2 DIY: Plain Belt Refashion

I bought a pretty mint color dress that I felt was missing something in the middle. I really wanted to find a thin brown belt for it. Actually I wanted to make a thin belt with a bow at the front, something like this but in brown:

Upon Googling belts that have a small bow at the front, I realised tutorials were all over the net already on this. So I scrapped the bow idea as it was already done so much. What to do?

I had already purchased a plain thin belt for something like $2.00. 

I scavenged amongst my stash of 'random stuff that I hoped to someday find a use for' and saw a bunch of these gold buttons that I bought at random during my trip to Hong Kong recently. It was one of those deals where you just scoop out assorted buttons from a jar and pay by weight. I saw girls taking their time picking individual buttons one at a time to make up a bag, I just didn't have the time and patience to do that. By not taking the time to choose, I ended up with all these gold ones which I didn't really know what to use for. The center of them are hollowed out, seems like there was meant to be a stone in the middle. 

Well, I didn't have the right sized stones on hand to fill the empty buttons. BUT, hah! I had these glitter gel sticks extra from a previous Christmas craft, purchased from the Dollarama. I chose green glitter to fill the holes with and waited for them to dry. It takes a while for the glitter to completely dry, so be patient! And I needed a pretty big glob of glitter to make it look like a rounded bead/stone. Actually, after the first time I filled it and created a nice rounded bead, over time the bead sorta sank in as if the air in the bubble had let out. So I had to retouch with another glob of glitter, and I did this about three times on each button to finally get a pretty solid rounded bead.

I made three of these below. One bead actually fell out later =( so I topped each surface with a coat of clear nail polish just to seal it in better. I think that did the job. 

 I snipped off the buckle of my belt and sewed on the buttons. On the underside I attached button snaps. Ta-Da!

I can't say I would wear this often as I don't think I attached the snaps really well so I'm not sure they would last me through everyday wear. But it looked cute in photos which was what this was meant for. If proper clasps or something were attached I'm sure you can make a better functional belt. 

Here's a sneak peak of our photoshoot =)

Here's how I made the J and B wooden initials. 

Have a great day!