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.

***Featured Product: 1" Ponytail Sets

You asked and American Button Machines listened, and we are now proud to announce our brand yaba-daba-new 1" ponytail sets, which have never before been available for purchase anywhere.

_______________________________________

Recent Posts

Pre-Release New Product Announcement: Magneta-Snaps™ Interchangeable Jewelry

2012 is already off to a rip-roaring start and we aren’t even out the first month yet. We already launched the new and improved Build-a-Button Online Design Center, and now we are happy to announce another new product that we are adding to ever-growing line of button making machines, supplies, and accessories.

Coming this February, we will be introducing ABM’s very own line of ‘Magneta-Snaps’ Interchangeable Jewelry, or simply Magneta-Snaps for short.

» read more

Surprise your special someone with a heart-shaped button for Valentine’s Day!

Don’t look now, but Valentine’s Day is almost exactly a month away.

That’s right, you’ve barely had a chance to take a breath from the wild and crazy Thanksgiving-Christmas-New Years triumverate that ends the year before the first big holiday of the new year is just around the corner. (And, *ahem*, guys…we’re really talking to you here. We know the ladies know that Valentine’s Day is on its way. So make sure that you do too.)

The question is: what can you do for your special someone this year that will be sweet, sentimental, and original? Luckily, we’re here to help. And the answer is our heart accent rings, which enable you to make lovely heart-shaped buttons for Valentine’s Day!

» read more

New Build-a-Button Tutorial on Backgrounds and Opacity

We recently posted a new tutorial for the Build-a-Button Online Design Center that shows you the various background options available, plus how to use the new opacity tool for backgrounds, images, text, and shapes.

Watch it, then go build a button!

» read more

Customer Spotlight: Christmas Ornament Buttons from Custom Wrapz

Last week we told you all about ornament buttons, which are obviously all the rage during the holiday season. They are a great way to customize and personalize your Christmas tree with sentimental buttons you can easily make all on your own.

And wouldn’t you know it, just a few hours after we published that post one our awesome readers sent in pictures of the Christmas ornament buttons they had made.

The button ornaments pictured below come courtesy of our friends at CustomWrapz.com. And in our humble opinion, they are…fantastic!

» read more

New Product Announcement: Black Velvet Gift Bag and DIY Foldable Purse Hanger

Thanksgiving is over, Christmas is just around the corner, and we’re back with yet another announcement of new products!

This time we have two fun, useful new accessories for your button making and gift-giving pleasure.

» read more

When the weather outside is frightful, button ornaments are delightful!

Decorating the Christmas tree is a time-honored and much-beloved by tradition by countless families across America and throughout the world. It is a wonderful experience to share with the entire family and brightens up houses for the entire month of December.

And guess what: we’ve got a way to make an already wonderful experience even better!

It’s true.

We suggest a slight alteration to your ornament strategy this year, but it’s not something that you can just run out to the store and buy – what would be the fun in that? Nope, we suggest making at least one but perhaps more of your own ornaments this year, and there is no better way to do just that than by making button ornaments!

» read more

Happy National Button Day!

I bet you didn’t realize – in the midst of your Thanksgiving Day preparations and early Christmas shopping – that another important holiday had snuck up on you. But it has.

National Button Day!

Yes, every November 16th is indeed our national day of making, celebrating, and enjoying the wonderful world of buttons.

And of course you just know that we cannot let an important day like this go by without recognizing it, wishing you a happy National Button Day, and providing a few suggestions for how to celebrate.

» read more

Update: The Best Button Design Software Online Has Been Enhanced

As you are hopefully aware by now, we recently launched the Build-a-Button Online Design Center, which we believe is the best piece of online button making software ever. That was the goal when we set out to design it, and we continue to seek ways to improve it now that is it launched in the free beta testing period.

We are very, very, very appreciative of everyone who has taken the time to use the Build-a-Button application and leave us constructive feedback on what works, what doesn’t, what rocks, and what could be improved. Believe us when we say that we have taken your comments to heart, reading each one carefully, and that is why we want to let you know about the many enhancements – many inspired by you – that have been made to the web’s best button design software in an effort to make the Build-a-Button Online Design Center even better!

