copycraft: faux ceramic magnets

Alright you ravenous craftaholics, get excited... the time has finally come for you to get your fix! It's the first craft post of the year! Woohoo! Alright! LOUD EXCLAMATIONS OF EXCITEMENT!

Okay, so before I get ahead of myself, I have to admit to you, I cheated a little. It's actually a craft project I completed back around the beginning of December (hence the Christmas theme) and it sat in my iPhoto/brain/post queue for about a month and a half. BUT I'm thinking it was just a bit timid about making its blog debut. So now that the New Year has come and gone, it's feeling a bit more bold and courageous, and has resolved to finally join the ranks with its copycraft comrades. (Because craft projects have New Year's resolutions too, right? Right.)

Anyhooter, this is one of those projects that is SUPER easy and can be done for any occasion or holiday. In fact, I think it could even be a fantastic project if any of you out there have kids because it's a fun way to create a trinket using their artwork. 

As with any of my half-way decent projects, it all began with a little inspiration from Pinterest. A while ago I pinned these Pantone color chip magnets and thought they were awesome and adorable. 

I was pleasantly surprised when I clicked through to the tutorial on one of my favorite blogs, How About Orange, and saw that the steps were so easy. 

When it came time to recreate the project, I didn't have any Pantone chips on hand so instead I decided I'd come up with my own holiday design and use that. (As it turns out, that's the beauty of this project - whatever you can think up and draw, you can create a set of magnets for it!) I cut these little rectangles out from book board I had on hand (basically just thick cardboard you can buy at your craft store), and then using a Sharpie and my Prismacolor markers I made a fun little mosaic pattern using three different shades of red or green. 

(Fun fact: I actually got the inspiration for the pattern from a fun necklace I found on Pinterest as well! I'm telling you guys, it has been a godsend for my creativity.) Can you see the resemblance... eh... eh... ? 

Once you have your design drawn out, all you have to do is go back over with a thick coat of Paper Glaze. Now, I'm sure you could probably use something else like Modge Podge, but the original tutorial recommended a specific brand of this gluey substance called "Paper Glaze" and since I'm a big fat scaredy cat when it comes to following tutorials or recipes or directions or anything really, I decided to stick to what it explicitly told me to use. These pictures should give you an idea of just how thick the layer was, but you can definitely tell it takes on a raised layer effect. 

Now after you let them dry overnight, you can see that the glaze takes on a kind of glassy, ceramic look. (Even more-so in person - the pictures don't quite give the effect its due justice.) Once they're dry, you're supposed to simply attach the magnet back and voila! You're done! 

However, despite my meticulous adherence to the tutorial, I still encountered a problem. When my Paper Glaze dried, apparently my layers were so thick that when it covered the black areas it ended up looking a bit cloudy. I think honestly I may have just been a bit too liberal with the pouring on of the glaze, so next time I would probably go over in thinner layers and just do a few of them over time. 

Either way though, I was not about to let this project get scrapped. My solution was to simply go over the black areas with a Sharpie. The permanent marker actually glided quite nicely over the glossy surface of the glaze and I think having the black on top makes it really pop off the slightly muted pattern under the glaze. I don't know, you be the judge, but I think it was a bit of a happy accident. 

I really love the way they turned out, and they brought some lovely holiday cheer to our fridge over the holidays. (Please don't be alarmed, we have since cleared off our fridge so there is much less on it. For a while it started to take on a life of its own...) Anyway, now that Christmas is over, I have the urge to do this project again, but I want your help! 

If there is anyone reading this that's interested in getting a set of three magnets, PLEASE leave a comment below with what you'd like and I will make them and mail them to you for FREE! I really just want a reason to create things and do something with them other than keep them around my house. If you have a favorite set of quotes or sayings, or maybe you just want a pretty pattern or design, I can do whatever you want! I think as a set of three they would be really cute as a monogram too for yourself or maybe for a random gift to send to a friend. Of course, if no one wants a set, that's cool too (except for the fact that it will CRUSH MY SOUL). So please, comment away! 

Hope you enjoyed the post and maybe I'll have some magnets to make this weekend that I can show you in a future post!