Glass Magnets

Just when you thought it was safe to open the refrigerator door,  along comes this cute little quickie craft. These magnets are made using your choice of art. That's what makes this little project so appealing: you can use any ol' thing you want to create custom and personal magnets, instead of using the freebies you get from the bank, the realtor, the home health equipment company, the latest candidate for political office....... in fact, these magnets won't try to sell you anything.

Here's what you need:

Flat decorator glass marbles. Check out the dollar place, the big box crafts stores, or any where that home decor items are offered. Some of the marbles have an iridescent surface, which kind of makes it harder to see the image underneath, but that may be the look you want. You're the artist so go for it.

Next you need magnets. There are so many kinds of magnets for sale that there is no rule of thumb except that they are small enough to fit your glass marble and strong enough to hold it.

And you need artwork. Anything will do- photos, birthday cards, gift wrap, scrapbook paper, ticket stubs, original drawings, stickers, newspaper clippings, etc. Just go looking around your house-- you'll find something.

And you need adhesive. YES! craft paste works, so do glue sticks, which I used.

Alright, let's get started!

Check out your glass marbles-

Some of them may have some type of occlusion in them, like bubbles,

 

or surface flaws,

or some kind of color variations such as the green smear on the right side of this marble.

Once you have picked out your image, hold the marble over the top until you hit upon a view that you like. It's kind of like cropping and framing a picture.

Slather on a good coat of glue with the glue stick.

If you have dexterity troubles, try this trick that I use a good bit with my patients who have arthritis or neuropathy.

Get some of that "office putty" used as a removable adhesive for walls and such.

Make a ball of it about the size of a walnut and stick it on your work surface. Then you can smash the glass marble on top ...

and it will hold your glass marble in place while you load up the glue.

Place the marble, gluey side down, on top of your image. Cut your image out after you put the marble on it because as these marbles are not usually perfectly round it's really hard to trace the image, cut it out, and then hope to get it positioned right on the marble. I don't know- maybe y'all are more skilled than I.

Peel off the backing of your magnet, or apply glue, depending on what type magnet you have, and stick it to the middle of the back of your glass.

That's it!

The sky's the limit! Normally I would snoop around for some way to add glitter or a little something on the front like a rhinestone but you get the idea.

So there you have it. Really fast, super easy, custom made.

You can coordinate with your decor, spell out special messages, or sell them at the next craft fair!!

Have fun.