Stores are already hyping back to school sales, but there's still quite a bit of summer left. Make the most of your summer events, vacations, and promotions with buttons!

Heated over the Health Care Debate?
Create some buttons to boost awareness of your cause! Hand your buttons out at town hall meetings to show your solidarity on the issue!

Summer Camp
Send your happy little campers home with a keepsake they'll keep forever, a custom button, button magnet, or button key chain! Just Buttons can use your logo or photograph to create a unique button that will promote your camp for years to come. How about button name tags? We can supply you with your logo and a blank name field that you can fill in later, or you can give us a list of names you'd like printed. The possibilities are endless.

The Handmade Guru, a blog written by the owner of the Little Black Box has reviewd the samples we sent in this month!  The little black box is one of the best promoters of businesses and shops that are involved in the Handmade Revolution! The little black box provides the world.. or box buyers with samples and promos from businesses that are considered the "little guys". Here's a little snipped of what they had to say..

"...If you're looking for custom buttons or magnets for your baby shower, business, band, school, campaign, or office event you can work with Just Buttons to create something perfect just for you. The best thing about this business is that all prices include free ground shipping with your order and if you order a Little Black Box you also get a coupon code for 10% off."

Recently, aloveproject.org contracted us to make them some buttons. Aloveproject.org is a website for people from any church or denomination in the CSRA to come together and do three principal things: love God, Love the community, and Love the Church. This is what they had to say about thier buttons.

My buttons for aloveproject.org arrived in the mail today. They look awesome! Thanks so much for your work. The turnaround was quicker than anybody I've used before and the quality is great! Thanks again and I'm sure we'll work together again soon.

Brent Douglas
http://www.aloveproject.org

 

We were recently contacted by Miracle Diapers about creating custom button key chains to promote their cause. Miracle diapers is a nonprofit organization is dedicated to helping families all over the United States get a jump start on cloth diapering. Cloth diapers are a more natural, healthy alternative to disposables that reduce overall waste, thereby helping the environment. Miracle Diapers accepts donations given by caring individuals and redistribute them to families in need.

If your organization, school, or non-profit is interested in using buttons as a fund-raiser, please contact us today about our special rates for charities and non-profits.

Photoshop is a great tool. We use it daily here at Just Buttons, but it's also expensive. If you're looking to dabble in button design, but don't want to invest the $700 for Photoshop there is a FREE, open source alternative, GIMP ( GNU Image Manipulation Program ).

Windows users can download and use GIMP for free. Feature and functionality wise GIMP is fairly comparable to Photoshop. Users familiar with graphics software should have no trouble with the user interface. If you're new to graphic software and GIMP, check out some of the user communities like, http://www.gimptalk.com/ , they're loaded with advice, templates, and tutorials.

About a year ago Rebecca, from Buttonmakers.net wrote a nice blog about gimp, some things have changed since the blog was written but it's still a really good resource. Rebecca took the time to write out a detailed tutorial on how to use GIMP to create a button, as well as posted links to GIMP button templates.

D.W. Ditty is an acoustic blues musician based out of Connecticut.  He is a repeat customer of ours and this is what he had to say about Just Buttons recently

Buttons received.  Thanks once again for great service.  Also, thanks for the magnet button as well.  I will likely order some of those soon and see how they go.  Everyone playing out should have a stash of buttons to hand out during their breaks and after the show....people absolutely love them! Great work! ... If anyone needs convincing about the value of these little buttons, have them contact me, as well.  I never would have thought the reaction to them would be so great.

You can learn more about D.W. Ditty, hear some of his music, and watch a video of him at www.dwditty.com or on myspace at www.myspace.com/dwditty.

Not too long ago we designed a series of five buttons for the band The Ground Breaking Ceremony. This is what they had to say about their experience with Just Buttons

"Hey, wanted to thank you For the awesome job you did on our Pins. We'll DEFINITELY be back for more. Especially now that you have square pins, and new goodies."

When we think about buttons we often think of political campaign buttons or flair that out waiters and waitresses wear at our local chain restaurants. Over the years buttons, and their backing options have evolved. Buttons can be made into a variety of fun and useful items. From magnets, to bottle openers, and even pocket mirrors, buttons are an excellent low cost item that you can use to boost sales or to make some extra money.

 

Buttons as a Money Maker

People love novelty sayings. Just look at the novelty t-shirts at your local retailer, or the bumper stickers you see on the highway. Maybe you have an idea for a clever saying? Put it on a button, at just cents per piece to produce a novelty button can be sold for three to four times that.

Are you crafty? Our clients use our buttons in a myriad of hand made treasures from wine charms to hair pieces, and even clothing items. And with sites like etsy.com and hyena cart, starting your online store and marketing it is a breeze!

Maximize your earning potential by offering your clients options like button bottle opener key chains, or pocket mirrors.

 

Almost daily someone sends us an e-mail or on-line help request asking us what is the difference between a color button an an acetate button. Hopefully I can clear this up once and for all. A color button is just that a button printed in full color on high quality white paper with a protective mylar cover. An acetate button is printed on a clear sheet of plastic (acetate) similar to transparency sheets. Acetate buttons also have a protective mylar cover. An acetate button has no white on it. Anything that is white in your design will appear silver. With the right design an acetate button can be very cool.

Simple designs with bold line work work best with acetate. Keep in mind when designing an acetate button that your background is going to be a metalic silver, it may help to design your button on a gray background layer to get a better idea of what your button will endup looking like.

Click the links below to view some examples of acetate buttons:

About two weeks ago we were contacted by the Vodka Juniors about a custom one inch button order for their upcoming tour.   There was a pretty tight deadline, and the order had to be shipped internationally.  We bumped them to the top of our list and managed to get the order out right on time.Here is what they had to say about their experience with Just Buttons:

 "Just got the pins... Great work and thanx for the very fast delivery! I will be sending bands your way for sure and spreading the word here in Athens. Thanx again and have a really cool summer"