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Marble Magnets
difficulty:
+ very strong magnets
+ silicon sealer (glue)
+ plain white cardstock
+ good quality craft glue
+ scissors and/or utility knife
+ a variety of images, with ink that won't run
+ a circle template (if you've got one)
If you've got a circle template, use that to match up your marble to a circle size (use the flat part, not the over-all circumference) and use it to cut out the image (you know ... draw a little circle, cut using knife or scissors...). If you don't have a circle template, you can just free-hand it. That's what we did with the first 100 we made.
Then you need to paste your cut-out to card stock and cut again. Alternatively, you can roughly cut the magazine image, glue it to the cardstock, mark it with the circular template and then cut it out all at once. After that's finished, it's time to glue it to the marble. The silicon sealer tends to come out in large doses (too large) so you might want to use a toothpick to apply it to the back of your marble.
Then you squish your cardstock backed picture to the magnet and spread the glue around nice and even so your image looks perfectly pretty and is perfectly centered and you leave it to dry. As you squish it, make sure that there are no bubbles.
It probably needs to dry at least 30 minutes. At this point, you can continue with your magnet. Use that nifty silicon glue to bind the magnet to the back of your image now and let that dry for at least 30 minutes. Then you can pick 'em up and put 'em in tins and do whatever else you please with 'em.
These look great stored in little tins (from breath mints or whatever) and even better holding things up on your fridge or magnet board. Also, see the origami magnets box project.
Marble Magnets
Project Overview
cost: difficulty:
Supplies
+flat-backed clear marbles (commonly found in the flower arrangement section of a craft store)
+ very strong magnets
+ silicon sealer (glue)
+ plain white cardstock
+ good quality craft glue
+ scissors and/or utility knife
+ a variety of images, with ink that won't run
+ a circle template (if you've got one)
Directions
Start this project by finding your images. We used magazines. Take some of the flat-backed marbles and use them to judge the image for size and to see how well it will look magnified by the marble. Some of the coolest magnets we made weren't graphic images but just odd looking patterns or bits of an image.
If you've got a circle template, use that to match up your marble to a circle size (use the flat part, not the over-all circumference) and use it to cut out the image (you know ... draw a little circle, cut using knife or scissors...). If you don't have a circle template, you can just free-hand it. That's what we did with the first 100 we made.
Then you need to paste your cut-out to card stock and cut again. Alternatively, you can roughly cut the magazine image, glue it to the cardstock, mark it with the circular template and then cut it out all at once. After that's finished, it's time to glue it to the marble. The silicon sealer tends to come out in large doses (too large) so you might want to use a toothpick to apply it to the back of your marble.
Then you squish your cardstock backed picture to the magnet and spread the glue around nice and even so your image looks perfectly pretty and is perfectly centered and you leave it to dry. As you squish it, make sure that there are no bubbles.
It probably needs to dry at least 30 minutes. At this point, you can continue with your magnet. Use that nifty silicon glue to bind the magnet to the back of your image now and let that dry for at least 30 minutes. Then you can pick 'em up and put 'em in tins and do whatever else you please with 'em.
These look great stored in little tins (from breath mints or whatever) and even better holding things up on your fridge or magnet board. Also, see the origami magnets box project.
