Meet the Makers: Laura and Tia of Little Button Diaries

“We're very lucky that we only live around the corner from one another and have, well, pretty much everything in common,” say the girls. “If we're not chatting away about our blog we love to find new things to bake, projects to make and photographs to take. It's not easy finding the time to make stuff with little ones running around your feet, but we want to show that having a baby doesn't mean you have to stop doing the things you love – and that a lot can be achieved even in the space of a short nap!” Laura and Tia maintain that they're not “craft wizards, more 'find a fault, make a feature' kinda girls” – just doing the things they love because they love doing them!

What was life like before you became full time mummy bloggers?

We have always been crafters and always spent our spare time making stuff, so it was pretty similar in that sense. It's just that now we spend as much time in front of our computers as we do our sewing machines! When we had babies this whole new world of craft projects opened up and we started making loads of toys and clothes for our little ones. We wanted to start documenting the things we were making, and that's why we started Little Button Diaries.

How did you both meet?

We met each other a long time ago when we both went to Cardiff University together and bonded over our inability to speak Italian! We had no idea at the time that we both loved crafting and how our friendship would be brought even closer through working together 13 years later.

We have since both moved to London and Brighton and now live a few minutes around the corner from each other so we get to craft and drink a lot of tea together.

Our toddlers are now more into crafts as they're older so we try to involve them in as many makes as we can.

What is a typical day like for you?

Pretty chaotic at the moment, but we like being busy! We both get woken up at some silly time by one of our little ones and usually text each other with blog ideas we've had overnight! We find it easier to occupy the toddlers if we're out and about so we often go out to farms and parks, or to the beach if it's sunny. The evening is when we do all of our crafting (often in front of the TV watching something that doesn't require much attention!) and write up our blog posts.

How do you balance family life with the blog?

This can be tricky! We have to be quite organized to juggle the demands of our children and blog commitments. Blogging when they are asleep obviously helps and nap times are very precious to us. Also, our toddlers are now more into crafts as they're older so we try to involve them in as many makes as we can.

What's your favourite craft to do?

Ones that don't take much time! Gone are the days when we can spend many evenings leisurely hand-stitching a quilt. We love projects that don't take too long, and we often have 10 on the go all at once! Easy to sew toys, shrink plastic and accessories for us and our kids are amongst our favourites at the moment.

What do you enjoy most about being Mummy bloggers?

Being able to document our children growing up and record the crafts we make. We found when we started the blog that it was a great way to motivate us to finish all the projects we started – something that isn't always easy with babies. We also like being a part of the huge network of parent bloggers out there who we can relate to and who inspire us daily.

Where do you get the inspiration for all of your amazing projects?

Like the rest of the crafting community we are both a bit obsessed with Pinterest – its a great place to start when you're feeling uninspired. Obviously, we love the Hobbycraft blog too! There are some great projects on there with some different materials that we hadn't used before too. Living in Brighton is such a creative place and there's a big crafting community so we're lucky to be surrounded by inspiration. Having said that, like everyone we regularly have moments when we cannot think of a single thing to make!

What's the best piece of advice you've ever been given?

Find a fault and make a feature! We're not professional crafters and quite often our projects don't quite work out as we had planned. We've learnt not to always unpick the mistakes, but instead, turn them into unique features. Besides, it's the little mistakes that make things personal.

Like the rest of the crafting community we are both a bit obsessed with Pinterest – its a great place to start when you're feeling uninspired.

What five top tips would you give someone wanting to start up their own blog?

1. Only blog about the things you love. Particularly if you're writing a craft blog – there's no point making loads of stuff you don't actually want, you'd burn out very quickly.
2. Have a clear idea about what you want to achieve before you start – who you're aiming it at, why you're writing it and how much time you want to dedicate to it.
3. Take inspiration from the blogging community and have a look at what else is out there to get some inspiration for style, content and imagery.
4. Set out a schedule of posts. We always aim to have at least a month's worth of posts sorted in our heads – even if we haven't started the actual projects yet! This will help structure and organise things and keep up the momentum.
5. Plug your posts – if you want to build an audience, use Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest. Comment on other peoples' posts, join 'linky parties' and look to swap guest posts with other bloggers.

Only blog about the things you love. Particularly if you're writing a craft blog – there's no point making loads of stuff you don't actually want, you'd burn out very quickly.

And for the future? What's next for Little Button Diaries?

We're always looking for ways to expand our crafting skills and blog so we're aiming to try out new crafts and design projects. We've recently moved into making videos so craft tutorials are also to follow.