Button Making – So Easy A Child Can Do It! [Videos]

Button making is much easier than most people think. This isn’t to say that all button machines are made equal – there are several myths circulating about certain machines – but what’s cool about our American-made machines is, even though they are designed for adult use (12 years and older), their low center of gravity and wide base allow for ease of use by buttoneers  both young and old.

To show you exactly what we’re talking about, we’ll tell you how to put together a button, in this case a pinback button, with the help of two talented button makers, Sydney and Willow.

What You’ll Need for Button Making

Before we tell you how to make a button, here is what you’ll need:

  1. An American Button Machine – our demonstrators look to be using a Model 100 1-inch button machine.
  2. A one-inch pinback button set that includes a shell, mylar, collet, and spring pin.

How To Make A Button

Once you’ve got the supplies, you’re all set to begin the button-making process.

  1. To start, create art for your button using design software or our Build-A-Button Online Design Center.
  2. Cut out your graphics. There are several tools like circle cutters and handheld punch cutters that can improve your precision and efficiency for this process, especially if you are making a large volume of buttons.
  3. Insert the shell into the button machine die.
  4. Insert the graphic with the design facing up and put the mylar on top of the graphic.
  5. Rotate the dies and put the collet into the other die.
  6. Pull the handle down once.
  7. Rotate the dies so that the collet is now underneath the upper die and pull the handle down again.
  8. Rotate the dies back around to see your button.
  9. Remove the button, insert the spring pin into the back of the button, and you’re done!

Button Making Demonstration

Our button makers already have a design created and will use the machine to create the final product. To start off, here’s Sydney to show you how easy button making is.

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And, now, here’s Willow.

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While we can’t condone the underage activities in these videos – just look how easy it is to make a button using an American Button Machine. Please exercise caution & common sense by not allowing children under the age of 12 to operate the button makers without first having them hermetically sealed . 🙂

If you have any questions, please leave them below.

By Brighid Brown, Director of Blogging and All Things Cool at ABM

ABM Update: New sizes now available for the super popular Dynamo hand-held punch cutter.

You asked and we are delivering!

A few months ago we began offering a hand-held punch cutter for 1” buttons.  Right out of the gate we were getting requests for larger sizes.  Well, the wait is over – say hello to the Dynamo Hand-Held Graphic Punch Cutter for 1.25” AND  1.5” buttons! Continue reading

Introducing the Dynamo Hand-Held Graphic Punch Cutter

There are few moments that bring us more genuine excitement than introducing a new feature or product.

Recently, we’ve introduced new features like this super-special PayPal checkout option (with no payments and no interest for 6 months!) and new products like the ultra-fun and versatile Magneta-Snaps™ and Clix™.

And today, we have another new product to introduce.

Say hello to the Dynamo Hand-Held Graphic Punch Cutter!

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ABM Video Series: The Exciting World of Fabric Buttons!

As we continue with our button making video tutorial series, we take a quick break from the tutorials to celebrate the exciting world of fabric buttons.

And as you will see below, when set to a funky background beat, a montage of fabric buttons can be and is exciting!

Fabric buttons have been one of the most prominent topics that we have covered here at The Button Blog. Rather than try to re-invent the wheel or regurgitate old information, we will provide you with the links to our fabric button tutorial series, plus some other useful resources to help you in your fabric button endeavors.

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ABM Template Tutorial Video Series: Creating Button Graphics Using Corel Draw

Over the past couple of weeks we have been rolling out our button graphic video tutorial series, first showing you how to create button graphics in Photoshop and then showing you how to do the same using free button making software like Open Office.

Today, we are going to step into the magical world of Corel Draw and provide the same step-by-step look at how to create a perfectly measured circular button graphic using our free Corel Draw templates.

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ABM Template Tutorial Video Series: Photoshop Elements

We had so much fun and received such a positive response for our Button Making How-To Series that we decided it was time to bring you, our loyal readers and customers, another video series.

And so here we are this morning, excited to unveil the first video in our exciting Template Tutorial Video Series.

The goal of this series is quite simple: we want to show you how to create perfectly sized graphics for button making. Each video post will include two primary tools to accomplish this:

  1. A video that takes you through the step-by-step process for creating your graphic
  2. A downloadable template for the graphics program being discussed.

Today we are going to deal with Photoshop Elements, one of the most popular graphics programs available today.

Continue reading