Puzzle Magnet

When I was little I used to make puzzles using magnets and stickers. It is so easy to do, and a fun craft for kids to make and play with.

The easiest way is to use stickers, but you can just as easily make a magnet of your favourite picture using double sided tape or glue.

For this tutorial I have used a panda photo cut from a calendar. You could use photos, magazine pictures or even artwork you have drawn yourself.

The best thing is that you can use magnets that companies use for advertising. Yes, I do have a lot of these ready and waiting to be used for craft.

1. Glue or stick your picture to your magnet and trim the magnet to fit your picture.
2. Mark out your cutting lines for the pieces.
3. Cut each piece carefully so they line up properly.
4. Assemble either on your fridge or the back of another magnet.

Please excuse the bad quality photos, the weather has been terrible again and my lights don't help!

Tutorial - Ladybug Magnets

After making my cute little bee magnets, I decided to make some lovely ladybug magnets for my fridge as well. The bees and ladybugs must have noticed as they have been taking care of my veggie garden for me!

Print your template through google docs here.

If you need more in depth instructions, please refer to my bee magnets tutorial.

Supplies:

• Printed template
• PVA glue (or your glue of choice)
• Felt - Black and Red
• Magnet (mine is 3.8cm x 2cm with an adhesive back)
• Googly eyes
• Cardboard
• Scissors
• Chalk (or fabric marking pen)
• Hole Punch

1. Cut out all of your template pieces, your cardboard backing and four black spots using a hole punch. You will also need a pair of googly eyes.
2. Glue your cardboard backing to your body piece.
3. Glue the stripe to the centre top of the body.
4. Glue the head to body; lining it up against the stripe.
5. Glue on your spots - I chose to do 4.
6. Glue on your googly eyes (optional - waste time moving them into crazy positions)
7. After your glue is dry you can stick your magnet on the back and pop it on the fridge!

And now I have a ladybug family to add to my bee family. 

You can make your ladybug much simpler by not doing a stripe or antennae - like my little ladybug.

* Edited to add this image of the template so you can simply right click and save as...

Phonecard Magnets

After sharing my bee magnets with you, I thought I would share my favourite magnets with you.

All of these magnets are simply old phonecards. My dad used to work overseas and had to use phonecards to be able to contact us while he was away. Of course we loved seeing all the different pictures from the different countries he visited. I had a bag full of old phonecards, so rather than having them sit in a bag where they never get seen, I chose a few that would look cute as magnets!

I don’t use these magnets to hold anything on my fridge – they are purely there to look pretty!  If you happen to have a collection of old phonecards sitting around put some magnets on the back. My magnets are 3.8cm x 2cm and I only used 1 of them, I would suggest you use 3 if you want them to hold notes.

All of these phonecards are from Singapore. Now my dad has email and satellite phones to use while he is at work – luckily he still brings back different lollies and chocolates!

Tutorial - Bee Magnets

I have been playing around with my felt stash lately after remembering a cute little bee I used to draw in my school diary.

The result is my crazy eyed bee magnets!

They are really easy to make once everything has been cut out. If you have little kids you could cut all the pieces out for them, then they can just glue it together.  To make it even easier, you can print the template at a bigger size.

Print your template through google docs here.

Now lets get started with the tutorial:

1. First you need to gather your supplies:

·         Printed template

·         Fabric glue

·         Super Glue or PVA/Hot/Tacky Glue (I used super glue as it dries fast – however it does show through the felt)

·         Felt – Black, yellow and white (or any colour you like – who says a bee has to be yellow?)

·         Magnets (I bought mine on eBay – they came with sticky back, precut in big sheets – mine are 3.8cm x 2cm)

·         For the eyes – either a hole punch for the black felt or googly eyes

·         Cardboard

·         Scissors

·         Washable marking pen and chalk

2. Cut out you cardboard backing template piece. Tape it onto your piece of cardboard, making sure to tape down all the edges.

3. Now simply start cutting out your cardboard backing. By taping down the template you can easily follow the template lines. This is easier than trying to trace the image onto the cardboard. Best of all, the template can be used over and over – the tape just makes it stronger.

4. Cut out the body template. Trace onto your yellow felt, then cut it out.

5. Cut out the wing template. Trace onto your white felt, then cut it out. Repeat for the second wing.

6. Cut out your stripe template. Trace onto your black felt, then cut it out. Repeat for the second stripe.

7. Cut out the eye template. Trace onto your white felt, then cut it out. Repeat for the second eye.

8. If you are using felt eyes, use your hole punch to cut 2 circles out of black felt.

9. If you are using googly eyes, it is as easy as picking the size you want!

10. Lay out all of your pieces to make the glueing process easy. This way you won’t be searching for any of the pieces you have cut out.

·         You will notice the cardboard backing piece is smaller than all of your felt pieces. This is so it will not show around the edges of the felt.

11. Start by applying your super glue to the body section of the cardboard.

12. Place the body piece onto your glued area, ensuring it covers the cardboard edges.

13. Now glue your wings into place, ensuring they butt up to the body and cover the cardboard edges.

14. Apply your fabric glue to the stripes and stick them in place.

15. Apply your fabric glue to the white eye pieces and stick them in place.

16. If you are using felt eyes, use your fabric glue to stick them in place.

17. If you are using googly eyes, use your super glue to stick them in place.

18. After your glue has dried you can simply stick your magnet on the back and pop it on your fridge!

Try not to use excessive amounts of glue as it will soak into your felt and show at the front (see the red bee). I did use super glue on one complete bee; however I would not suggest using it between two pieces of felt. It does hold it in place, but pulls off very easily.

You can use 3D fabric paint to draw little mouths on your bees like on my red bee.

If you don’t have any felt just use iron-on interfacing on fabric in place of the felt. The interfacing will stop the fabric fraying and you can glue it all together just like the felt.

You could even use coloured cardstock or paper for wall decorations.

* Edited to add this image of the template so you can simply right click and save as...