Tutorial Tuesday: DIY Photo Magnets

JUST in time for Father's Day! A Father's Day CRAFT!
Here's a high-success, no-fail, easy-peasy DIY craft project: sure to please!!! You don't even need to be crafty! This simple project would be perfect for the daddy in your world, or the man in your world, whatever his title -- actually for any holiday, gift-giving occasion on down the family-calendar for that matter.

Last month I was was making my annual Author-Illustrator school visit to Scioto Darby Elementary in Hilliard OH. It was such a pleasure to meet the new kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Jones. I was there just before Mother's Day and Mrs. J had these delightful little photo-gems drying and awaiting the refrigerators of all of her students. How much to those k-mommies LUV their Mrs. Jones? 

Do-it-Yourself Photo Magnets for Gift Giving

Oo0o0oOdles of people came to visit here as a result of that image! YEAH!!
(You wanna go back to see the other Mother's Day ideas? Click here.)

Then there were questions. Like: "How did she do that?" I thought it would be helpful for me to 'try-it-myself' and let you look over my shoulder and hopefully all of your questions will be answered in the process. 

First step: you need the glass baubles that I see are being marketed here as "Marble Accents." I was able to find a bag of these beauties at my local Dollar Tree Store in the craft section for, yup, you guessed it: ONE DOLLAR!! Don't ya just LUV your Dollar Tree? They came in a little mesh bag and my bag held 20 marble accent pieces. They are roughly an inch and a half to two inches across. 

That's the little glass 'blobs' (professional term) let loose. The fun part is sorting through photos to find a just-right size for the glass accent gem. I had just unearthed a box of totally miscellaneous photos in our relocation earlier this month so I knew I was good to go. FUN TIMES!! These are our 'annual' pose-it-on-the-couch' photos and I'm guessing they are at least ten years old. Of course you could actually take 'new' photos for your keepsake. I just don't have my loved ones handy at the moment, so the boxed memories will suffice. 

Easy peasy next step is to trace around the bauble onto the picture. The baubles are somewhat irregular, so you want to kinda-sorta be careful to keep your photo next to its own unique glass sphere (to make sure that they match back up again. No worries, its not really rocket science.)

Then the part that you're probably most intrigued by: the gluing. We didn't have any glue in our little north-woods summer place and Allen was out running errands. Yeah, cell phone! I asked him to pick up a little bottle of good ol' Elmers. He happened to bring home their 'School Glue' variety, but I'm sure you could use the regular -- just as easily. 

I put a little circle of the glue around the outside edge of the photos. 

Bingo-bango that's the whole process from start-to-finish! Happy refrigerator! Happy Father's Day Not-so-Crafty Pinterest person -- you can do this one!!! Honest!

I just had an earlier article I called "Father's Day Festivities" and there were two awesome bulletin board ideas in that post -- one could be converted into the cutest Father's Day card! Here's that click to go back in time. The other reason to click back there is I found a little 'poem' for your keepsake. You'll LUV it!

Father's Day Bulletin Board with Painted Feet

Do you have a favorite Father's Day tradition? You could be an over-achiever and do this every year! That would make for an awesome collection over time. 

-- Debbie -- 

LATE NIGHT BLOGGING THRILLLLLL!
My young, techno friends at KBN taught me how to do the text overlays on PicMonkey!!!!!!!
Oh happy, happy day!!!

What??? You don't know about the Kid Blogger Network? 
At the very least follow our collaborative pin-board for a ton of ideas + inspiration!