Welcome to The Button Blog
by American Button Machines!

We are so glad that you have decided to join us at The Button Blog, where our goal is very simple: to celebrate the wonderful world of buttons.

Please, browse The Button Blog to learn more about making buttons, and to discover the many varied uses of a button machine and the myriad novelty items that you can create with your own button maker. If you have questions, please never hesitate to ask at our Contact Us page.

***Update***

The Button Blog recently launched its brand new forum. Follow the link to check the new button making forum out and take part in the discussion!

Recent Posts

ABM Customer Spotlight: Operation Smiley Face

We are very, very proud and excited about featuring Operation Smiley Face as our latest ABM Customer Spotlight. When you hear the story behind this wonderful operation, and the incredible woman who is its driving force, you will understand why.

Operation Smiley Face was started by a women (whose name is not listed on her website other than as “Operation Smiley Face“) who is currently dealing with stage 4 Metastic Breast Cancer that had already spread to her lymph nodes and lungs when she was first diagnosed in August of 2009. This came on the heels of more than a decade of coping with her 1998 diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis.

You might read that paragraph and think that she has little to smile and be positive about. And to you or I that might be the case, but this inspiring woman has chosen to focus on the positives despite the cavalcade of negatives facing her every day.

Incredibly, she has somehow found a way to not only keep herself smiling, but to make other people – including and especially strangers she has never met – smiling too.

» read more

Customer Spotlight: Selvedge House

Today’s customer spotlight shines on the fine folks over at Selvedge House, which is based in Brisbane, Australia. Selvedge House, as their website explains, provides a collection of hand crafted designer textiles, patterns and craft kits.

Recently, Danielle from Selvedge House sent us an email to tell us know how “brilliant” our button machine work and “how much fun” they have using it well set up at a weekend market stall. And in addition to fun, Danielle informs us that during that one weekend craft fair they pretty much made the cost of the machine back.

Here is a portion of Danielle’s email to us and some pictures from their weekend:

» read more

ABM Template Tutorial Video Series: Copying an Individual Button Graphic Across a Single Page

Over the last several weeks, we have posted four videos designed to assist you in creating circular button graphics ready to be printed and turned into whatever kind of button your heart desires.

You can find these button making tutorials at the following links:

• Photoshop Tutorial
• OpenOffice Tutorial
• Print Shop Tutorial
• Corel Draw Tutorial

What each video does is show you the step-by-step process for creating a machine-ready graphic. However, what the videos don’t show you is how to maximize the space of your paper by turning one graphic into an efficiently spaced page full of as many individual graphics as will fit.

But have no fear…we’ve got you covered.

» read more

Helping Customers (even in Canada!) One Circle Cutter at a Time

Nothing makes us happier than knowing that one of our products saved someone money, helped them create a memorable item, or generally just made their life a little bit better.

As we get ready to ramp back up again after another wonderful holiday season, we want to share with you a recent email that we received from one of our customers who reached out to us after being pleasantly surprised by how much time and money he saved with our Econo Circle Cutter.

» read more

ABM Template Tutorial Video Series: Print Shop

Welcome, loyal buttoneers (not to be confused with boutonnieres), to the fourth and final installment of our video template tutorial series, which has already shown you how to create button graphics using Photoshop, Corel Draw, and the Open Office free button making software.

Today, we venture into the digital jungles of Print Shop to go on a video safari that will show you how to create circular button graphics using this Windows-based software.

» read more

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.

» read more

Free Button Making Software

People are always asking us is it really that easy to make a pinback button? The quick answer is, absolutely! The next question is, where can I get free button making software? The most challenging thing to accomplish when making a button is designing the artwork, everything else is a piece of cake! If you want to design a pinback button on a computer, then you need some sort of graphic design software. People are always looking for free button making software that works well and is simple to use.

There are some different choices you can make for free button making software like Gimp, however we believe in the old adage, you get what you pay for.  While Gimp is free and works for many people, it can be challenging to set up and use for a novice. This being said, if it is challenging to learn, you might as well spend a little money on Adobe Photoshop or Corel Draw as these are professional software packages that do not have the problems you might encounter with free button making software such as glitches and printer driver issues.

If you are familiar with Adobe Photoshop or Corel Draw, then you already have the button making battle won. Adobe Photoshop is the primary market leader for graphics, however we find Corel Draw much easier to work with for most people as it seems to be more user friendly for non-graphically minded individuals. You can buy a scaled down version of Adobe Photoshop called Photoshop Elements for about $100 and it will probably do everything you need in the Button-World. Adobe Photoshop does have a long learning curve. However once it is mastered your imagination is the only limit to creating incredible graphics.

Update: Since writing this post, ABM has made it even easier for you to create button graphics on your computer using Photoshop and Corel.

First of all, you can take advantage of special deals for Photoshop that Adobe has made available through us. Click on the following link to save $20 to $30 on NEW Adobe Elements 8 products with mail-in rebate. (Exp 10/31/2010).

In addition, we have created video tutorials and free Photoshop templates for a variety of sizes to make your Photoshop experience even easier.

[Note: Corel video and templates coming soon.]

» read more

ABM Template Tutorial Video Series: Open Office Free Button Making Software

Last week we shared with you a video and pre-prepared templates to assist you when using Photoshop Elements to create button graphics. In the coming weeks before the holidays we he sharing similar videos and templates for Corel Draw and Print Shop.

Today, we are highlighting Open Office (program that you can download for free from OpenOffice.org) and making the creation of button graphics easy with a video tutorial and templates.

» read more

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.

» read more

Customer Spotlight: BandBadges.com.au

We are back with another edition of The ABM Customer Spotlight. In our first installment, we told you about ABM customer Barrel of Monkeys.

Today, we take a trip halfway across the globe — all the way to Australia — to tell you about BandBadges.com.au.

And really, their tagline says it all: custom-made promotional badges…FAST!

» read more