Magnetic Play and Decorate Snowman

Recently, I had the opportunity to be a guest host at My Craftily Ever After, where I shared a tutorial for this Magnetic Play and Decorate Snowman. Not only is it a great decoration to get you through the winter, but it also doubles to give your little ones the opportunity to manipulate its parts in any way they choose. If that's not enough, most of the materials used for this project can be found at home or purchased at your local dollar store. In fact, the entire project cost me under $3.00! Here's how you can make one of your very own...

Materials:

-stove burner cover set (I found mine at my local Dollar Tree and got a 2 piece set for $1 in 8" and 10" diameters!)

-white, acrylic paint

-foam brush

-hot glue gun/glue sticks

-3-5 large buttons

-1 sheet of black foam

-felt sheets or scraps-orange (nose), red (trim of hat), black (eyes and mouth)

-material for scarf (approx. 18" in length)

-brown, pipe cleaners (3)

-magnetic strips or discs

Instructions:

1. Paint the insides of the burner covers with white paint (they actually are already off-white in color, so you could leave it as is, if you want. I chose to make them more of a snowy white).

2. Using black foam, cut out a top hat for your snowman. Embellish the hat with a strip of felt in any color your little heart desires.

3. Cut out a carrot nose using orange felt. Create eyes and a mouth out of black felt (or any color you'd like-Its your snowman, Go nuts!)

4. Cut two, brown, pipe cleaner in half. Wrap one half around the end of another pipe cleaner to create a branch-like arm. Repeat this step to create the opposite arm. Hot glue the arms to the front of the large, burner cover, placing felt scraps over the ends of the cleaners to adhere.

5. Place magnetic strip or discs on the backs of the carrot nose, eyes, buttons, and mouth with hot glue

6. Using hot glue, create a loop at one end of the ribbon and glue to the back of the felt hat. Below the hat, place hot glue on the ribbon and adhere the front of the smaller burner cover to it.

7. Below the small burner cover, tie the material around the ribbon to make it look scarf-like. Under the scarf, place hot glue on the ribbon and adhere the front of the larger burner cover to it. Trim any excess ribbon below the large burner cover.

8. Encourage your little ones to arrange the magnetic pieces to the snowman however their little hearts desire and hang to display!

Hope you've all enjoyed a wonderful, holiday season and are ready to begin a crafty, new year!!!

$4 Dollar Tree Craft-Magnetic Room Sign

As most of you know (or have read), I am OBSESSED with The Dollar Tree and using random objects I find there to create fabulous crafts! Here is a tutorial for a magentic room sign using Dollar Tree items totalling $4!! Eat your heart out, crafters on a budget!

Materials:

-Metal serving tray-$1
-magnetic letters (x2)-2 for $1 special
-fabric, pencil holder-$1
-ribbon-$1
-glue gun/sticks
-felt scraps
-scissors

Instructions:

1. Using a glue gun, glue the ends of a 5" piece of ribbon to the back of the top of a metal serving tray for hanging. Cut out and glue small, felt pieces on top of the ribbon ends.

2. Hot glue the pencil case to the bottom of the serving tray so that the zipper of the case faces the wall when hanging

3. After creating a message with magnetic letters, zip the remaining letters in the pencil case for future use!

Children's Magnetic Bedroom Message Board

Magnetic sign for my niece, Adrienne

This is a really cute and SUPER easy project to make yourself for a child’s room, or have your child make it! I found really nice rectangular and oval metal serving trays at Dollar Tree that I decided to use as the base of the room sign. Using about nine inches of ribbon, I used a hot glue gun to glue the ends of the ribbon about four inches apart on the back of the serving tray. I then cut a piece of felt to fit the back of the serving tray and glued it (to avoid leaving marks on the wall). While you could easily purchase magnetic letters, I happened to have a ton of foam letters leftover from a project I had completed ages ago, so I put magnetic pieces on the backs of those letters to use on the room sign, instead. The magnetic letters can be moved around to say whatever message the child wants to state.



For my niece Alison's room. Yes, I am aware there is an apostrophe missing. It bothers me, too! I ran out!



Ditto on the apostrophe thing

A rectangular serving tray was used for my nephew Derek's room sign



He's a bit of a Yankees fan!



Special Occasions Board-Magentic

My husband and I both have large families, so keeping track of everyone's birthdays and anniversaries can be challenging, and I happen to find calendars super BORING! So...I decided to come up with a way to commemorate (and help remember) all of the special occasions in our lives. Here's what I came up with:

Materials:

-metal, serving tray-$1
-scrapbook paper-on hand
-double-sided tape-$1
-circle cutouts (store-bought or machine-cut)
-hole punch-$1 or on hand
-adhesive hooks-$1
-alphabet stickers

Directions:

1. Cover the metal, serving tray with scrapbook paper using double-sided tape.

2. Adhere alphabet stickers to the top of the tray to spell out "Special Occasions."

3. Stick eight, adhesive hooks onto the scrapbook paper, leaving space between each hook.

4. Use the hole punch to punch a hole in each circle cutout (I used my Cricut machine to make around 100 circular shapes...told ya' we had a big family) and write down a name and birthdate on each circle.

5. Add magnetic strip to the back of the tray, if you wish to stick it on the fridge, like I did. It could also be hung on a wall or propped on an easel, depending upon your preference.

6. Hang circles on hooks (I organized and bagged the ones that did not occur in the present month hung up the ones that did. When this month ends, I will simply go to my drawer and retrieve the next month's baggie)

I LOVE it, and it beats the heck out of a boring old calendar!!!