Mother’s Day Photo Bubble Magnets!
You know what mothers spend a lot of time doing? They spend a lot of time staring at the refrigerator. Whether’s it’s to study the family calendar, keep track of the various invitations that have come in the mail or just plain try to figure out what to cook for dinner, a mother spends a lot of time in the kitchen standing right there in front of the fridge thinking and pondering ways to take care of her family. So why not put something that says you love her right smack in plain view?
For Mother’s Day, say you love her with some simple fun magnets with cheery smiling faces. They’re easy to make and everyone knows refrigerators always need more magnets!
There are a million tutorials for this type of craft online but I thought I’d go ahead and put mine here so you don’t have to go searching. Feel free to cross reference though.
You’ll need to gather your supplies:
• 1.25 inch clear flat glass marbles or gems
• Industrial strength clear transparent glue or silicon sealant* (it will usually say for glass and photographs right on the tube)
• Photos on photo paper that you can cut to 1.25 inch circles
• scissors or a 1.25 inch round hole punch
• 1/2 inch medium strength magnets (don’t get the super strong ones they will make your magnet want to pull apart)
• toothpicks
Now you’re ready to get started.
First cut out your photos. Then apply a very small dab of glue to the front of your photo. This will seem counter-intuitive but trust me, the marble goes on top of the photo so that your cute smiling little kid face is magnified by the beveled glass. Spread the glue around with a toothpick. Little kids will get a kick out of thinking the glue is a glob of snot they are smearing from their nose all around their faces.
When the glue is evenly spread over the entire circle, carefully press the glass marble flat side down on top of the face. Smooth out bubbles with your fingers.
While that is drying you can turn the magnet over and with another dab of glue attach the magnet to the underside of the photo.
Let those dry and you’re good to go!
We added some googly eyes just for fun but that’s not necessary at all.
Now you can surprise mom by placing them strategically on the refrigerator for her to find or you can do what we did and place them in a spray-painted Altoids tin. Altoid tins are super useful for this because they are metal and the magnets stick to them like glue!
Now how sweet is that? Tie it up with a pretty ribbon and you have yourself a nifty little gift that would make any mother (or grandmother!) smile.
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Difficulty Level: Easy (just be careful that children do not ingest glue or get it in their eyes)
Appropriate Age levels: School Age and Up
*Make sure to do this craft in a well ventilated room as glue can be a bit smelly
