My favorite paperweight designs tend to be simple and usually involve placing a small object against a background.  Even though there are only two elements involved, there's virtually no limit to the number of unique styles you can create.

During the month of June the Design Blog will focus on backgrounds paired with small trinkets and findings to show you all the incredible things you can achieve with items you may already have around your home or studio, or items you've never thought of using in the past.  We'll start with something very basic, a button.


I found these wood buttons in one of my craft drawers, along with some hemp cord you can find at most craft stores.


For the background I chose a swatch of paisley scrapbook paper that has an embossed design with a slight pearlessence.   I covered the self-adhesive mounting board (included with each paperweight kit) with the paper and marked the center with a blue pen to act as a reference for placing the button.


The button was attached to the center of the background with hot melt glue, making sure to keep the glue away from the button holes and outside edges.  This prevented the glue from oozing out from underneath the button and becoming unsightly.


I used an embossing tool to punch holes through the mounting board.


After threading the hemp cord through the button holes, I secured the ends of the cord to the back with tape.


You can easily duplicate this general design with antique and vintage buttons in vivid colors and intricate patterns.