These EASY DIY photo magnets are so simple that even a kid can make them! Give these glass magnets as photo gifts, use them as party favors, or keep the kids busy during summer break.
Skills Required: Beginner. If you can cut out paper with scissors, you can make these photo magnets! The time required to make these is minimal, and you can make a lot of these picture magnets at once. You don’t have to worry about any wrinkles in this project.
Are you ready, my friends, to make the easiest craft project you’ve ever made in your life? Then you’re ready for these DIY picture magnets! I’ve made clothespin magnets and bottlecap magnets, but not the glass marble type.
It took me forever to finally try making DIY glass magnets like these, and I thought it would be the perfect time to try while looking for a quick craft idea. Making fridge magnets is pretty quick and I can’t believe I haven’t tried the glass version before.
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. It’s a picture I used it in this photo craft:
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? After having long hair for my whole (adult) life, I wanted to know what it felt like to have short hair.
I wasn’t sure how to cut it, so I shaved it off – and didn’t fully realize what happened until the hair was on the ground. I guess doing wild stuff is the fun part of being a young girl. But I digress . . .
DIY Photo Magnets
These photo magnets are easy to make (they’re a great craft for teens or adults), but I do have a few tips and commonly asked questions I wanted to address before we jump into the tutorial.
I originally published this tutorial in 2011 and since then, this is what people want to know. You can read this section or continue to scroll for the how-to.
Type of Beads/Marbles
For these picture magnets you’re going to be looking for “flat backed” beads or marbles (they might also be called glass gems or accent pebbles). They are commonly used in floral displays I’ve found.
The flat back is so that you can glue a magnet to the back, so that part is important! Also you want something that you can see through (even if it’s not clear). The marbles you select for your glass bead magnets should be transparent.
Where to Buy Them
For these picture magnets, I got a 1-lb. bag of glass beads at Dollar Tree. I don’t know if they are always there – but I know that the craft store has them in the floral section.
In addition, I found them on Amazon and also on Wish (which is good if you want a large quantity for favors). MAKE SURE they have flat backs on one side!
Personalization Ideas
You can use photos to personalize your DIY glass magnets, however, I do recommend making laserjet copies of the real photos so you don’t get any bleed.
Photos are cute for handmade gifts or wedding favors. But you don’t *have* to use photos; you can use anything. The idea is to pick a scrap of something (the magnets will end up being about 1″ or so) that has meaning to you or to the recipient.
Paper, Fabric, and More
You can use a variety of materials on the back of the magnets: scrapbook paper, tissue paper, printed patterns (go for laserjet), fabric, wrapping paper, foil, maps, cardstock, rice paper, and more.
You can paint on the back too. For example, you could put some Sparkle Mod Podge on the back of the marble, let dry, and then paint. Your DIY glass magnets can be anything you want them to be!
Mod Podge Formula to Use with Glass Magnets
Because glass is shiny, I pretty much always use Mod Podge Gloss when glass is my surface. It’s just a personal preference, and you can use any formula you like to be honest.
The only formula I wouldn’t recommend using is Dimensional Magic. Dimensional Magic is meant to provide a 3-D effect on top of surfaces, not to adhere. Stick with Gloss, Matte, or Satin (but other formulas work too).
Are you ready to see how the glass magnets were made?? Keep reading!
Gather These Supplies
- Computer and printer/scanner
- Photos to scan
- Mod Podge Gloss
- Scrapbook paper scraps
- Glass beads – my 1 lb. bag is from Dollar Tree
- Magnets
- Hot glue gun
- Pencil or pen
- Paintbrush
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:
If you use regular photos, scan them in and print them out (preferably on laserjet). I will say that if you have an HP printer, it uses a dry ink, so you’re probably safe. You can also let the print outs dry overnight and then seal them with hair spray both sides. This prevents ink from bleeding.
Use photo software (like PicMonkey) 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.
You can 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.
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 takes just a small amount of excess paper to make them!
Use your Mod Podge to adhere the face (right side down on the flat side of 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 are the finished custom photo magnets. They make such a great end of summer craft to capture summer memories or fun photos. What about a teacher gift idea or back to school? The possibilities are endless.
I’d love to see you try these DIY picture magnets and let me know how they turn out in the comments!
Photo Magnets
Equipment
- Computer and printer/scanner
- Pen or pencil
Materials
- Photos to scan
- Mod Podge Gloss
- Scrapbook paper scraps
- 12 Flat glass beads also called marbles
- Magnets
Video
Instructions
- Use photo editing software to size your images to fit your glass marbles; print out using a laserjet or dry ink printer.
- Cut out your photo shapes and set aside.
- 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.
- Use Mod Podge to adhere the face (right side down on the marble). Smooth and allow to dry for 15 – 20 minutes.
- Adhere the scrapbook paper (right side down) on to the marble, allow to dry overnight.
- Hot glue to the magnets to the back to finish.
Want some additional easy budget project ideas? Check out these other posts:
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 🙂
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! 😉
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)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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. 🙁
c’est une excellente idée!!!!
bravo .
merci
Au plaisir de découvrir vos créations.
http://WWW.chantal-bonnevay.book.fr
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!