Magnets, FOs... I swear I've been busy.

There was a big thread on Craftster about marble magnets which is where I got the inspiration and advice on doing this. The magnets looked like a really satisfying, fun little project that I could dig into on a day off work.

I had a 2006 Hello Kitty calendar laying around (couldn't bring myself to throw it away), and decided that this would be the perfect medium to immortalize as little magnets in this fashion.



The supplies:

• Those half-marble things one finds in a floral section of a craft store or the aquarium section of a pet store. Perfectly clear ones work the best, as iridescent ones will blur the images underneath.


• Silicone sealant glue. Available at craft stores, Lowe's, etc.


• Magnets. I used 1/2" round dealies. A 50 pack was $6.


• Circle punch, 3/4". Mine was incidentally a little bigger than my marbles, so I ended up trimming my images anyway. Made cutting them out a snap.


• Cardstock (not pictured), to back the pictures you pick.

Next thing to do is cut out a plethora of cute images that would look good immortalized as magnets.



...And then glue them to the backs of cardstock. Of course I picked cardstock that's, like, the same damn color as the old coursepack from college I was working on... This just keeps the color of your images true if they're on thinner paper.



Once the backed images are set up, use a small bead of silicone sealant to attach them to the flat sides of your marbles. A good hard press will get rid of any little creases or nooks in the bottom of the marble - this is like magic. The images will come out mostly bubble-free and crystal clear! Silicone is amazing stuff; this is why any old glue doesn't work as well.

You'll also notice in the above picture that my circles were a tad bigger than my marbles. Let this be a lesson that you check the size of your marbles and the size of your images. So, to remedy this...



...I trimmed the damn things.

Let the glue set up a bit (half an hour should do) and you'll be ready to attach your magnets.



Again use a small bead of the silicone sealant (a little goes a long way) to attach the magnets. I used thick magnets because the marbles are glass and therefore heavy. However on the craftster thread a lot of people used sheet magnet because its much cheaper.



So now I have some pretty magnets and I didn't have to feel guilty about throwing away that Hello Kitty calendar.




Oh, knitting? I've been doing that, too.



I finished a years-old UFO; the yarn is Filatura Di Cosa 127 Print or something along those lines... three balls, size 7 needles. Pattern is the Angel Yarns Noro Scarf. Pretty simple and easy, probably way it has stayed unfinished since 2005. The big disappointment? The wool needs some serious conditioner or eucalan to make it wearable; so itchy!



I also finished Tubey, done out of Knitpicks Alpaca Silk. I swear it looks good on me, I just haven't had Steve around to give a proper photoshoot... Will do that soon, I think.

Now on to Eunny's Deep V Argyle Vest! So fun! Hope I don't run out of yarn!