How to make your own flair buttons for scrapbooking – Tutorial

(Update at the bottom – 1/31/2013)

I recently shared some of my handmade “flair” buttons in a recent YouTube video and have had multiple requests for a tutorial showing how I did it so here goes nothing!

First of all, to make “real” flair buttons, you need a button machine like this one.

I do not have one of these but I love the flair buttons and do not want to keep paying $6.00 for a pack of six of them so I decided to find a way to make my own.  This is what I came up with.

First you need to decide which program you want to use to design your buttons.  I use Photoshop Elements but you can use free programs such as GIMP.

Next you need a collage sheet template for 1″ circle buttons or “bottle caps”.  You can buy one for a few dollars from several places, here are a couple of them:

Where to buy a 1 inch circle 4″ x 6″ collage sheet template

• Tic Tac Togs  – $5.00 (this is where I bought mine)
• Print Candee – $2.00

To make your own template, I found this information which may be helpful but I just bought one so I can’t make any promises that this will work.

• How to customize a digital collage sheet

Once you have your template, you need to design your buttons (or purchase some).  There are several ways to do this.  This is what I’ve done so far.

• Purchased pre-made graphics in a “collage sheet” style
• Designed my own from free printable graphics found online

If you want to purchase pre-made graphics for your flair buttons/bottle cap images, there are many, many places to do that.  There are “some” freebies out there but they are difficult to find and the quality is not always as good as the ones that you can purchase.  To find freebies, check my Pinterest board titled “Printables”. 

Purchasing Pre-made “Flair Button” or “Bottle Cap Image” Graphics

When searching for graphics to buy, I searched google for “1 inch bottle cap graphics”, “1 inch circle graphics”, 1 inch circle collage sheets, etc.  Here are some of the places I’ve found and/or bought images from:

•  My Grafico
• ArtFire – this link takes you to a search for 1″ circle collage sheets.  ArtFire has multiple sellers and I’ve purchased from several of them, it’s kind of like etsy in that way.  You find the items you want and purchase each one from their respective seller.
• Miss Tina – I’ve used her backgrounds to make buttons and they are fabulous! They remind me of the Sn@p! collection by Simple Stories!  She also offers some freebies.
• Etsy – Like ArtFire, this link takes you to search results for 1″ circle collage sheets.
• Plan F Studios – Commercial site with cute images
• The list could go on and on but you can find resources with google and Pinterest, etc.  If you have a resource you’d like to add here, let me know and I’ll be happy to add it for others.

 Free Pre-Made Graphics

•  Pinterest is a great resource for free images.  Start here and see where your search takes you!
• Again, google is your friend here, try these searches:  Free printable collage sheet templates, free printable collage sheet graphics, free printable graphics for bottle cap images

Design Your Own Flair Buttons Using Free Printables

• Miss Tina – she has great freebies!
• Any free scrapbooking printable graphics can be used to design your flair buttons and scrapbooking graphics are everywhere so do some searching and share your favorites with us!

Now What?

Okay let’s say you have your template and your images, what’s next?

Here is a video tutorial, step by step instructions follow it.  (Sorry about the ending, I accidentally stopped recording my voice over a few minutes early).

If you are using photoshop elements, this is how I make my flair button graphics:

1. Open your collage sheet template in PSE and rename it to anything you’d like (to avoid overwriting the original template)
2. Open your collage sheet (graphics) that you’d like to use
3. Select a portion of your image (I use the magic wand tool set to circle, size 300 pixels)
   
4. Next, click on the move tool
5. Click on the highlighted portion of your image that you want to be the design of your flair button and drag it over to the template window.  Do not let go of the left mouse button until you see the portion of the image that you drug over in the template.
6. Line up your image with your template and then click on the green check mark.
7. If your image looks lined up, right click on it and choose “Send Backward”.  This will send the new layer back one layer so that your button outline shows.
8. Once you fill up your template, save your file and print it at 4×6.  It’s important that you print it at 4×6 or the 1″ circles won’t be sized correctly.

I hope this tutorial helped you.  If you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment or contact me.

 1/31/2013 – Where to get Bubble Caps for your Flair Buttons!

Some of you are having trouble finding the bubble cap stickers that go on top of these flair buttons.  Epiphany Crafts makes them (they aren’t cheap) but I can get them for you at a discount if you order in bulk so just let me know if you want some.  Also, Michael’s makes them in their Recollections brand.  You get 24 and I paid $1.97.  Here is a picture of the package and the bar code/product number in case you want to call and see if your local store carries them (or ask them to!)

Hope that helps!
Kat