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Fun face glass magnets.

DIY personalized magnets

I have a confession. I’ve never made glass marble magnets with Mod Podge. Eek! Don’t be mad. I’m doing the Flip-Pal™ mobile scanner blog hop again this week, and I thought it would be the perfect time to try a project I never have. The analogy is living in Seattle and never going to the Space Needle. It’s always seemed too obvious, so I’ve never done it. I hope you will forgive me, because I think the picture I’m about to show you of myself will make up for everything. Before I begin, here’s the little guy I’ll be using in today’s post:

To make these DIY personalized magnets, I dug some pictures out of the archives that weren’t digital.  Here’s one that I think you will like.

Yep, it’s me. I shaved my head when I was 22 years old. My hair was long, past my shoulders, and I had a boyfriend at that time who didn’t know I shaved my head until he came over to my house and saw it. Yipes (he didn’t mind). Why did I do it, you ask? I had always had long hair and I wanted to know what it felt like to have short hair. I wasn’t sure how to cut it, so I just got rid of it. I didn’t fully realize what I had done until the hair was on the ground . . . I guess doing wild stuff is the fun part of being young. I love my hair now, and I’m so glad I shaved my head.  It’s a true test of your womanhood, for sure. You can imagine the looks I got and what people thought about me. It’s an eye-opener!

Now onto the project. I wanted to commemorate the shaved head times as well as my pug Roxie, both when she was young and now.  Here are the pictures I chose for this project; let’s dive in to the project instructions.

Gather These Supplies

Flip-Pal™ mobile scanner
Computer and printer
Images to scan
Mod Podge Gloss
Scrapbook paper scraps
Glass beads – my 1 lb. bag is from Dollar Tree
Magnets
Hot glue gun – I love my Imaginisce i-bond cordless
Pencil or pen
Paintbrush

Scan your photos on your Flip Pal.  The great news is that this puppy scans at both 300 and 600 dpi.  I could scan these pictures and then blow them up if I wanted to.  Because who wouldn’t want a poster-sized shaved head Amy on their wall?  Maybe right above the bed?

I used my photo software to crop out part of the photo (a simple circle shaped crop), then I printed a few copies in different sizes to see what would work for my glass marbles.  I cut out just the head shapes – I wanted floating heads on the back of the glass magnets, because that is more funny.  Set the heads aside.

Here are the glass marbles.  They are flat backed on one side, and that is the side you’ll be Mod Podging on.  A whole bag for $1!

The glass marbles are not completely round, so trace them onto your scrapbook paper pieces and then cut out the shapes just inside the lines.  This is a great scrap buster project, by the way – it just takes a small amount of paper.

Use your Mod Podge to adhere the face (right side down on the marble); use a thin layer or it’s never going to dry.  Smooth it with your fingers and allow to dry for 15 – 20 minutes.
Adhere the scrapbook paper (right side down) on to the marble, allow to dry overnight and then hot glue to the magnets to the back.  Don’t you love my cordless hot glue gun with a headlight?
Here’s the finished product.  Wasn’t my piggie cute when she was little?  These make great gifts, and they can be whipped up quickly. I hope you’ll give them a try.
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Comments

  1. Annette A. says:

    I love how the little magnets came out.. great job…love what you can do with the scanner. Thanks for sharing

  2. Karin Hall says:

    That scanner is great … so want one.

  3. oh I need to do this!! ADORABLE!

  4. A 1″ wholepuncher is perfect for those gems! That’s what I use for mine!

  5. Great call Yvonne! That’s the perfect suggestion.

  6. I’ve been wanting to try my hand at making these glass magnets. It looks so easy.

    I LOVE Roxie!! We have a black pug, Lucy…she is such a doll baby!! (Her picture is hanging out at the top of my blog at the moment while we are doing some work on it…it’s really out of place. LOL)

  7. I love this. Personalized magnets. But where do you find the magnets to glue to the back? Thanks

  8. Heather - Dollarstorecrafts.com says:

    Ha ha! You sound like me. I dyed my blonde hair black for a school play in high school, but I secretly just wanted to dye my hair black.

  9. Isn’t it amazing how clear the scans come out on the Flip-Pal? Have you used the software on the SD card to enhance, size, etc. Thanks for joining me on the blog hop….love your project.
    Kathy Peterson

  10. I’ve done these with e600…..does the modge podge hold the picture on even after pulling the marble to move the magnet around on your board? I did some with glue that was too weak and when i went to pull the magnet off the fridge…it pulled the marble off the picture.

  11. Colleen - the AmAzINg Mrs. B says:

    Hey! I shaved my head too! Well, because I didn’t want the cancer to take ti away..but it gave me a whole new perspective on “hair”!
    Glad to have mine back..and love the puggie too!

  12. that scanner should be renamed to something more awesome… :)

  13. Wendy@project-create.blogspot.com says:

    Piggie is a cutie! Love this easy peasy project. But I think you shoud give a way one of those rocking cordless glue guns! LOL Portable hot glue I Love IT!

  14. Using the punch is the easiest way! How cool would it be to make some for a grandparent for Valentines. Or letters/numbers for your grandchild…

  15. What a great idea! You could do a whole family tree to put on the fridge for your kids to become acquainted with!

  16. Thanks for blogging about the scanner. I bought one and it is great. Light weight and easy to use. I haven’t used it for any craft projects yet, but have scanned some old photos.

  17. StampinCathy says:

    Totally AWESOME! I hope one day I will have a Flip Pal!

  18. Reflections from Granny says:

    OMG, looking through my stash this is awesome and your Roxie is so cute!

