More Magnets

I made some more magnets, this time for my sister's office giveaway. I love making these - it's really easy to do and they turn out so well, I think. Click here for the tutorial.

Key chains

I've been wanting to do a craft with Mod Podge dimensional magic for some time. I found these metal thingies at a craft store last fall, and decided they would make nice key chains. Here's a quick tutorial.

Find some fun paper and trace out a circle. I found that a loonie perfectly.

I LOVE this product: Mod Podge dimensional magic. It's so easy to use and finishes so nicely. Just place your piece of paper into the metal do-dad. Taking care in not shaking the Mod Podge, cover the entire surface with a nice, even layer. Shaking makes bubbles and we do not want bubbles.

But look! A bubble! Grrrr. If this happens, take a thumbtack and...

Carefully pop the air bubble.

(Note: The paper pattern has changed because I liked this one better. It's a dog sitting in a chair! Ha!)

Let it dry completely on a flat surface. I popped mine on the windowsill and left it over night.

I applied another layer of 3-D Mod Podge to give it more dimension, then let it dry again.

Attach a large, heavy duty jump ring to a chain and it's done!

It matches the terra cotta dish I made perfectly - I think it'll make a nice gift.

Here are a couple more dishes and key chains that I made, with a travel theme:

Terra cotta dishes

I love the look of this terra cotta dad dish from that artist woman. I made some little dishes out of clay that turned out all right, but these ones looked so good, I gave it a try. Here's a quick tutorial:

First I bought some dishes from Michael's. These were the second smallest size and cost me about 2 bucks for both of them. The hardest part was getting that darn sticker off the bottom!

I painted the bottom red with two coats of acrylic paint. This colour is called "Red Apple Barrel" and it's so lovely and bright. When that was dry, I painted the inside with two coats of white.

I found a big can of lentil beans that fit into the dish and traced it out on my paper.

Then I used Mod Podge to stick the paper to the bottom of the dish. I find it's best to apply Mod Podge to all surfaces: the back of the paper, the bottom of the dish, and then around the inside of the dish entirely.

I let that dry overnight, then sealed it all with varnish.

Here it is, not quite dry.

Done! I made a matching key chain too.

Here are a couple more I made, of the smaller size. They're great little dishes, good for catching keys and coins when you're running in and out the front door. 

TUTORIAL: Animal magnets

I saw this idea somewhere, probably on Pinterest, but can't remember the exact source. Bad me. In any case, you basically take little plastic figurines, slice 'em in half, and glue magnets to them. I decided to start this craft at 11pm the other night. I'm sure I could have used better glue or a better cutting technique, but what the heck - they turned out fine.

Materials:
-circular magnets (not quite the heavy duty ones I used here, but stronger than the average ones)
-plastic animal figures (I used dinosaurs, cuz they're fun!)
-glue (I used paper Mod Podge because I was too lazy to dig out the good stuff; hopefully they don't fall off eventually)
-knife

Instructions: 

1. Decide which animals will work best by eye-balling their width at the mid-way point

2. Slice em! I first sawed back and forth with a bread knife, but then found I could just chop them in one clean go.

3. Put a large dab of glue on a magnet, and press your animal halves into each one. Let them dry completely - I left mine overnight.

4. I've seen posts that hold a piece of paper or photo in between the halves, so make sure you arrange the magnets so that they stick together properly.

5. Done! Dino-magnets! The butts crack me up.

Note: This was the sloppy method, for sure. I could have used stronger glue and next time I will find animals that are a bit thicker in the middle. You can see from some of the pics that the glue dried quite thickly around the magnet, but I didn't care too much about that. I think they turned out fine and, hey, they make me laugh! Hope you enjoy :)

TUTORIAL: Magnets

I have been making these magnets for a number of years now. There are a lot of tutorials on the web, and I decided to add one more!

Materials:
-heavy duty magnets (I got mine at the dollar store, 12 for a buck)
-any type of strong craft glue, just make sure it dries clear
-stickers and other paper that will make fun magnets
-not pictured: small glass pebbles (warning: there are opaque, shiny ones that look like they will work but they won't, they gotta be clear)

Instructions:

First I measure out the magnet by placing it over the paper. I have a lot of sheet music around and I think they make the best looking magnets. I have given many away as gifts:

Dab a bit of glue on to the paper or sticker and squish it down with the glass pebble. I do a bunch all at once and then wait for them to dry:

When dry, cut around the pebble:

Then lay out all your heavy duty magnets and dab a bit of glue on each one. Again, it's easy to do a whole bunch at a time:

Then place the pebble on top of it and squish down:

See how there's glue coming out the side of Cookie Monster? That's ok, it'll dry clear and you can just cut it away or pull it off:

Voila! A whole bunch of super sweet, personalized magnets.

Enjoy!