Button, button, we've got the buttons!

I make buttons for everything here at the library, so it was only natural that I do a teen program using our button maker. Now we've had our button maker for about 20 years or so, and I understand that not every library has one, but I found links to some rather inexpensive ones here. Ok - really that's the cheapest one. It only has supplies for 10 buttons, but even after buying the machine and supplies, you're still coming off better than most button sites. Remember too - this is an investment. It's something you'll be able to use for years and years to come.

When I make buttons for events, I usually do my designs on the computer. When I announced the program, I let the teens know they could do that, but none did. Instead, I had on hand magazines they could use for pictures, and plain paper and markers if they wanted to be creative and draw their own. Most opted to do the magazine clippings.

I did the programs 2 different ways. With my guys, since I only had a couple show up, I showed them how to use the machine and make the buttons themselves. It was rather successful, but when you haven't had lots of practice, the buttons can come out kinda wonky sometimes. With my girls, I just had them cut out the pictures and then I made the buttons. This was certainly easier, and the buttons came out better, but I was struggling to keep up, and they all made 10 or more buttons. I should've put a cap on the number they could make, but it didn't take them very long for each one, and the program would've been over sooner. Or, they may have actually taken their time when looking through the magazines and been really selective as to which ones they wanted. We'll see. I'll try it a different way when I do it again.

All in all, everyone really enjoyed the program. I know I get a kick out of making my own buttons instead of buying them in the store, and I know the teens liked it too. It's always nice to have something original that you made yourself.

8 and 16-bit Love

So once again, I have to credit the4yablog.com for an amazing idea. I had seen in another one of their posts about making video game characters out of fuse beads. Exciting and totally rad! Well I was browsing some more and came across another post about making valentines out of those same beads. Great idea since I was probably going to have to order a ton of them anyways.


I ordered my kit from koolstuff4kids.com. I ordered the Classroom Kit II, which seems to be an ok starter kit. It comes with 6,000 mix color beads, several small clear pegboards, along with ironing sheets and an idea book. Be forewarned that the mix bag does have a somewhat limited palette of colors (bright yellow, goldenrod, light sky blue, dark sky blue, white, lime green, kelly green, black, tan, brown, pink, and red). It seems like an impressive list, but if you want to do really cool detail shading, it can be a bit stilting. That wasn't really an isuue for the hearts, but when we do video game characters next month, I can see it being a problem, so I'll have to order more colors.

I printed out some the examples they had on the blog, and let my teens have at it. The advantage of having the clear pegboards is that you can put pictures underneath to help with the design. Unfortunately, I don't think mine were sized correctly, so they had to count pixels or make up their own designs instead. The project will go a lot faster if the colors are presorted, but if they're not, get them to help you with that - or just don't bother - hey, it takes up more time.

They really seemed to like this one. We used the finished product to make magnets or keychains (as seen above). I haven't done this with my teen boys yet, so I may be updating if they don't really like it. However, I've been pretty spot on with my projects (or they're just really nice and humor me).