Magnet Fun

Kate, Anna and I have made some magnets for gifts this past year.  Our first project was one we found in Family Fun magazine (they always have such great ideas!).  Bottle Cap Magnets! Of course we always have plenty of bottle caps laying around........  Since we were making these for Daddy for Father's Day, we went to the craft store & picked out a couple fun sheets of scrapbook paper that was sort of dad-like.  Funny thing is, we actually picked a piece that they used in the magazine!  How funny!  Using a quarter as a template (fits perfectly, just as the magazine says), we cut the circles out, used the packing tape to seal them up, and were on our way to decorating pretty quickly.  So we used tons of glitter glue (the girls' favorite for any and EVERY project), and any fun little tiny things we had collected from broken bracelets, etc. to embellish.  I think they came out pretty great:

Here's a closer look at using google eyes.  Have to say, my favorite is the HUGE single eye that Anna used.....

And here are some that are just sparkly.....

In the Family Fun project, they say to seal the project with a clear sealant, like DecoArt Triple Thick, but I couldn't find that at my craft store.  I asked for help at the store, and this is what we came up with:

It worked really well!  I just put a drop on, & it was clear, shiny, and seemed to seal everything on.

We did another magnet project that I came up with from blog-browsing and then putting my own spin on it to make a teacher gift for the girls' preschool teachers for Christmas. Gemstones! Check these out:

Just look at these little "gems"! I love them. Just like the project above, we used a quarter as a template and cut circles out of scrapbooking card stock. Glued it on the back, using my favorite craft glue, Aleen's Tacky Glue. Same glue to glue either type of gemstone on the top, and the magnent on the back.  I like to use a fairly strong magnent because I absolutely loathe when magnents won't hold up whatever I feel like hanging up.  These were cheap, fast and easy; we made them the night before, and put them in a box the next morning. Voila!

Hope this inspires you to decorate your own refridgerator, or others'! :)