I can’t even begin to tell you how excited I am that I took on a DIY craft and actually finished it. Yes, that’s right folks. I went to the craft store and made something with my own two hands!
Not just one something, 50 little somethings that I decided to use as baby shower (or baby wash, as Aiden calls it) favors. I’m calling them, “Cute-as-a-Button Marble Magnets” ~ don’t ya love that name?!
My inspiration came from my friend Danielle’s refridgerator as Aiden became quite obsessed with the marble magnets she has. Then, upon finding out you can’t just buy them, I ran a Pinterest search and came across a fellow blogger’s site who said they were pretty simple to make.
Of course I don’t follow directions (or recipes) to the “T”, so here’s my take on them!
Shopping list:
- flat bottomed marbles from the floral section of the craft store
- pack of 3/4″ round magnets, I found a 50-pack at the register, or you can get smaller portions down the magnet isle (seriously, craft stores have a magnet isle – who knew?!)
- a tube of E6000 glue, I found it hiding in the jewelry department of the craft store
- a 3/4″ hole punch, down the scrap booking isle
- scrapbook paper, also down the scrap booking isle
The hole punch was the most expensive item, but I went to Hobby Lobby’s website and pulled down the weekly 40% off coupon that they seem to constantly run and was able to use it right off my iPhone.
First, cover your work surface. The glue oozes a bit and you won’t want to waste time scrapping it off your counters or kitchen table.
Flip the hole punch upside down so you can see the pattern you want to punch out from your scrapbook paper.
Punch out a few more than the number of magnets you have in case you accidentally ruin one in the sticking process.
Line up your magnets across your work surface. Keep them 3-4 inches apart so they don’t collide, especially once you’ve got your glue on them. Just a warning because that happened to me about 10 times before I learned my lesson.
Working in batches, place a lentil sized ball of glue on the magnet.
I got to about 6 magnets per batch before I noticed the glue got too tacky to be able to place the dot of paper and still shift it to center if you over shot.
Place the paper dot, decorative side up, on the glue that is on the magnet and press gently to spread out the glue across the magnet’s surface. With E6000, which has a similar consistency to rubber cement at first, you have about a minute to adjust its position before it becomes permanent.
Let these sit overnight to allow the glue to set up.
Now, you can be as particular as you want with the marbles. They’re manufactured in bulk and poured into bags for resale, so they’re not all perfectly round and chip-free. I painstakingly looked at each marble on top of the magnet to ensure it was large enough to cover the magnet and near chip-free.
The perfectionist in me can drive Joel to drink at times. This time he humored me and helped me line up some perfect marbles before laughing, shaking his head and walking away.
So now I’m determined as ever to make the most perfect marble magnets!
Add another lentil sized drop of glue to the paper topped marble. You can also do these in batches ~ again, I got up to 6 or 7 before the glue started to get too tacky to work with properly.
Top these off with the flat side of the marble, pressing down until you see the glue spread to the edges and you’ve worked out any air bubbles that are trying to surface.
I let these sit another night to allow the permanent bond to set up before moving them to the refrigerator which was the temporary holding tank for them until we got the party favors assembled.
Once we had the candy bags stuffed and tied off, my sweetheart husband ran to the hardware store for me and bought me these nifty washers.
Washers, you ask? Yep, good old fashioned hardware store washers were used on the backsides of these gift tags for the magnets to “stick” to.
Then we set the basket of party favors by the door and let our guests know to take a bag as they left as a thank you for coming and to hold on to the magnet for the birth announcement!
Easy peasy, right? Hey, if I can do it, trust me, you totally can do this too! And your guests will be so impressed that you hand-made these for them. Works well for a shower, a wedding, a pool party or just to pretty up your own fridge. I LOVE THESE!
Think I could make a buck selling ’em? Hmmmmm….
~Pretty Crafty Penny (aka: pw)
