We’ve posted a new tutorial to help you better utilize the Build-a-Button Online Design Center!

This tutorial walks you through the layer capabilities of the Build-a-Button Online Design Center, as well as the color picker function that allows you to create a custom color from any pixel on the screen.

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To see all of our Build-a-Button tutorials, click here.

As we expected they would when we launched them a couple months back, our Magneta-Snaps™ and Clix™ interchangeable magnetic jewelry products have become two of our hottest-selling items.

Both products are in demand because of their versatility, how easy they are to make, and the ability to customize the pendants or bracelets with any 1″ button.

And now we have decided to help out our distributors, who are also seeing the rising demand from people who can’t wait to get their hands on these pendants to start mixing, matching, and making button jewelry.

Here is the special announcement: we are now offering wholesale pricing in the form of additional price breaks at 50 and 100 piece quantities.

This pricing will not be published to the public, so the price breaks will only be available to distributors seeking wholesale pricing who are subscribers and regular blog readers.

To learn what the specific wholesale prices are, simply email us.

Happy button making!

The button below was submitted to by Michael Davis, who tell us that it was made for the Fraternal Order of Police, specifically for 2012 Mini Convention attendees.

Have a fun, exciting, interesting button you want to share? Submit it here!

And if you need a place to go design some buttons, do so over at the Build-a-Button Online Design Center.

It was Ronald Reagan who said, “There are no such things as limits to growth, because there are no limits to the human capacity for intelligence, imagination, and wonder.”

This is exactly how we feel about everything we do at American Button Machines, including and especially the Build-a-Button Online Design Center™. And we most certainly believe that the intelligence, imagination, and wonder of our customers have no limits! (Plus we have the button submissions to prove it!)

That is why, yet again, we have made enhancements to make the greatest online graphics design tool for button makers even better.

How Did We Improve Build-a-Button™ ?

In a nutshell, we recently completed an extensive overhaul of the software code that allowed us to greatly enhance the crispness of text, graphics, and colors in the process.

To understand why this is such a valuable enhancement, let’s back up a quick moment to trace the history of the design center.

When we first launched Build-A-Button™ it was a huge leap in graphic design technology specialized for the button making market. Build-a-Button™ gave users the capability to print images from their web browser in high resolution.  This was groundbreaking because it allowed our customers, finally, the ability to print an image and have it perfectly sized to fit over 20 different sized button making machines.

Originally, images created with the Build-a-Button Online Design Center™ were great, as so many of you have told us. But now, with our new high quality image enhancement, image quality is fantastic and rivals the quality of any graphics software program out there.

Don’t just take our word for it though. Try it yourself!

To reward people who read our blog and receive our email newsletters, we are allowing you to use it for free until the end of March.

Before starting, be sure to delete your browser’s cache to eliminate any issues using the new verison.

Simply sign in here, use the login information below, then design and print away until your heart’s content…or you run out of paper.

• User Name: NEW
• Password: BUTTON
• (Use all Caps)

Once you have checked out the new image enhancement at the Bulid-a-Button Online Design Center™, let us know what you think and send us some pictures of the buttons you create!

Every now and again we like to step a little bit outside of our button-centric conversation to highlight a person or organization doing something that we strongly endorse.

FIRST fits this criteria to a T, and we highlight this great organization today.

FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) was founded in 1989 by a man named Dean Kamen and for the last 20+ years has been inspiring kids to expand their science and technology horizons. To facilitate this, FIRST holds a yearly Robotics Competition, which it describes as “the varsity sport for the mind”, that allows the brightest of the bright to compete against each other to create robots that perform specified activities.

There are FIRST Robotics Competitions all over the United States and the regional winners ultimately face off in national competitions. Kids are awarded scholarship money, get the opportunity to learn from experts, and also have non-science/tech responsibilities like coming up with a team brand.

And, wouldn’t you know it, that’s where buttons come into play!

The kids create logos for their teams and then make buttons with the logos on them. Typically, teams trade buttons in a show of overall camaraderie amongst the participants and as a way to promote their team and robot. This picture, from a 2003 FIRST Robotics Competition in Philadelphia, shows one participant who really got into the button exchanging idea…and we, of course, applaud him loudly:

Look at those beautiful pinback buttons!

We salute FIRST and wish all of the participants in this and future years’ Robotic Competitions the best of luck.

Follow the link for more information about FIRST and its Robotics Competitions.

For more stories like these, and to learn more about the button making, follow us on Twitter or bop on over to the ABM main website.

