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Buttons are not just for clothing. It's unclear when scrapbooking with buttons began as a trend. Even in early scrapbook albums, it wasn't unusual to see a button placed on a scrapbooking page. Quite often it was a keepsake button, like from a vintage piece of clothing or a baby girl's first dress. As scrapbooking pages started to become more 3-D and scrappers looked for unique embellishments for their pages, buttons became more popular. Manufacturers started offering buttons to coordinate with their paper lines, and buttons with themes like Christmas and sports became available. Monthly scrapbooking kits and page kits often include complementary buttons as part of their packages. Consider these tips for scrapbooking buttons on your pages.

1. Buttons lined up together can make a border for your scrapbooking page layouts.

2. Place buttons in your titles by using them to dot your "i"s. You can also use them as the center of letters like "o" and "p."

3. Buttons can be secured to a page using embroidery floss by sewing it into the page.

4. Glue dots work very well to adhere larger-sized buttons to a page, as well as buttons that are not flat on the bottom.

5. A few buttons make nice accents to anchor a ribbon border to a page. Again, glue dots will securely attach the buttons to the ribbon.

6. Try placing a button on the flap of an envelope to decorate a simple page element.

7. Flowers are still very popular on scrapbooking pages. Silk or paper flowers come in all sizes and colors now. A button makes a perfect center for a flower. An added benefit is that the button can hide the adhesive that typically shows through a paper flower.

8. Take 4 small buttons and attach them to the 4 corners of a photograph. The buttons will look like they are holding the photo to the page.

9. Create a bulleted list for journaling. Use buttons as the bullets.

10. Scrapbooking tags can be used for page elements, photo mats, and journaling blocks on a scrapbooking page. You can use a button to decorate the hole at the top of a tag.

11. Try placing a button on a page and then hanging the string from a scrapbooking tag from it as an anchor.

12. An antique, vintage or unusual button can be used individually on a page as a page element all its own. Try double matting the button to highlight it on your layout.

13. Attach a button to a page with the holes empty, or thread some floss through the holes and tie it in a knot or bow for an added accent.

14. Don't limit yourself to one size of buttons on your page layout. Mix sizes and styles of buttons. You could stay with the same color, but have a variety of different buttons in that same color on a single page.

15. Buttons can be memorabilia. Save buttons from shirts, handbags, hats and other clothing that have sentimental value, but that you no longer can use. The buttons can be added to a scrapbooking page to remember the times when you wore those items. Baby buttons look cute on a baby page layout as well.