Father’s Day Magnets

Father’s Day will be here soon, and men are notoriously difficult when it comes to gifts. What do you give the dad who has everything? Sometimes, what he needs more than anything is to know how you feel about him! Why not create a special set of magnets to remind the special man in your life of all the great qualities you love about him?

Materials:
{Thanks to Elmer’s for providing some of our materials and sponsoring today’s post! All opinions are my own.}
– polymer clay {I always use Sculpey}
– Elmer’s Painters
– Elmers X-TREME School Glue
– fine tip permanent marker
– magnets
– small circle cutter
– rolling pin or acrylic roller
– foil, baking sheet
– {optional} metal or rubber alphabet stamps
– small box

Step 1: Soften the clay by rolling it in your hands. Then, roll it out with a rolling pin or acrylic roller to about 1/4″ thickness.

Step 2: Use the circle cutter to create however many magnet tops you want {we made 8}.

Step 3: Think of words that describe the recipient of your gift. We used funny, smart, loving, hardworking, kind, handsome, fun, and honest. Then, use alphabet stamps to gently press the letters of each word into the clay magnet tops. If you don’t have stamps, don’t worry. Just skip this step and you can hand write the words on the magnets after they’re baked.

Step 4: Place the stamped circles on a foil lined baking sheet and bake them according to the package directions on your clay. We used Sculpey Premo! which took 15 minutes at 275 degrees Farenheit.

Step 5: Carefully trace the stamped letters with a fine tip permanent marker {or write the words if you didn’t use stamps}.

Step 6: Add color to the magnet tops with Elmer’s Painters paint markers. You can make them any color you like, create fun patterns, or do just about anything at this point to make them personalized. Since our clay was white with gold flecks, we decided to just use a gold Painters marker to color the rim of each circle. It would also look great to paint each magnet a different color!

Step 7: Glue a small round magnet to the back of each clay circle using Elmer’s X-TREME School Glue.

Once the glue dries, your magnets are ready to use! You can package them any way you like, but I decided to decorate a plain round box I found at Michaels {and bought for less than 70 cents with my coupon!}. All you have to do to create this fun effect is divide the box randomly into geometric sections and fill each section in with a different colored Elmer’s Painters paint marker.

Then, just add some patterns to some of the colored sections, like polka dots, zig zags, and plaid. There’s no wrong way to do it!

The final step is simply to write, “Dad, you are” on the inside of the lid, and the gift box is complete!

What do you think? Dads can use this gift at home or take the magnets to work with them. Wherever they’re used, they’ll be a great reminder of all the reasons why Dad is so loved!