Our year of new products and accessories continues this month with the launch of the School, Sports, and Fun! Graphics Design CD for Buttons. We are very excited about this disc for a number of reasons:

• It includes a wide variety of images that work for button sizes of 1″ through 3.5″.
• The designs work on 1″ buttons, so they are perfect for use with our interchangeable magnetic jewelry line.
• You can personalize the buttons further by adding your own photos or text to them. (And you can do this easily here!)
• The theme of the graphics on this CD is especially relevant with spring and summer on the immediate horizon.

And here is the best part: we are running a release special through the rest of March that allows you to get the CD for $19.95 instead of the normal price of $39.95. Just use the code “school” during checkout.

Get the CD here: School, Sports, and Fun Design CD

Among the sub-categories included in the CD:

• Arts
• Math
• Sports
• Music
• Reading
• Student Awards
• Academic Awards
• Teacher Awards
• Student Encouragement
• Special Education
• Camp Awards
• Anti-drug Awareness
• PTA
• Anti-bullying
• Teacher Aide
• Visitors and Volunteers

The graphics are one high-resolution size, which is 4” across and 300 DPI. You can easily reduce or adjust the size to fit any button size, 1” through 3.5”, using your own software or the Build-a-Button Online Design Center.

As always, happy button making!

As you may have noticed, the calendar recently flipped to March. For sports fans, that means one thing: March Madness!

March Madness is, of course, the annual NCAA men’s basketball tournament. Played over the course of three weekends, it is renowned for drama, Cinderella stories, and some of the most exciting finishes sports has to offer.

But we have something even more exciting planned for March. Well, maybe it’s not quite that exciting, but I bet some of you will definitely like it more than basketball:

March Magnets!

Here’s how March Magnets will work: if you buy 100 1” magnet sets, you will receive a free Magneta-Snap pendant (normally $11.95). All you have to do is enter code MSP at checkout!

We know how many of you are curious about the Magneta-Snap pendants that have taken the ABM world by storm. This is a great way for you to be able to try them out when you get a product that has so many varied uses, like the magnets.

And note: we are setting up March Magnets specifically as a way to thank those of you who read our blogs, subscribe to our newsletters, and follow us on Facebook and Twitter. So…thank you!

And what can you do with your magnets and Magneta-Snap pendant? Well, why not combined March Madness and March Magnets? Create a 1″ button for your favorite team, slap a magnet on the back of it, and then snap it right into the pendant for wearing on a necklace. You’re ready to support your team!

Which brings up a great question: who is your favorite team? Anyone have an especially strong rooting interest this March?

As you know, we recently launched our Magneta-Snaps™ and Clix™  lines of interchangeable magnetic jewelry. The response, as we anticipated, has been overwhelming, not only because the final product is so fun and customizable but also because of how easy it is to assemble.

In this post, we are going to present all of our Magneta-Snaps™ and Clix™ tutorial videos in one place (bookmark it now for future reference!) along with written instructions so that everyone will know how to make interchangeable magnetic jewelry with 1″ buttons and see how simple the process is.

How To Make Interchangeable Magnetic Jewelry With Magneta-Snaps™ Pendants and 1″ Buttons

Here all of the steps you need to follow to create a beautiful and stylish Magneta-Snaps™ pendant:

1. Make your custom 1″ button.
2. Get your Magneta-Snaps™ pendant blanks
3. Choose your preferred magnet: standard or ceramic (Using the right size magnet is imperative; click here for more details.)
4. Affix the magnet to the back of your 1″ button
5. Slide/snap your 1″ button into the pendant blank
6. To remove the 1″ button, just slide it right back out, or place another magnet on top of the 1″ button and pull it out. (Note: don’t be fooled by the ease of removal; because of the magnet, the 1″ button will stay safely affixed to the pendant blank until you want to take it out.)

Now watch the video that illustrates these steps:

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How To Make Interchangeable Magnetic Jewelry With Clix™ Pendants and 1″ Buttons

And now let’s talk about Clix™, which have two very important differences from the Magneta-Snaps™ pendants: Clix™ pendants have a magnet built in and use 1″ flat back buttons.

So the steps to creating magnetic jewelry items are similar, but with one assembly step and necessary magnet purchase eliminated, thus saving you time and money.

1. Make your custom 1″ button.
2. Get your Clix™ pendant blanks
3. Slide/snap your 1″ button into the pendant blank
4. To remove the 1″ button, just slide it right back out, or place another magnet on top of the 1″ button and pull it out. (Note: don’t be fooled by the ease of removal; because of the magnet, the 1″ button will stay safely affixed to the pendant blank until you want to take it out.)

