Button Art Spotlight: Competition Trays, Creative Process, Ribbons Won and Creative Challenges
Updated: Oct 16
A button tray - or card can look quiet from across the room. Step closer, and the whole story
starts to show: shell catching the light, glass adding depth, metal giving an edge, and tiny choices in spacing that decide whether a design feels settled or scattered.
I have enjoyed entering creative button competitions at the National Button Society Conventions and World Button Association online challenges. The creative categories are where buttons become more than collected objects. They still need to be selected with care, mounted neatly, and presented with respect for the rules, but they also get to tell a story.
This Button Art Spotlight shares the trays I entered, the thinking behind each one, and the ribbons they brought home.
National Button Society Creative Challenge #10 Buckle It. First Prize Blue Ribbon!
Domethilde, born in Canada was my Great Great Grandmother. She was the mother of 16 Children! Most of her children emigrated to the US settling in Lynn, MA and NH. I love this photo of of my GGGrandmother standing proud next to my GGGrandfather in her outfit adorned with a beautiful belt buckle. The two mounted belt buckles came to me from her daughter, my Nana. Although the challenge was to have a buckle as the focal point, I chose the photo to be the focal point of the tray - as a reminder of where all our buckles and buttons come from - real people, real outfits, and not a "button box". The buttons bordering the photo are all depicting buckles!
What the creative category asks from a button card
Creative button competition is different from a straight classification card. A classification card often focuses on a specific material, age, technique, or subject. A creative card asks the exhibitor to use buttons as the main design material and build a clear visual idea around them.
That does not mean anything goes. A strong creative card still needs discipline.
Judges look for qualities such as:
A clear interpretation of the class theme
Buttons that fit the idea, rather than merely fill space
Good condition and careful mounting
Balance in color, size, shape, and texture
Clean presentation with no visual clutter
A design that feels intentional from edge to edge
The best creative cards seem simple at first glance. Then the details reward a closer look.
A Button Habitat
2026 Creative Challenge #12: Anything Goes Second Place
This piece, 14" round, is all hand embroidered with beads and buttons to create a habitat for buttons! If you look closely you'll find three insects hidden in the stitching! Second Place ribbon! - I would be pretending if I said the ribbon did not matter. They mark the moment when someone else sees the time, thought, and patience behind the work!
Aunt Gustie
2026 National Button Society Creative Challenge # 7: Tell A Story I was close to winning a ribbon, but "Aunt Gustie" ended up in Fourth place. The buttons reflect animals in the area, the well in the backyard, the covered bridge that was crossed in the horse and buggy every Sunday to get to church, the fly - that is still a pest today! They had a cow named Bessie, chickens, horses, oxen, and pigs on the farm.
The farm house is still in the family today!
Owney
National Button Society Creative Challenge #8 Commemorative: First Place
"Owney," is my favorite Competition Tray! I started collecting Post Office Buttons, as my husband works for USPS - in an attempt to get him interested in my button collecting! I have done a deep dive into the Postal Service Buttons, and have enjoyed the research.
The button on the top of the card, is a button I made, a hand drawing of Owney!
Summer Bouquet
National Button Society Creative Challenge #12: Whatever Else: First Place
This started as an unfinished ribbon art piece I found in an antique store. I just hated to see it thrown in a pile of vintage textiles - and wanted to give it a new life. I appliquéd the bird on the piece, added embroidery, a few more ribbon flowers, and China buttons as spray or little filler flowers!
The Wheels are Turning
National Button Society Creative Challege #12, Whatever Else: Third Place
I used scraps of vintage fabric to border my hand-stitched steam punk design, then added dorset wheel buttons that I made for embellishments. I love the mix of vintage fabrics with the added interest of the steampunk craze of the 1990's
National Button Society's Creative Challenge 2023
I hand made all the buttons shown on this card - The doily is a vintage piece.
Hand stitched - embroidered figure bordered by vintage lace, showcasing black glass buttons
A lot of my work is inspired by Geneva. My art has been great therapy for my grief.
I'm not fond of this type of plastic button - but it did show off this quilt block type nicely!
More of my handworked fabric buttons!
My First Entry to Competitions: 2022 NBS "The Greatest Show on Earth" Show
National Button Society Creative Challenge: Show Theme - First Place
This was my first competition tray in my Button Journey! We were asked to print out the background flyer, and create a tray with the theme of the show: "The Greatest Button Show on Earth" I added the strongman, and the monkey to the flyer, and the show themed buttons! The pink buttons are a set: Circus goofies, 1930's-1940's novelty buttons.
National Button Society, The Quilt Block - Second Place
Well, I had to enter the Quilt Block Challenge! I created the Log Cabin Block with different vintage Buttons. I love all the plastic buttons when they are together like this!
2026 World Button Associatation Creative Challenge
World Button Association Creative Challenge: Use clothing to repurpose
I choose a little girls dress in honor of my daughter, Geneva, and added handmade lace from my G-Grandmother that I had found in a basket in the attic at the farm. The buttons are all Shell Buttons . The dress is embroidered, and stitched onto vintage orphan blocks I had found at an antique store.
2025 World Button Association Creative Entries: Buttons in Wonderland
This was a challenge to make your own button using the theme as the inspiration.
World Button Association Creative Challenge: Fiber Art with the Theme Buttons in Wonderland as the inspiration. I drew and painted the scenes on fabric, added buttons, and stitched vintage material as the border. They would look so cute hanging in a child's room!
2025 World Button Association Creative Entries: World Button Games
2025 World Button Association Creative Challenge: World Button Games
This was a fun challenge to create Fiber Art using buttons!!
How to start exploring button art yourself
If these cards spark an idea, start small. A first button card does not need rare materials or a complicated theme. It needs a clear idea and a handful of buttons that belong together.
Try one of these simple prompts:
Build a card around one color family
Arrange buttons to suggest a season
Choose five buttons and create a visual path between them
Make a card inspired by a favorite poem, place, or memory
Compare shiny and matte textures on one small board
Before mounting, take a quick photo of each layout. Move the buttons around. Leave the card overnight and look again the next morning. Button placement often tells the truth after a little distance.
Use clean materials, gentle handling, and mounting methods that do not harm the buttons. If a button is fragile, rare, or sentimental, practice first with less precious pieces.
Most of all, share the work. Bring a card to a local button club. Send a photo to another collector. Enter a beginner-friendly class if one is available. Creative button art grows when people show what they are trying, not only what they have perfected.
A button card may begin with a box of small objects, but it becomes something larger through choice. Color, spacing, theme, and memory all leave a mark. Whether a card earns a ribbon or simply starts a good conversation, it adds one more voice to a beautiful, hands-on art form.
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