How to Make Buttons & Badges

Buttons, also known as badges, are a quick way to wear your heart on your sleeve----or rather, your lapel. You can make personalized buttons for your company, your friends and family, to express your beliefs or just for fun. What's more, button making is a great craft project for children, as a button machine is so simple that even kids can help make the parts and pull the handle on the machine.

Things You'll Need

• Button machine
• Scissors, graphic punch or adjustable rotary cutter
• Button supplies
• Color printer
• Standard printer paper
• Markers or crayons

Instructions

1. Buy or borrow a button making machine. Take a good look at the parts, especially the three dies: the pickup die, the crimp die and the upper die.

2. Design the graphics for the buttons if you don't already have them (see Resources for templates). You can also print out blank button templates for kids to draw on.

3. Print out your graphics, or draw your button designs.

4. Cut out the button graphics from the paper. You can use scissors to do this step, but it's much easier to use a graphic punch or rotary cutter, especially if you're making a large volume of buttons; however, these are much more expensive.

5. Place the shell dome (the silver back) of the button in the pickup die of the button machine. The pickup die is the shallower of the two dies of the button machine, and it is the die that is on springs. The shell dome should fit snugly within the die.

6. Center the graphic in the shell dome, right side up.

7. Cover the graphic with a Mylar circle.

8. Rotate the pickup die so it is underneath the upper die.

9. Pull the handle down then up to its resting position. The button components are now resting in the upper die.

10. Place the pin clasp in the crimp die. The pin should be facing you.

11. Rotate the crimp die so it is underneath the upper die.

12. Pull the handle down then up to its resting position.

Tips & Warnings

• Button making supplies and machines are available online (see Resources).

Resources

• ButtonMakers.net---Photoshop Button Template
• ButtonBiz---Animated Tutorial