» read more

The 4 Best Button Submissions by Button Blog Readers

Several months ago, we put a page up here at The Button Blog inviting button enthusiasts like you to submit pictures of the buttons you make. Now that some time has passed and some submissions have been made, it’s time to post some pictures of buttons!

Here are the best of the best button pictures that were submitted, plus the comments and websites of the submitters:

» read more

Introducing the Build-a-Button Online Design Center: The Greatest Button Making Software EVER!

There is a saying, and it’s meaning is pretty self-explanatory: Go big or go home.

To us, it means that if you are going to do something you should commit to doing it to the absolute best of your ability. If you are going to create something, spare no expense of money or effort to make it as great as it can be.

And if you’re just going to do something half or even 90% as well as you can do it, why even do it at all?

This was the philosophy that drove the creation, development, and now the unveiling of the Build-a-Button Online Design Center^TM. 

You have probably seen other applications similar to this while galavanting about on the Internet. There are a few of them out there. But we can promise you that no other button creation web app is as robust or versatile as ours is. Otherwise we wouldn’t bother releasing ours.

Go big or go home..remember?

So what makes the Build-a-Button Online Design Center^TM so special? Why do we feel 100% confident in proclaiming it the “greatest web application in the history of button making?” Here are some of the features we are most excited about:

Speed

The application takes a few seconds to load and then moves with real-time quickness from there.

Text in a circle

Anyone who has designed buttons with text understands how tricky it can be to properly format text in a circle. The Build-a-Button Online Design Center makes this easy!

Images

We give you the ability to upload multiple images up to 5MB in size. Then, via the design center, you can resize, move left, right, up and down, and rotate it 360 degrees in one degree increments.

Templates

You don’t need to bring anything with you to this party; we’ve got templates already made and loaded for you!

And included in the templates is one that assists in making political buttons. Go get those votes!

Button Sizes

There are over 20 possible button sizes that you can choose from, including various shapes. Here is the breakdown of what sizes and shapes are available:

• Round: 7/8, 1, 1.25, 1.5, 1.75, 2.25, 3, 3.5, 6,  BAM 2.25 and BAM 3*
• Square: 1 x 1, 1.5 x 1.5, 2 x 2, 2.5 x 2.5, and 3 x 3
• Rectangle: 1.75 x 2.75, 1.5 x 4.5, 2 x 3, and 2.5 x 3.5
• Oval: 1.75×2.75

(Note: all sizes listed in inches.)

* – Yes! We offer BAM 2.25″ and 3″ templates so customers with Badge-a-Minit machines can use our software!

Layers

You have the ability to overlay images and text and then move them forward or backwards in the layer structure. This gives you the opportunity to produce a much richer, diverse, layered design. You might think you’d need to go to Photoshop to do this, but we’ve got you covered!

Colors

You have granular control of the background color, the text color, and the outline color of the text.

Shapes

You can add interesting design elements to your button with the Build-a-Button Design Center shapes tool. You can add hearts, stars, squares, rectangles, ovals, arrows, and straight lines. You can also change the size, thickness, color of line, and fill color.

Format Options

You can save your artwork as jpg or pdf file formats. You can select how many images you save per page (1- 24, depending on the button size) to save on ink and toner. Or you can fill up an entire page for larger productions.

Paint Tool

You can draw freehand right on the button!

Color Picker

You have the ability to select a specific color and display the color’s hexidecimal or RGB value.

For these options and so much more, the Build-a-Button Online Design Center^TM, created for you by American Button Machines, is the best web application in the history of button making. And if you don’t believe us now, just wait until you use it!

You’ll most certainly believe us then.

So what are you waiting for…go to http://build-a-button.com and try it out!

Button making will never be the same…

Finally, please understand that the initial release will be a Beta launch, as we want to give you the opportunity to test the Build-a-Button Online Design Center^TM out so you can a) help us uncover any bugs and b) tell us what features you’d like added to it. Obviously your use will be free of charge during the Beta period as we perfect the product.