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.

The reason why we are so excited about Magneta-Snaps™ is because they are fun, versatile, and practical. They are also incredibly simple to make and use.

All you do is design and press a 1″ button like you normally would, add a ceramic magnet to the back of the button, then effortlessly snap it into the Magneta-Snap™ pendant.

The ease with which you can make the button, then snap it in and snap it out, makes it simple to change what design you’re displaying based on your style or mood for the day.

The Magneta-Snaps are only for 1″ buttons, and as you know there are so many possibilities with the 1″ variety. They are great for artistic designs, photos, and even monogrammed buttons.

As for the pendant, we will be starting off with the silver pendant and expect various other pendant styles to come down the road.

We have enjoyed whetting your craft-loving appetite with this post. And don’t worry: as soon as the Magneta-Snaps are ready for sales, we’ll post here, tweet about it, Facebook about it, and make sure you can get your hands on them as soon as humanly possible.

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!

Here is an example:

How easy are these special 3″ keepsake buttons to make? Well as easy as 1-2-3:

1. Prepare a 3″ button as you normally would, with your supplies and picture graphic. [video tutorial here]
2. The only difference is that the red, heart-shaped accent ring (pictured below) is then placed over the graphic and under the clear mylar cover.
3. Complete the button.

Oh, and then there is the all-important fourth step guys:

4. Make reservations at a nice restaurant, get a meaningful card that expresses your love and appreciation for your significant other, and present the button and any other presents (ring? bracelet? earrings?) to her. Then enjoy the rest of what is sure to be a fantastic evening.

Of course, Valentine’s Day buttons made with heart-shaped accent rings are not just for guys to give to their partners/girlfriends/wives.

These heart buttons also make great valentines from teachers to students or even from a student to the rest of his class.

If you are in charge of a church group, what better way to surprise your group than with a Valentine’s Day button showing your respect and appreciation for their hard work and loyalty?

As with almost all of our button products, the possibilities are endless!

So, here is what you need:

• Heart-shaped accent rings

And here is what you may need:

• 3″ Beginner Button Making System

Now go make some heart-shaped buttons and make someone or many someones feel special on Valentine’s Day!

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!

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!

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.

Black Velvet Gift Bag

It happens every Christmas. You get done wrapping the big presents for your special someone, only to realize that there are still a few small, stray trinkets or perhaps even a gift card or two left unwrapped floating out on their own.

You know what you need? Why, a small black gift bag of course!

And if it’s made of velvet, all the better, right George?

Well now you can drape your precious items in velvet, whether for gift-giving or to store for yourself. Buttons, rings, bracelets, small cards…they’ll all fit; and they’ll be safe and protected.

Learn more and order at our main website: Black Velvet Gift Bag. Quantity pricing is available on our accessories page.

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DIY Foldable Purse Hanger

For all of the ladies who carry purses, you know that you’ll do pretty much anything to avoid setting it on the ground or even in public chairs that aren’t often clean.

That is where foldable purse hangers come in handy!

You can easily hang your purse right there from the table. It keeps it clean, looking new, and germ-free! Plus, you can customize the purse hanger with a small button!

And for the gentlemen, lest you think this section doesn’t apply to you, no less than Jerry Seinfeld might just disagree.

As far as the men are concerned, even if you don’t use “carry-alls” you may want to pay attention to this…because if your lady doesn’t have a foldable purse holder, she’s handing the purse to you to hold. And we all know how much we enjoy doing that.

Plus, these purse hangers make great stocking stuffers!

Learn more and order at our main website: DIY Foldable Pursue Hanger. Quantity pricing is available on our accessories page.

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!

What exactly is a button ornament? It’s a button that you hang on your Christmas tree as an ornament. (Congratulations! As your Christmas present this year, we’ve decided to give you the gift of the obvious.) Actually, button ornaments are such much more than just ornaments to be displayed only at Christmas time. They are versatile decorations that you can hang on your tree during the Yuletide season and then repurpose for other decorative uses during other times of the year.

Just look how pretty and festive button ornaments look on a tree:

How do you make them? Let’s discuss the details.

The easiest way to make a button ornament is to use one of our 1.5” Necklace Kits or the new 2.25” Chunky Necklace Kits. You can then either use a standard hook, ribbon, or thread to hang it from the tree.

You can also take the pin out of a pinback button and push a mounted eyelet through the back of the buttonhole. Make a button as usual then attach a jump ring to the mounted eyelet. Then thread a hook or ribbon through the eyelet to make a nice custom ornament.

You can make a double sided photo button by gluing some ribbon in-between two flat back buttons. These are available in a variety of sizes from the tiny  1” button all the way up to the extra large 3.5” buttons. You can send them to friends and family as gifts or simply put them on your tree to remember special family occasions.

Want to mix and match several designs? Why not use a Versaback to show off the season’s celebrations? All you have to do is snap a Versaback into the back of a collet style button. You can string them around a tree or use a keychain versaback option as stocking stuffers.

And finally, you can use bulldog clips. Pull the adhesive label off the back of the bulldog clip and apply it to the back of a button. Then clip the button onto branches.

Whew. Okay, let’s catch our breath. Any questions? (The comment section is a great place to pose them.)

The great thing about all of these different methods of turning a button into a button ornament is that they are all done after the button is created, meaning you still have a limitless horizon of possible ideas for what to put on your button. Family photos, Christmas-themed photos, abstract designs, etc; everything is fair game. Then all you have to decide is how you want to hang it from the tree and marvel at how you made an already great tradition just a little bit better.

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.

Three Suggestions for How To
Celebrate National Button Day

1. Design and Make a New Button

If you already have your button machine at the ready with supplies in tow, why not carve out some time today to design and make a new button?