    I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed on the Flip-Pal scanner, it’s on my wish list though.

    My next project this weekend before this is to Mod Podge dress up my cane. It’s been here and there and needs some sprucing up!

    :) Lori m

  19. Thanks everyone!

    Debbie, these are pretty strong – it’s a balance of the magnets not being to strong and the hot glue. It seems to work okay for now. But E6000 is AWESOME! That’s a great idea.

    Judy G – the magnets are from Michaels. You can probably get them at nearly any craft store.

    xo to all

  20. Tammy @ she wears flowers says:

    I love that little Flip Pal! And, I want to see the before, before picure, too–the one with the long hair! ;)

  21. JC's Loft says:

    What a fun project!

    Paula

  22. I really love your blog! It has inspired me! I’ve started my own blog and linked you as one of my inspirations. Visit me at http://corduroydreams.blogspot.com/

  23. Teri "Terrific" says:

    PERFECT gift for my MIL; she loves pictures, loves pictures of the children (we live in MT and she in NY *sad face*) and she totally Mod Podged her last fridge with photos – she has a new fridge that needs pics that aren’t glued on :D
    Thanks, Amy
    PS Love the Flip!!

  24. Those magnets are cute.I think I will make a few. Love the scanner.

  25. Love the glass magnets! I have all of the supplies to make them—for the past year—and just haven’t done it yet…lol Ah well, best of intentions. My wild and crazy youth had me coloring my hair black and chopping it off (kind of spiky) so I could look like Joan Jett. Mom got real mad at me for doing it but my Dad laughed his butt off. It was really cool for the first couple of days but, after that, I hated it and couldn’t wait for my hair to grow out. I don’t really hear too much of Joan Jett’s music anymore but, whenever I do, it always makes me laugh.

  26. These magnets are so cute useful the flip pal scanner would be great
    for this and scrapbooking projects.

  27. Patricia L says:

    These suckers are so easy to make assembly line-style. We made them one year for teacher gifts and they were a big hit!

  28. Anonymous says:

    Thanks for more great inspiration EJ

  29. ~blessings says:

    Love the magnets – have been wanting to make some myself.Thanks for the tute!!

  30. alwayscharlie says:

    These little magnets rock! I can’t wait to see the rest of the projects this week!

  31. what a cool project.. bought some magnets at michaels so i could make some, but the magnets totally suck. they can’t even hold themselves onto the fridge! so disappointed. going to look for better magnets though. i’m determined to make these!

  32. c’est une excellente idée!!!!
    bravo .
    merci
    Au plaisir de découvrir vos créations.
    http://WWW.chantal-bonnevay.book.fr

  33. I know this is an older post, but I have a question re: this project –

    How do you get the mod podge to not show even after drying? I smoothed the mod podge out, I did it all in minimal amounts, et cetera. If you need I can e-mail you a pic of a magnet to show you specifically what I mean.

    It is very frustrating because I did at least 10 magnets and all look bad because of the mod podge drying issue. :(

  34. Anonymous says:

    Thanks for the great step by step directions with pics. :-) Thinking of doing this project with my third grade students for Mother’s Day. I take lots of pics throughout the year so they have plenty to choose from. Looking for a cute poem to go with if anyone has any ideas.

  35. Ok, I LOVE this idea. We are a poor family of 5 and I am going to make a set of magnets to give as gifts. BUT, the glass beads I got are not ultra clear! Only a handful out of the bag which was over $2 will actually work for a clear picture. Otherwise I have all the supplies and this is my very first project using Modge Podge. We do not have a scanner so I ordered wallet sized prints.

  36. One question. Do you put mod podge on the bead then the photo, then more mp, or just mp over the back of the photo?

    • Hi there! I just put a little on the bead and smoothed the picture onto it. Do a test one first just to make sure you have the hang of it! Also I got my bag of beads at the dollar store, so check there if you need to. I got A LOT for $1 and they were all good to MP.

  37. Just saw this post. Really cute. I was even thinking that if you wanted to use words or a standard image for gifts, you could design or scan a background and use imaging software to make the pictures and print, then just trace one time the shape of the bead onto the picture, cut out once, mp once, then hot glue on the magnet. (Using pictures and snapping to the picture can allow that to be cut and pasted onto a background design, also.) That may require more ink and some thought for keeping the backgrounds different, but would be another approach to try.
    Fun idea for an inexpensive gift exchange. Thanks for posting.

  38. So COOL!!! More ideas to go into those baskets for Christmas – yep – the people in my family will be getting handmade things for Christmas…A trip to the Dollar Store is in order…LOL!!!
    Thanks for sharing!!! :0)

  39. Wow! What a cool idea. I too will be making homemade gifts for my g-friends of 45 years (!) For Christmas. Needless to say I have collected tons of pix of us from our also crazy, damn the establishment days of youth. We’re all stroking 60 now, and it will be a blast to give them some of these fantastic magnets. And who doesn’t love magnets. I am also a dollar store stalker, picking up items here and there. I’ll be filling up really beautiful boxes from Michael’s (that’s also part of the gift) with stuff I’ll be making for them. I find these gifts more personal than store bought gifts, and after 45 years of gift sharing, one runs out of ideas. Who needs another pair of pajama’s or a gift card! No, really, they love the things I make and love my cards even more. Love your blog. Still crazy after all these years! ;-)

  40. Quick question, I want to make these for my wedding favors. When you reprinted the pictures of your head and of your puggy, did you just use an ink jet? Or did you use special paper or special printing? I’m hoping to make Beatles ones, and will need to print off my own photos. Thanks! Fantastic idea :)

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