7 January 2013

Fridge Magnet Tutorial

Hello lovelies!

I'm carrying on in the spirit of my Christmas craft tutorials (not the Christmas spirit bit, just the crafty one) and trying to share the things I make so you can have a go too if you want to. The projects below are just as easy to make as my Christmas craft tutorials because I'm not a fan of overly-complex crafts/things that take four months to knit. Basically, I am lazy and have a very short attention span- so I hope you enjoy the ready-in-minutes craft ideas below.



I bought a bag of 150 self-adhesive magnets back in December whilst shopping for some crafty Christmas gifts (that's how everyone Christmas-shops, right? "1 for them, 2 for me..."), and I still plan to use most of them to make a framed scrabble board like the one below. I love the idea of hanging one of these on our stairs, to be contributed to in moments of ascending or descending inspiration.


The pic and tutorial for this board is from The Twice Remembered Cottage

Then, last week, it dawned on me there was no reason I couldn't stick the magnets on absolutely anything!! So I spent an enjoyable afternoon rummaging through my craft stash to find other things to magnetise. This is what I came up with:  

Simplest of all:
Stick a magnet to the back of a beautiful button. 



Slightly fancier (buttons 2.0, if you will): 
Stick two pieces of ribbon with v-shaped ends to the back of the button using double-sided sticky tape, to make the button look like a tiny rosette.



Double-craft with crochet
Crochet a simple flower then add a button in the centre and stitch them together before attaching the magnet. I used the pattern below:


  • Chain 6. Join with a slip stitch to form a ring.
  • Round 1: Work 12 single crochet stitches in ring. Join the work to the beginning of the round with a slip stitch.
  • Round 2: [chain 3, work 2 double crochet stitches in the single crochet stitch that touches the chain-3, chain 3, slip stitch in same single crochet stitch, slip stitch in next stitch, slip stitch in next stitch.] Rep sequence in brackets 5 more times for a total of 6 flower petals.
  • End off. Weave in Ends.



Illustrations:
The fox head was inspired by this cushion from Urban Outfitters. I simply drew the outline onto thin card and coloured it with felt-tips. 




The possibilities for this tutorial are pretty much endless. You could draw anything from teacups to cupcakes (or additional letters if you only have enough to spell "fridge manet tuorial"...), you could stick photos onto card and cut them into funny shapes, or you could even make a magnetic jigsaw puzzle to play with on the fridge!


Katie xxx

P.S. Don't forget about the other magnetic surfaces in your house- perhaps this is a good way to jazz up a boring radiator? :)

P.P.S. Linking up to the lovely Lakota's Ta Dah Tuesday

9 comments:

  1. I love the flowers with buttons. Damn I wish I could crochet!

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    1. These tutorials are super easy if you want to learn: http://crochet.about.com/od/learntocrochet/ss/Single_Crochet.htm There's a whole series on different stitches (but most of them are basically exactly the same).

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  2. Oooooooooh, love them! Also very enamoured by that Scrabble-board thingie, want to do it! (and I have a charity-shop scrabble set that is waiting to be butcherised!!)

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    1. Excellent! I can never seem to find a scrabble kit when I want one. Ebay tiles it is for me :)

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  3. This is such a cute tutorial! I love button magnets... I bought some at a craft show before. And that Scrabble photo frame is such a great idea!

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  4. This is cute, I adore buttons and can't believe that I didn't think of this - it's so simple!

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    1. I've got so many of them (mostly in jars) it's nice to have some out on display :)

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  5. Oh no, now I want the fox head magnet AND cushion!! Excellent tutorial dear =) xx

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  6. Fab! I have to resort to sticking magnets on our boiler in the utility room, as our fridge is all boxed in to a cupboard. I love the scrabble board idea, being a bit obsessed with the tiles.
    x

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