Perhaps you can make a National Button Day button, or prepare for the holidays by making a Thanksgiving or Christmas button, or maybe you want to show a little extra love to your favorite sports team by making a button you can wear during its next game.

Whatever the subject of your button ends up being, we know just the place for you to design it: the Build-a-Button Online Design Center.

Sure, we’re biased, but the fact is that button designing just doesn’t get any easier than with the B-a-B (nor freer, since the free beta period is still going on!).

2. Submit Your Best Work

You may not want to make a button today, but what about all of the buttons you’ve made in the past? Submit them to us because we want to recognize you for your excellent work!

We do a regular Customer Spotlight feature at ABM. Browse past posts here, then take a gander at some of the latest, greatest submissions by our wonderful cadre of customers:

From Nancy (whose submitted Etsy store link unfortunately did not work):

“Monday Morning Warning…need I say more?”

—–

From Nicholas Scott of RedsButtons.com:

“I am very excited about my button machine. I am so excited I choose not to tell people about it because if they knew how easy it was to create and sell buttons…my competition would grow.

Well I have used the key-chains, mirrors, magnets, pins, and accent rings on my buttons. I love all of the products that ABM offer. I only own one machine 2’25 and it has already paid for itself. (With-in the first week!) So this is my only time EVER sharing how much I love my machine!

Here is a button I made for personal use. This button received great feedback. I took a piece of regular white paper, I used my ABM cutter to cut out my shape. I then took a Sharpie marker and hand wrote the message on the button. Then I easily created my custom pin-back button. I wore that button on the same day, due to the button I was able to use it as an ice-breaker to promote my button business.

Sky’s the Limit!”

—–

From Cory Blake (aka Mr. Button Man):

“I made these for a Dennys out here. I also made some buttons for the employees of coca-cola store too, with the Coke Polar Bear on them.”

3. Learn and Interact

If making a new button doesn’t tickle your fancy on this most wonderful day of button celebration, perhaps finding a new button-related club or activity can stir up the old crafting passions once a gain.

The National Button Society has a wealth of information on its website, including its schedule of events for 2011. If one of these happens to be in your area, maybe you can meet up with other button lovers and swap stories and buttons.

Whatever you do on this wonderful holiday, we hope you enjoy it because the most important part of making buttons is to have fun while doing it!

For additional button making tips, ideas, and products, visit our website.

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!

Here is what is new and improved:

Browser Compatibility

The Build-a-Button app now works with IE, Safari, and Google Chrome, so test it and let us know your results.

Colors

We added new default colors, palette, and custom color picker

Background Images

We added a background button that will lock background images into place instead of fighting with images moving around in layers. You can still move background photos up, down, left, right, and rotate.

Text in a Circle

We have perfected text in a circle!

You have now the option of “up curve”, “down curve”, full circle, and how the letters are spaced. Based on your feedback this is huge, and we’re very excited about it.

The upwards curve arc allows you to enter text at the bottom of the button. Using this option, you can extend the text outside the red image area for your tag line. Add your website, phone number and more to the back edge of the button for free advertising.

Layers

We perfected the layers function so you can simply click the items to bring them to the front or manually select them and use the “Bring to Front” or “Send to Back” buttons.

Display Size

We enlarged the default size of the screen display on smaller buttons so it is easier to design and read them. They will, of course, print the correct size.

Fonts

Added 20 more fonts for 20 times as much fun!

Formatting

We added a ”C” centering button option to bring items back to the center.

Lifesaving

Based on popular demand, we are working on an “undo” button that will be released with the next version.

Sharing

We added social media sharing buttons for Google +1, Facbook, StumbleUpon, and Twitter to the Build-a-Button. Click on them to share the application with your crafts-loving friends!

Publicity

You can submit the buttons you deign and we will publish them on the blog, as we did here. If you have one, we will add a link to your website for free advertising so people can buy your buttons (and the SEO boost that comes with a link).

How-to Vids

Will be adding in-depth How-to videos in the future to teach you all of the fun nuances of the Build-a-Button application.

And…that’s about it. Again, thank you all for taking advantage of the free beta period and helping us to work out the kinks to make best even better. They are much fewer and further between now, and we are excited about all of the beautiful buttons being facilitated by the Build-a-Button application.

Now go keep on designing!

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:

From Mike of ecodesign226.com:

“My son wanted to me to make a button about my surfing days as a youth so The Big Kahuna was made hope ya’ll enjoy.”

From Sue of allofasuttoncreatives:

“I’ve been wanting to make buttons for a long time and finally got some extra money together to get the 1″ button maker. I bought it from ABM on Monday and it arrived Wednesday-wow! I made these buttons for my son’s band “Scarlet Canary” Super simple and FUN! I LOVE my button maker!”

From Tamela of Happy Dog Buttons:

“I bought a 2 1/4 inch button machine about 6 months ago. I started making buttons and now I’m making mirrors too. This is a mirror I made for Valentine’s Day. I used scrapbook paper and a rubber stamp.

The mirrors were a real big seller at craft shows over the holidays.

Recently I opened an online shop and I’m starting to get orders there too.”

From Tess:

“I looked around for anything I can incorporate the button with Christmas and I saw this inexpensive snowflake. There were many “holes” in the snowflake where I can mount the button. I cut whatever its got in the way of the pin on the back. It made a beautiful ornament where it can used as a gift itself or tied with the bow on the present. The receiver of the gift will then hang the ornament on his tree to be kept and treasured for years.”

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Thank you to Mike, Sue, Tamela, and Tess for the submissions! We can’t wait to see what the rest of you have been making with your ABM button machines. So what are you waiting for? Submit!

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.