Throughout the years, so many of our wonderful customers have asked us for information, tips, and tutorials regarding button making and how to use their newly purchased button machine. We are always willing and excited to answer any question whether over the phone or though email, but also have made it our goal to give you online access to as many resources as we can provide.
One of these resources is Button University. We introduced Button University in an earlier post, and now we are setting out to provide all of our loyal blog readers with the same information that our website and storefront customers receive over at the main ABM site.
So with that in mind, let’s dive right into your first lesson from Button University: step-by-step instructions for starting a button making project.
Step-by-Step Instructions: How to Start Your Button Making Project
The first thing to understand about making buttons is that…it’s easy! Seriously. Don’t be intimidated. The button machines don’t bite unless they’re hungry, and we will only ship them to you once they are fully fed. : – )
All joking aside though, there are only four things you need to start a button making project:
- A button making machine
- A paper cutter
- Some button making supplies
- The right kind of paper for button making
Then, once you have the supplies, there are only three steps after that. (See…the further along you go, the fewer steps you have, and the easier it gets!)
- Design your buttons – this can be done by hand or on a computer using ready-made button design graphics. Plus, you can make buttons from graphics that you cut out from printed material like books, photos, and magazines. (Of course, if you plan to sell the buttons on a massive scale, just make sure you are not selling it with copyrighted material on it).
- Cut out your graphics using a circle cutter.
- Place the button supplies (shell, back, graphic, and mylar) into their appropriate dies. Then just pull the handle twice and you’re done! (We also provide button making how-to videos and step-by-step button making instructions over at the main site.)
And guess what? Only 2 steps after that! (See…from 4, to 3, to 2…easy as could be.)
- Figure out what you are going to do with your new buttons. Fundraiser? Button Business? Campaign promotion? Church promotion?
- Then plot your next button making rendezvous.
Stay tuned for Button University Lesson 2, where we will tell you everything you need to know about the various button sizes that you can make based on the specifications of your button making project.
Brighid Brown – Director of Blogging and All Things Cool at ABM