For the Kids to Make: Merry Magnets!

I meant to post this a few days ago, and then completely forgot, lol! My dear friend and fellow homeschooling mum, Lisa, told me about this craft - a quick and easy project she made with the kids at her church. (It was Lisa behind last year's sequin ornaments, too!) These little magnets would make nice homemade gifts - perfect for helpful little hands and ready in a flash!

Basically, you are cutting images to fit behind the glass shape, gluing them on, and then attaching a magnet to the back. Sounds incredibly easy, doesn't it? (It is!) But the results are very nice and the variations are endless ... you could use images, simple hand-lettered words, monograms, etc.!

As with many crafts I plan for my boys, I like to do a trial run first - to judge the "fussiness level" and to get a feel for the time involved. Then I can see where we can fit it in. So last Saturday I swung into AC Moore and picked up the few materials required:

• Glass marbles (found in the floral aisle)
• Magnets of varying sizes and styles (so I could see what worked best)
• Elmer's glue

I picked out all kinds of design sources ~ stickers, stamps, scrapbooking paper, beautiful Christmas cards. For stickers, I traced the underside of the marble onto a piece of cardstock (I chose off-white; you could use any color you wished) and cut it out, trimming it to fit the backside of the marble.

I cut scrapbooking paper in a similar way, making sure to center the image I liked before tracing/cutting. And with images I found on Christmas stamps and cards, I photocopied them first onto regular copy paper and then cut to fit:

Cut, fit, glue, done!

The boys, peeking over my shoulder as I worked, began envisioning a whole range of character magnets for their friends. For instance, this happy Pikachu:

Next, I added the magnetic backing. I experimented with various types before finding the adhesive magnetic tape held the marble best. 

A final touch: simple gift boxes make for a nice presentation:

I got these at Target, but I've seen a wide range of sizes and colors at the craft store. The smaller box easily held one or two magnets, while the larger box could hold a whole set of magnets in a simlilar theme (such as the "bird" theme shown at the top).

When the boys wrap up their gifts, I'll let them decorate their boxes as they wish - with stickers, crayons, decoupaged comics etc. But I think these simple brown boxes look nice with just a cheerful bow:

So, this craft is a go then, and it's been added to this week's docket!

Well, I hope your Sunday's a good one! Here in New England it's cold and gray, with a touch of snow in the air. (Actually a messy, messy storm is on the way for tonight.) Church was lovely this morning - the creche was set up on the altar, and the parish breakfast, as always, was yummy! So I'm logging off for now ~ there's a tree to decorate, lessons to plan and one or two football games to watch. ;)

See you all sometime tomorrow!