Friday, December 05, 2008

Thrifty Gifty #3


If you have kids in elementary school, chances are you need to come up with a few teacher gifts. For me it's two this year. So, I love these decorative magnets. They turn out really cute (much nicer in real life..... I had trouble photographing them with so much reflection off the glass) and the white boards that have replaced chalkboards in schools are magnetic so teachers have more need for magnets. Whats even better is that your kids can help you giving them a sense of pride and ownership for the gift.

To make these, you need glass pebbles. These can be found at craft stores, but less expensively at dollar stores. You'll also need magnets. In my case, these were found in an 11 year old's bedroom amongst rubber bands, paperclips and more mini-flashlights than I can ever remember purchasing.

To make them, simply place the pebble over the area of paper you want to cut (I thought the Jack's World line was perfect for teachers!) and pencil around it. Cut on the inside of your pencil line so that your paper is slightly smaller than the pebble. Using a clear drying adhesive, coat the right side of the paper and press onto pebble. I usually hot glue the magnets on, but I ran out of glue sticks and I'm not the type to run to the store for such a situation. I simply used super glue, which I actually found to work better.

Now, for the packaging. I had to think about this for a bit. The magnets are heavy enough that I was worried I would have to use so much glue to hold them onto the card that the recipient might never get them off. What I did was to use a lower tack adhesive just so that they wouldn't slip. Then, I punched holes in a band of cardstock and wrapped it over the top and around the back. The pressure from the band, with the help of a little adhesive keeps the magnets in place, while still making them removable.

10 comments:

ScrapMomOf2 said...

Julie! I've done this for teachers before! You know what is GREAT packaging? Pick up bucket or tin in either Target or Michael's in their dollar area, and attach the magnets to the outside! It's PERFECT!! They can pull them right off! Yours are VERY cute!

Jenn said...

those little magnets are cute, thanks for the holiday help

Elaine said...

These are cute and very inexpensive. I love that they can be given to teachers with other little goodies at holiday time!

twinkle teaches said...

I love this idea! Thank you!
tina

Julie Overby said...

I agree, these are super fun to make. Another idea is to alter an Altoid tin if you just have a few of them that you want to make, and then place your stones in there. Perfect for Grandparents with their grandkids photos on them.

Julie said...

I love the tin ideas ladies! Might have to try that too.

connie said...

Another great gift idea. Thanks for sharing.

Colleen said...

I was going to leave a comment and say that my white boards weren't magnetic, but decided to try before I commented. Guess what the new ones that I have in my new classroom are magnetic. Thanks for letting me know.

Papers Past said...

Julie, I love the ingenuity of your packaging idea, as well as the bucket and tin ideas from ScrapMomOf2 and Julie O. This will have to go on my list of ideas for next year, though -- I'm already overly full on my To-Do Holiday List! But next year, my youngest will be in kindergarten, and I love the idea of giving a bucket full of desk goodies with these magnets.

mica said...

Those are soooo cute!! This is something I have been thinking about doing one day. I have seen someone made them and put them in an altered Altoids tin for a teacher.