Fridge Magnets

Easy cute little magnets for your fridge

Step 1 What you need:

Items needed:
Glue gun or some sort of strong glue
Magnets (you can buy them at wal-mart or any other craft store for really cheap)
Magazines or some sort of small image
Clear glass pebbles (also can be found in craft sections in mesh bags)

Comments

[Wrønska]

nice idear a wonderful gift idear for christmas

[hokti.66]

This is such a great idea!

[RaNDoMLeiGH]

origami paper and fabric circles also make neat magnets.

Love the idea of gluing them onto the magnet itself first. sooo much less messy.

[RaNDoMLeiGH]

You can get round digital collage images from Etsy.com (search "digital collage" and "circle" or "round". They come in 1" circles, but you can resize the whole document to make the circles the size you need.

I got clear glass pebbles (big ones) and rare earth magnets from Etsy sellers too.

I used diamond glaze adhesive but any clear craft glue stronger than Elmer's will work. Diamond glaze is particularly nasty about building up on your fingers and costs a lot. Alene's works. Mod Podge works. These are cheap and readily available in lots of sizes.

The rare earth magnets are very small, about 4mm dia. A little small for gluing your image onto. So I glue the picture on the glass first, seal the back of the image (with glue), then paint black or gold nail polish over it to "finish" it. (If you don't seal it, the nail polish will soak through.)

After that's all dry, I attach the little magnet with super glue and lay it magnet side up to dry completely. Cyanoacrylate glue will give off vapors for a while, which will stain your surface if you put it on a fridge right after attaching the magnet.

I had my sheet of pictures printed out at a copy center on their color laser printer. I don't know if mod podge will cause inkjet to run, but I was making a ton of them and didn't feel like doing them twice.

Something those flimsy peel-and-stick magnets are good for, though: I got a digital collage sheet of "inchies", printed them out, had them laminated at a teacher supply store, cut them apart, and stuck the little magnet on the back. I sent them out as promotion items (stuck it in a little zippy and stapled that to my business card). They might not hold more than a coupon on the fridge, but people do tend to keep fridge magnets and they're perfect for this size.

[WhyHello]

every time i look at the title, I keep thinmking it says "Fried Magnets"

[WhyHello]

brilliant. Endless gift ideas X3

[Tif *]

Thanks for the project, it was so much fun that I think I'm addicted! I think instead of valentines this year, I'm going to give out magnets. It's really inexpensive and this project has allowed me to save some images that would be just viewed as junk otherwise.. like subway maps from vacations and other souvenir stuff. Thanks again!!

[karmak]

this is awesome.. ur magnets look great

[Tif *]

Hey thanks!! I had a lot of fun making them, and I've actually had more fun giving them. I mean, it's pretty cool when you give your best friend some inside joke (or something specific to them) as a fridge magnet. I've made a ton more since these pictures and I keep getting requests. :)

[lillace28]

I am excited to try this, but will pictures that are not glossy work under the hot glue?

[alchematrix]

Very cool! I was just about to work on this project (I saw it in a craft book I bought recently), myself; as my husband and I are both avid World of Warcraft players I printed out a bunch of icons from the game, to turn into magnets. :)

[modernheretic]

I had myself a crafting Saturday and tried this out, everyone I've given them too loves them! My computer and hole punch made things easier but I must learn to use a hot glue gun without burning myself. lol

I'm thinking next time I'll try using some of the colorful clay that dries solid, around the edges to make things a little cleaner. Other than that, this was a great idea! Thanks for sharing.

[chuirreat]

That's awesome! I've never been able to find magnets at wal-mart though, and I definitely have no idea where to get the glue-gun ;; Would superglue work just as well?

[hethlee]

Hey, I go to a super wal-mart for their craft section. Maybe yours isn't a super wal-mart. If you have one though you can easily find these magnets in one of the isles. And almost any craft store (Hobby Lobby, JoAnns, Michaels, AC Moore (depending on where you live) will have a glue gun. Otherwise you could probably use superglue. Give it a try!

[{tauney}]

If you're in Canada, (Quebec or Ontario at least), they sell the appropriate sized magnets at Dollarama!

