So my son is really into letters. Which is really exciting for me because I know he’s going to be a genius someday. Okay, maybe that’s a little bit of a stretch… genius or no-genius, I wanted him to have an alphabet set that was not only fun to play with, but that I would be happy about him sticking to my fridge. That being said, I’m not a fan of the regular old plastic magnetic alphabet letters…you know the ones…
My mom has made these glass pebble magnets and they are so fun, so I thought why not make an alphabet set with them! They are inexpensive to make, so cute, and super customizable—you can have them match your kids room, your kitchen, or your favorite toe nail polish—whatever you fancy!
Total cost= about $8
Total time = about 2 hours
So here goes…
Supplies:
Paper or fabric for the front and back of your magnets, any weight will do, although thicker is better.
Stickers—about 1/2” in size (this set was not for my son, but for a friend—the one for my son I actually printed out letters and cut them out by hand, I don’t recommend this because it takes a LONG time, but would save you money by not buying stickers, and you can choose the font)
Clear glue: I used Elmer’s because it’s all I had, however Diamond Glaze
Paint brush for applying glue
Super glue: for adhering magnets (you don’t have to do magnets, in fact these make great ‘spelling word’ tools, just lay them out on the table and rearrange to create spelling words –you’d probably want to do extra letters, additional vowels, etc.)
Marbles: you want to make sure that your marbles are flat on one side. I found these in the floral section at Joanns, I know Hobby Lobby has them as well.
Magnets: any kind will do
Scissors OR a 1” circle punch: These babies will save you so much time! They run about $10, but if you use a Joanns coupon, you can usually get it for 40-50% off. (Michaels also accepts Joann’s coupons). If you are going to go the old fashion route and use scissors, make sure you trace or print out your circle so you get a nice, even shape (cut circles to be 1” in diameter).
The first thing you’ll need to do is wash your marbles. They can get really dusty and dirty and you don’t want that on your magnets!
Rinse and then dry really well
Then you’ll want to inspect the magnets to make sure none of them are chipped, broken, or have cracks in them. For this reason, it’s good to buy extra.
Use the ‘rejects’ in your floral displays
Next cut out all your circles
I like to have all the backs of the magnets be the same print, so I cut out additional circles to glue onto the backs of the magnets
Stick your stickers on the circles, making sure to center them (I had to peel off the stickers a lot and re-center). If you cut out your own letters, you would add a step before this to cut out your letters and then adhere them to the circles (I used a glue stick to adhere them).
Please ignore my ghetto manicure (or lack thereof). I don’t know why but I just never bother to take off my nail polish… I’m sure you’ve noticed this in other posts… I like to keep it real…
Do this for all your circles. I’ll take the time to mention that this tutorial works for ANYTHING. You can do letters, photos, fabric, dried flowers, fingernail clippings, numbers, whatever you feel like. Get creative! Get crazy!
Add a little dollop of glue to the flat side of the pebble. Just a teensy bit, you don’t want it to be too globoldy gloobledy.
Press the circle down nice and hard. Smooth out any bubbles. If you’re using Elmer’s, it’s a good idea to wait and then do this again since it takes the Elmer’s a little bit to dry. As you press down, some glue will come out from the sides, use this to smooth around the edges of the paper, be sure to wipe it off the edges and front (if it gets there) of the pebble.
Then apply a little more glue to the back and add on your ‘back piece’ circle
Press down firmly
Add some more glue
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Brush over the entire backing, making sure to get the edges really well.
Repeat all steps for the rest of your pebbles, and then let dry for a little while (until glue is no longer tacky to the touch), then repeat this last step to get a really good solid bond.
Allow to dry (over night is ideal, pull out your hair dryer if the party you’re making these for is in 15 minutes…I know I’m not the only one out there that does this…)
Note: so being a direction follower (call me crazy), I strictly followed the directions on this super glue. Which stated that you should apply glue to both sides of the ‘to-be-adhered’ objects and wait 2-10 minutes before adhering. I waiting about 7, and the glue was too dry by this time. So…if you’re using the same glue as me, consider me to be smarter than the glue and do what I say… (not because I’m necessarily smarter than glue—although I’d like to think so—but because you can greatly benefit from my mistakes, ‘aint life grand?).
Once the back of the circle is dry, apply a TINY amount of super glue to the back of the pebble.
Adhere magnet and firmly press. I’d even go as far as to put it on the table and really put your back into and prrrrrrrreeeessssssssss down really hard. Toddlers like to eat small objects like magnets…
Voila! You’re done. Easy peasy lemon squeezy (ok I know, the jokes are getting lame, but it’s late…so forgive me)
A few more notes:
-Although these glass pebble magnets are very durable (my toddler thinks its so fun to chuck them across the kitchen, landing on the hard tile floor—no broken ones yet), they are still glass, so be careful
-If you’re super cool and you have a fancy fridge that is not magnetic, you can use the back of a cookie sheet, or purchase a magnet board
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