Creative March Madness Idea: Pinback Button Survivor Pool

It is the final week of February and you know what that means…at least for all the sports fans out there: March Madness 2010 is just around the corner.

Even if you are not an avid sports fan, you undoubtedly are familiar with March Madness. This is the term used to describe the month-long process of conference tournaments and then the 65-team national tournament that ultimately results in the crowning of a single champion in mens college basketball.

It has been estimated that this yearly event costs businesses billions of dollars in lost productivity as employees research matchups to fill out their brackets for their office pools, check scores or watch games online, or are just generally distracted by all the talk of favorites, underdogs, upsets, and exciting moments.

So what in the world does March Madness have to do with buttons? Well I’m glad you asked.

Today, we are going give you a create idea for your office pool that – not surprisingly – involves buttons!

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Thinking Outside the Box: Selling Print-Ready Button Graphics

One of our goals with The Button Blog has always been to broaden the horizons of your button making world in a variety of ways. In addition to telling you about all of the many button varieties that are possible to make, and providing you with various resources to help you make them, we also want to present you with ideas that can help you achieve a return on the investment of time and money that you put into your button making.

This particular blog post is one of those, and today’s idea comes from Etsy, where an enterprising craft enthusiast has provided us all with a unique means of generating extra revenue by selling ready-to-print button graphics.

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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.

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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.

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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: 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.

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ABM Video How-To Series: Aligning and Cutting Button Graphics Using a Punch Cutter

What is as smooth as a butterfly’s flutter?
And as precise as Tiger Woods’ putter?
It slices paper like a hot knife through butter,
Ladies and gents, it’s our peerless punch cutter!

That’s right, we welcome you back to the ABM Video Series, where today we educate you on the simple process for lining up and cutting button graphics using a punch cutter.

Here are the steps, and you can follow along as you watch the video:

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ABM Video Series: How to Prepare and Cut Circular Button Graphics

Many times, button making projects involve the creation of bulk sums of buttons. Sure, every now and then you make 5-10 at a time for a small, specific purpose; but, most of the time you are making hundreds or even thousands of buttons and want to make sure that you are being as efficient as possible.

Today’s entry in the ABM Video Series aims to provide useful step-by-step info and a visual tutorial that will help you prepare circular button graphics when you are doing a bulk project.

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ABM Video Series: How to Cut Circular Button Graphics Using an Adjustable Rotary Circle Cutter

We began our video series with a quick tutorial showing you how easy it is to use a button machine to make a button. Video #2 in the series is going to show you just how easy it is to create perfectly circular graphics for your buttons using our adjustable rotary circle cutter.

Before we get to the video, a few quick highlights about the adjustable circle cutter:

• Each adjustable circle cutter has five different pre-set stops for the most popular buttons sizes (1″, 1.5″, 2.25″, 3″, 3.5″).
• You also have the flexibility to adjust to any special size for custom cuts.
• The edges are knurled, which allows the cutter to grip paper and fabric for easier, more stable cutting.
• The top-mounted, quick-release knob allows for fully adjustable incremental cuts.
• And, most importantly, if it were any easier to use all you would have to do is think about your graphic being perfectly cut out…and it would be!
• Visit our main website to learn more about and purchase our adjustable circle cutter.

Want to see how easy you can cut out perfectly circular graphics for your next button? Click play…and don’t blink!  (You’ll miss it…it’s that easy!)

Video: How to Cut Circular Button Graphics Using an Adjustable Rotary Circle Cutter

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