Domino Magnets.  I made them.

I love magnets.  And paper. And crafts.  I believe there is real value in making things–it makes me feel good.  I seem to wage this non stop inner war that I have with the television–I’m attracted to it, as I think all humans are, but I really don’t think it adds much value to my life.  Instead of spending all of my waking life in front of a screen, computer, television, or otherwise, I want to make things.  Contribute something to this world…even if it is only magnets or some other random paper craft.

I typically get my paper from The Paper Place on Queen Street West in Toronto.  It is one of my favourite places on this earth.  They have such amazing papers, crafty accessories, stationary, and super cool gifts, and basically whenever I have time to myself and a few bucks to spend, I’m heading to the Paper Place.  Here’s just a brief glimpse of what’s inside!

Image taken from http://www.thepaperplace.ca

I love this store!  I can’t wait to bring Marigold in here, once she’s past the tornado/hurricane phase of her life.  She’d destroy this poor store if I let her loose now, so, I’ll probably wait till she’s at least 4.  Maybe 5.  If you’re in Toronto, and shopping on Queen, you have to head here.  It’s just across from the park (Trinity Bellwoods) and it neighbours another one of my favourite stores, Prevloved.  Speaking of Preloved, one day I’m going to learn to sew, and sew well.  And then I’m going to make myself a bunch of stuff like they have at Preloved.  It’s all so beautiful (and pricey), but there’s a serious lack of plus-sized items for sale, making it nearly impossible for me to buy anything other than scarfs or legwarmers or mittens.  That’s right, I just admitted to the entire internet that I am plus sized.

So here’s what I did Saturday night.  I got together my scrap paper file folder which looks a little something like…ok, exactly like this:

I really should get a better filing system

And some other supplies I had laying around:

Supplies needed:  Magnets, Dominoes, Scissors, Mod Podge, Paper Scraps, and Glue.  Also a paint brush, not pictured.

You can use anything you have laying around for the base of the magnet–I used dominoes because I thought it would be cool.  I basically found them in the garbage on the side of the road like 3 years ago.  I picked them up because I thought we might play sometime, but they’ve been sitting in the closet ever since.  The “dragon” dominoes are a bit of a pain in the ass because of, well, the dragon on one side.  The paper doesn’t lay 100% flat on the magnet, and while it doesn’t really matter to me, if you are a perfectionist it might drive you bananas.  It doesn’t look bad, it just looks imperfect and textured, which is kindof the look I’m going for.  Regardless, the whole situation can be remedied by using plain and smooth dominoes in the place of the dragon ones.

Any sort of decorative paper you want to use should work, provided it’s heavy enough stock and not see through.  I tried with tissue paper, and it looked mostly gross, but when I layered it on top of other card stock, it turned out fine.

And how did I do it, you ask?

• Trace the domino onto the “wrong” side of the paper, and cut it out.  Trim it to make sure the edges don’t overlap
• Paste the paper to the “dragon” side of the domino.  Make sure it’s straight.  Most types of glue will suffice.  Let it dry for about 5 minutes.
• Affix the magnet to the “numeral side” of the domino.  I used strip magnet that comes in a roll, simply because I had it kicking around.  I actually don’t prefer it because it’s not that strong.  Also, I use crazy glue to adhere the magnet to the domino.  Magnets ALWAYS come away from whatever decoration they are attached to, so I’m partial to giving it half a chance by using the strongest glue ever.  I’ve tried hot glue before, but I find that the strength of the magnet is too powerful for shitty hot glue, so crazy glue or glue of the super variety are the best bet.  God, how many times can one person say glue.  Glue glue glue.
• Coat the face of the magnet (the decorated side) with Mod Podge.  I did two coats, but depending on the result you want, you can do as many as you like.  I also imagine you could coat the whole frigging domino in the podge if you wanted, but I just didn’t for the sake of time.

This is not something I thought of on the spur of the moment–I’ve made several attempts at making awesome magnets at various points in my life.  I think this is the best magnet idea so far.  You might, however, be more partial to the design of the magnets I made as part of Smash’s holiday presents.  I sure am:

Shitty quality photo, but it looks good on my phone!

The Archie magnets are pretty much the best craft I have EVER done.  You can see a better photo on her blog here.  The round magnets are just paper cut in circles and glued to the back of decorative marbles.  This magnet “technique” typically tends to work best with faces or single small images. The strip magnet does NOT work for this…I use a small, higher powered round magnet for those.  

And that’s how I spent my Saturday night.