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magnets! that i made!
this is a project that was first inspired in Seattle when i was with Amanda. i bought a glass magnet that was of Seattle on a city map. after i bought it i was looking at it and decided that i could definitely make it myself. first, i had to buy the glass gems. the best place i found to get them was craft warehouse. they have a very large choice of sizes and come in large packs of just clear (not colored or iridescent). the 1" glass gems are usually $3.99, but seem to go on sale a lot. craft warehouse actually had the same project in mind that i did and even had a little section in craft warehouse with examples of how to make the magents.
supplies to make magnets:
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i have hundreds of magazines around because i like to decoupage, so i had plenty of pages to flip through to look for cool pictures to use. i have lots of other ideas about what to use besides magazine clipping - there are so many possibilities. i think my next project is going to be making "dorky" magnets using pictures from old textbooks that i have of different types of white blood cells and parasites (i'm going to scan the pages so that i don't ruin the book!). to make the magnet, i brush a thin layer of mod podge on the back of the glass gem, and place a pre-cut out 1" paper circle (or whatever size glass gem you have) on the back. after it's placed it might need to be trimmed if it's not perfect because each glass gem is unique. next, i used a glue gun to attach a magnet to the back.
i just used medium strength magnets like these. they are strong enough to hold up the 1" glass jem plus 1-2 pieces of paper. as you can see i also made some larger magnets (2.5" diameter). this was where i ran into some problems. first, the medium strength magnets are barely strong enough to hold up just the glass gem and definitely not any paper. so i had to go back to the craft store to look for stronger magnets. i found some but they only come in packs of 4 so they are a lot more expensive per magnet. the magnets were very strong and able to hold up the larger glass gem and multiple pieces of paper. i was pleased, but then...two of my strong magnets stuck together and when i went to pull them apart, they were so strong that instead of coming apart, it pulled the paper off of the glass gem. so i have learned to remove magnets with a sliding motion and not pull directly out. finally, one day, the glass gem just fell off the fridge, leaving the magnet behind. the stronger magnets are a smooth metal so the glue gun doesn't have any pores to attatch to and the two smooth surfaces do not stick very well. so i'm still working out the kinks with the larger, heavier glass gems. i'm also thinking i will need to start buying supplies in bulk on-line to cut costs.
overall, i'm very pleased with the result and i love making these little "gems". the problem is, i have about 100 new magnets. i'm going to have to start giving them away to more friends
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