Crafting: Buttons!

Yes, I know. Shocking. A second entry in one day.

I’ve been working with buttons as a fundraising item for Relay For Life. For those not familiar with Relay, it is a 24 hour (overnight) event to raise money for cancer research and other services provided by the American Cancer Society. Fundraising is a major part of this. My kids’ school’s theatre company has their own team. I wanted to make some button samples to wear to the next meeting, because we are offering them as a fundraiser. Some teams may wish to have buttons advertising their team name, or individuals may want to make a “I Relay For..” button with a loved one’s photo.

To promote my teal ribbon agenda, I made the following:

The left pin is a 1¼” size, and the right is 2¼” size (standard) button. These were made with the Badge-a-Minit button making system. The button press is being sold now for a bargain $29.95 for the press, 2¼” rings, and some starter button making materials and designs. The 1¼” rings and an adapter are sold separately, but can use the same press. This is a cheap system for the hobby button maker. The problem? Badge-a-Minit’s button making supplies are expensive, and that is where they get you. Don’t get me wrong, at $36.95 for the larger 100 pin sets, you can still make a profit selling the pins for even $1 each. (Works out to roughly $.37 cents a pin for parts.) And the more you buy, the less the cost per pin. I have found aftermarket button making supplies, however, that are made better for the machine. For instance, buybuttonparts.com, for those same 100 pin sets, only costs $20.97, or about $.21 per pin. The bonus? The badge-a-minit logo and phone number are not stamped on the back of the aftermarket ones! Pins can be easily designed in Microsoft Publisher and printed out. No need to buy their pricey software!

I will post another part going into detail making these pins another day. Perhaps a video will be involved. I know that a lot of people claim that it is near impossible making the pins with this machine, but with patience it can be done.

And, by the way, if anyone wants these “Teal It’s the new pink!” buttons (promoting Ovarian Cancer awareness), I will make them on request. Pins will cost $1 per large, and $.50 per small, plus shipping costs. I am not keeping ANY of the profit on these. Profits are being donated to Relay For Life of Bethlehem PA, credited to the Freedom HS Theatre Company team. Contact me for more details. If you’d simply like to donate to the team, you can donate on my daughter’s page so she and the team get credit.