Here is the video that shows you all of these simple steps:

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How To Make Interchangeable Magnetic Bracelets With Clix™ Pendants and 1″ Buttons

The best part about Clix™ is that you have options even beyond the simple pendant and necklace. You can also create bracelets with them!

Here are the steps for making interchangeable magnetic bracelets using Clix™ and your customized 1″ buttons:

1. Make your custom 1″ button.
2. Get your Clix™ bracelet blanks
3. Slide/snap your 1″ button into the pendant blank
4. To remove the 1″ button, just slide it right back out, or place another magnet on top of the 1″ button and pull it out. (Note: don’t be fooled by the ease of removal; because of the magnet, the 1″ button will stay safely affixed to the pendant blank until you want to take it out.)

And now, in video form:

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Now you know how to create interchangeable magnetic jewelry with 1″ buttons using both of our Magneta-Snaps™ and Clix™ products, plus the Clix™ bracelets. If you do have any questions, please feel free to post them below.

Happy snapping!

What a whirlwind the last week has been!

As you know, we were so excited to release our new interchangeable magnetic jewelry products – Magneta-Snaps™ and Clix™ – to the button making world, and we have been thoroughly pleased with the launch and your response. Your excitement for the products has been contagious!

And we are so thankful that so many of you have taken to the discussion forum and to our Facebook page to provide candid feedback about your experience. Keep it coming! We read, consider, and respond to all of it.

Among the few issues that a handful of folks seem to be having concerns magnets, specifically an inability to remove magnets from the Magneta-Snap pendants. We are writing this post to quickly clear this issue up for anyone who has experienced it.

What we have found is that folks having trouble with magnets are attempting to use magnets that are not the correct dimensions. You want to use magnets that are 18.5mm in diameter and 5mm thick.

Not coincidentally, that is the exact size of the magnets available at our website for 1″ buttons: click here for standard magnet sets and here for ceramic magnet sets.

You do not have to use our magnets for 1″ buttons to work with the Magneta-Snap™ pendants, but it is vitally important that you use magnets that are approximately those dimensions. If you are having magnet problems, check the dimensions of your magnets. It is likely that is the issue.

For anyone have trouble figuring out the proper method for affixing the magnet to the button and then sliding the button into the pendant, you’re in luck! Not only is it a very easy process to complete, but we have a brand new video that shows you exactly how to do it:

Hopefully this helps to clear up any confusion. Have a great week and Happy Button Making!

When we told you about Magneta-Snaps™ interchangeable magnetic jewelry a month ago, teasing its planned introduction this month, we said the following:

2012 is already off to a rip-roaring start and we aren’t even out the first month yet…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.

You see, we fibbed a little.

Because we aren’t just introducing one new product this month. We aren’t even introducing two new products this month. Nope.

Right here, today, we are introducing three new products to the ABM line that will knock your socks off (or “unstrap your sandals,” should you not be a shoe person – in which case you better not be a socks person!)

In addition to Magneta-Snaps™ we also quite excited to introduce Clix™ bracelets and pendants.

You’re going to love these products.

Since you already know about Magneta-Snaps™ we’ll save them for last. Let’s dive right into Clix™.

Clix™ Pendants and Bracelets

The single coolest thing about Clix™ magnetic interchangeable jewelry is that they have a magnet integrated right into the pendant.

What does this mean? Convenience and cost savings, of course!

Take a look at the pendants and you’ll see what we mean:

With Clix™, you do not have to buy nor affix a magnet to the pendant. You just create your 1″ flat back buttons, snap them in, and you’re good to go!

In addition to the pendants, which you can easily hang off a necklace, we have  Clix bracelet blanks that enable you to easily incorporate your favorite 1″ buttons into a stylish bracelet.

To learn about and purchase the Clix™ pendants and bracelets, use the following links:

• Clix™ Interchangeable Magnetic Pendant
• Clix™ Interchangeable Magnetic Bracelet

Magneta-Snaps™ Interchangeable Pendants

In the excitement of Clix™, don’t forget about the original interchangeable magnetic jewelry addition to the ABM line.

Magneta-Snaps™ are high-quality, nickel-free silver tone interchangeable magnetic pendants into which you can easily snap any 1″ button.

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

That’s it!

We can’t wait to see all of the wonderfully exciting things that you all do with these new products, which are an absolute must-own for anyone who makes 1″ buttons even occasionally.

Happy snapping and clicking!