[maplepapercuts]

I love this craft! I've been doing them for a few years now. I got tired of trying to find pictures in magazines so I started using my computer to gather images. I shrink clip art and my own pictures down to the perfect size. I also got the perfect hole punch at Michaels that is a 1/2inch circle. So it's sooooo much faster to print a page of images and then use the hole puncher - talk about mass producing! I had to start buying magnets on-line because I needed them so fast, I was buying out the craft stores. So much fun and easy for all ages!

[{tauney}]

Damn! Why didn't I think of that?! I've been making them for a few years now and it would be so much faster to use a craft punch!

[viviluk]

where did you find the images? i searched everywhere and couldn't find any.

[hethlee]

I like to search in magazines. You obviously don't need a huge picture. Just something small and interesting. Even if it's just a plain color with a little texture or added colors. What about images from old cards you've gotten, or something from junk mail magazines?

[artnerd]

 Do you think these could be used as plugs for guaged ears...I mean if you didn't you the magnet???????????????

[BarginsTech]

Makes sense.. wouldnt you still need some type of surface to plug your ears with? i guess like rubber instead of magnet? or plastic? Sounds like a good idea.. i guess... you should try it :]

[bassclarinet23]

If you use hot glue, you don't need the rocks (though they look a little neater) if you don't have them. A circular blob of hot glue will suffice.

[cutekitten]

this rocks ....they are so cute.

[viviluk]

how big should the pictures be when printing out from the computer? cuz the size is different when printed out. i got magnets from micheals, they were in a strip.

[hethlee]

You can print them out at whatever size. You will just have to cut them down depending on the size of your glass beads and your magnets. I find it best to use magazine clippings though.

[Goodhart]

I just happened on this while wondering around, and I really like the idea. Thanks. I have had poor, at best, results from those thin "sticky on one side" magnets. Our craft store only stocks cheap one's with nearly no holding power.

[hethlee]

Yeah, I hate those magnets! I actually just got these ones at Wal-mart. THey still aren't the best but it worked.

[Goodhart]

Well, I don't know about your area, but here, rare-earth magnets are rather pricey. And it is hard to get the right magnetic force around here too. Either we settle for the weak one's or try to use the one I have that give me nearly 90 lbs of pull. At least it would fall off I guess LOL

[hethlee]

Wow, that's crazy about not being able to find decent magnets. I haven't checked on the rare-earth magnets. I hear you can get them on-line for pretty cheap.

[Goodhart]

That would be great. I know the one I have it kept in a wood box with 3" sides on it so as not to "get too stuck" to anything. It'll pull nails out of wood and if I got my finger between it and some iron, I would get a nasty bruise.

[Fishbone35]

This is such a cool, and artsy, instructable! The only thing I might do differently would be to get some of those adhesive magnetic strips and then cut them to shape. That way you could use the adhesive side to apply your image to, then glue the glass pebble on top. Thanks!

[hethlee]

Yeah, I suppose the adhesive magnet strips would work but it would still look a little botched up. I think next time I would get the Rare Earth Magnets. They are thinner and silver and would look much better. Thanks for the comment!

[Shifman]

Now this is what i call cool see ur good at somtin

[canida]

This is, at best, a backhanded compliment. Having seen your previous post on hethlee's other project, however, it's clearly out of line. Please make this your last negative comment.

[hethlee]

uh, geez thanks... i still like my wall

[ColumbusGEEK]

My girl makes those with flattened beer caps and clear epoxy.

[zachninme]

We have a few of those from a craft faire. We got them for free because my mom's friend was the one who made them.

[billcd]

very cool however, i might recomend some Rare Earth Magnets instead of those huge nasty things.......
I just got some off ebay to do a similar thing. My wife and I collect fridge mags. from places we visit. Some places however don't have fridge mags. For example, the casino boat we went on recently. So I stole one of their $1 tokens and got some magnets to glue on the token! Here's a link to the ebay seller.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Use-for-THERAPY-more-60-Rare-Earth-NEODYMIUM-MAGNETS_W0QQitemZ150047701660QQihZ005QQcategoryZ1277QQtcZphotoQQcmdZViewItem