create!

Easy Version – Don’t be worried about drawing an animal shape or placement of the buttons. If you can draw dot-to-dot, color in a coloring book, and put a puzzle together then you’ll be fine.

Advanced Version – I also show how to incorporate seed beads for embellishing the button art canvas. This version requires good dexterity and a lot of patience.

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EASY DIY BUTTON ART ON CANVAS – TUTORIAL FOR ADULTS

SUPPLIES NEEDED:

• 12 x 12 canvas
• black button variety pack
• white/ivory button variety pack
• Gorilla glue
• acrylic craft paints
• artist paint brushes
• painter’s tape (Frog is my fave)
• ruler
• pencil
• home printer
• seed beads for advanced version

It’s time for the monthly Sustainable Craft Blog Hop! Hosted by Sum of Their Stories, we’re a group of bloggers who share crafty projects that have a sustainable element(s). Like my button art on canvas project is perfect for using up thrifted or leftover buttons. The theme this month is “monochrome” – black, white and shades of grey. Visit the links at the end of my post to see what everyone is sharing!

HOW TO MAKE EASY DIY BUTTON ART ON CANVAS

STEP 1 – PAINT THE CANVAS

Paint 2 to 3 coats of light gray acrylic craft paint on the 12 x 12 canvas.

TIP – If you don’t have the right shade of gray on hand then you can mix any gray with white to make a very light shade. This is what I had to do. Be sure to mix a whole bunch to paint more than one coat.

STEP 2 – PREPARE THE PANDA IMAGE

Do an image search for “real panda faces” on Google so you can choose your favorite face that you want to use. Print it out on your home computer. You can increase the size if needed right before you hit ‘print.’ I had to increase mine to more than 100%.

Measure and mark a square on the face image. Cut out the square.

DRAW A GRAPH AND PLAY DOT-TO-DOT

Use a ruler and pencil to draw a graph on your square image.

Make dots in each square at intersecting points and evenly within the end points as seen below. This is the easiest way to use as a reference when you draw the panda on your canvas.

STEP 3 – TRANSFER THE IMAGE TO THE CANVAS

The two photos below show – (1) a darker graph example that you’ll be making on your canvas which actually ends up being drawn very lightly onto the canvas, and (2) the lightly sketched panda on the canvas.

• Measure and use painter’s tape to create an open and centered 8 x 8 square on the canvas.
• Use a ruler and pencil to very lightly draw the graph onto the canvas.
• Dot-to-Dot / What you see in the first square of your panda image will be drawn in the first square of the canvas graph.
• Then go to the next square and do the same thing. Follow suit for the rest of the squares.

Below, you’ll see my lightly sketched panda inside the graph.

TIP – If you make mistakes, moisten a Q-tip and use it like a pencil eraser.

STEP 4 – PAINT THE PANDA BEAR

Use an artist paint brush to “color” the bear with one coat of acrylic craft paint.

DIY BUTTON ART ON CANVAS – TUTORIAL FOR ADULTS

STEP 5 – PLACE BUTTONS ON THE CANVAS

Start putting your “puzzle” together by spreading out all the white/cream buttons and first choose the largest sizes. I spaced about 7 over the face without putting any beside each other. Try to vary button styles, too.

Choose medium size buttons and start placing those, and then fill in around the large and medium buttons with smaller ones. Keep playing around until they mostly fill in the painted areas. Continue like so with placing the black buttons.

Take a good look at the final button placement and make any changes before glueing. Like I saw below that I needed to move 2 large black buttons down to look more like the eyeballs.

THE BEST GLUE TO USE FOR BUTTON ART

I find that clear Gorilla glue works best because it’s a strong gel glue that allows enough time to push and move buttons around without drying too fast.

STEP 6 – GLUE BUTTONS ONTO THE CANVAS

I started gluing the largest buttons first and then the medium ones. Afterwards, I worked in sections to glue the rest of the buttons down. You can glue in any order, this is just how I did it.

BUTTON ART ON CANVAS FOR ADULTS – ADVANCED VERSION

This advanced version of button art incorporates seed beads. You need good dexterity, lots of patience, and not mind getting sticky.

You’ll be squirting a tiny dab of glue in the empty spaces around the buttons. Work in small sections at a time.

I used a ball head sewing pin to push the small dabs of glue around in the empty spaces. Then sprinkle the seed beads and put them in place using a sewing pin, straight pin, or toothpick.

TIPS – I loaded the excess beads onto my ball head pin to clean the area up faster. I also washed my fingers a lot during the process to prevent a big ole hot sticky mess.

Hopefully, my detailed tutorial makes this DIY button art on canvas project easy enough for you to achieve on your own or gives you the inspiration to create maybe a different animal design.

RELATED – WATERMELON BUTTON CANVAS CRAFT

VIEW 5 MORE “MONOCHROME” CRAFT PROJECTS AND WHAT IS MONOCHROME?

Sum of Their Stories ~ Monochrome Patchwork Bag DIY

Old Farm Rockhouse ~ Simple Silhouette Greeting Cards

Purple Hues and Me ~ Monochrome Soda Bottle Goody Bag

So Crafty Crochet ~ Monochrome Crochet Scarves

Terri Steffes ~ Monochrome Watercolor Painting

Easy DIY Button Art on Canvas (that’s me)

• Monochrome definition– a photograph or picture developed or executed in black and white or in varying tones of only one color.
• Black and white photography is the most prominent example of monochrome photography. Other types of monochrome images include sepia or other toned images.
• Monochrome artwork is a type of artwork created in a single color, and often refers to black and white art. It commonly utilizes various shades or tints to create texture and perspective