Glass Magnets

April 12, 2002. I saw this great idea on Groovy Mom's website for making magnets out of the glass marbles that you can buy to put at the bottom of flower arrangements. I wanted to do something crafty for Meredith's birthday, and this seemed perfect, since I could draw little Meredith-related things (the World of Meredith, if you will) for the pictures.

The bags of the glass marbles (the flat ones, not the round ones) are only about $0.67 at Michael's. I also got small round magnets and a special glass glue (called "Aleene's Glass & Bead Glue") that dries clear.

My biggest mistake was not using a thicker paper, so when I glued on the magnets, you could see them through the paper.

For a case to hold the magnets, I took an old Altoids tin and used acetone to take off all the paint. It took a lot of elbow grease to get the paint off. I recommend using steel wool; it was a lot easier once I switched to that (I had been using rags). I really like the stainless steel look of the tin, and it's also nice, since the magnets actually stick to it.

Here are the magnets. The dark spots in the middle are where you can see the actual magnet through the paper. The images are:

shopping bag, small cat, large cat, bra (upside-down)

sun (sideways), flowers, flowers, jeans

purse (upside-down), star, Julie, lips (upside-down)