Create Magnets For A Better Year

By Mica | January 24, 2019 |

I love this quick, easy, and awesome project! Seriously. . . it’s so cool! Fidgets, anyone?

I decided to make these beauties to highlight my three words of the year so I could look at them anytime I opened the fridge door. I love to eat and I love these magnets – good times!

Very reflection-y. . . they’re more gorgeous IRL!

These little gems create great fidgets as I’ve found myself carrying them around in my jacket pocket and rubbing them constantly.

If you want to make them for yourself or your kids (these would be great for Pokemon faces!), you’ll find my instructions below.

Supplies:

Step 1:

This is when you get to put on your detective hat and look for small bits of cool imagery on magazine pages. You’ll use the clear glass pendant to look through interesting parts of a page. My first word is Light, so I wanted something white. Voila! Einstein’s hair was perfect for me.

Here’s a very cool thing about that IMO . . . I feel like Einstein was full of awesome wisdom and light and having his hair as my “light” magnet brings me great sneaky joy. You know it now, but still . . . sneaky and cool.

Great image for growth or strength or life or nature or . . .

Cut it out

Here you’ll trace around the image that you love.
Place the pendant on the image, hold it down with one hand while you’re other hand traces the pendant. You’ll want to cut just inside the circle you traced so none of your markings show through.
I sure hope that made sense (insert dizzy face).

Find your words

Then, I searched diligently through the National Geographics that I had pulled out because I thought the word “light” would be simple to find. It took me awhile, but I finally found it. My other words will either be handwritten (Love, Intention) or printed. You can print them if that’s easy for you. You’ll want to use a pretty small font to make sure it fits in the pendant.

Lo and behold, look what I found!

I cut the word “light” out and was ready to . . .

Glue it

I’m working with Mod Podge for this project, but wallpaper glue or other glues can work as well.

I put the first layer directly onto the flat side of the glass pendant, and then I put the word facedown on top of the glue.

Important Note! Be sure to put the word facing through to the curved side of the pendant so you can read it through the glass. Then you’ll add a bit more glue on the back of the word. This can get messy and that’s so much of the fun!
This is what this part looks like:

This is a magazine page that I won’t use so it can get glopped with glue and then just thrown away.

Next, I put the desired image directly on the glue facing the curved side of the pendant on top of the word.
So the image you love will be put directly on the glue (which will definitely dry clear). Add a thin layer of glue to the back of the image. Wait for it to dry (maybe drink chai?), which doesn’t take long.
You’ll put 3 – 5 layers total of Mod Podge, letting the glue dry in between each layer. Strong, strong, strong it will be!

For the backs . . . sometimes, like the photo above, the image on the other side of the image you chose is pretty nice. If there are words or you want something else, you’ll search for an image the same size that you like and cut that out just like the first circle. You’ll simply glue in between these images so that you’ll have the following layers:

Word facing the curved part of the pendant
Image facing the same way
Nice image facing the back

And of course, you can do anything you want for these pendants! Photos and cardstock (thick paper) don’t work as well as thin magazine paper, but it can still be done if you really want to use photos. Just use lots of layers! You could also print the photos (small and all!) on thin copy paper and that could work nicely.

Finish it up

Yay! You’ve let the Mod Podge dry (doesn’t take long, does it?) and you’re ready to finish your project.

You might actually just love having these gorgeous glass pendants as fidgets (or desktop decor?) since our kids definitely love a safe sensory experience.

You could make one that says, “I love you” for your child to keep in their pocket. I’m brilliant, right? And yes, I might do that for my kids for Valentine’s Day in a few weeks. <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

But for me, I mostly love them on my fridge because they’re so pretty, and they’ll be a steady reminder of how I want to show up to my year.

Below you’ll see the magnets I purchased from Michael’s to use, but you can use any magnet. These have a strong adhesive to the back so I just peel them and stick, but hot glue or E-6000 are alternatives to gluing your own magnets. Your magnet does need to be pretty strong because these glass pendants can be heavy.