how to make glass marble magnets (easy homemade christmas presents)

This is what my kitchen table has looked like for the past three weeks--a mess of glass tiles, shredded magazines, and an craft knife.

I've been working on some Christmas/birthday gifts that turned out surprisingly well. I've seen a bunch of tutorials for these on the internet--you probably have seen them already, too, but I wanted to share them anyways.

Start with some of these clear glass mosaic tiles. I found these at the dollar store--you get a really big bag of them for just $1. These are the larger size, but the smaller size are nice, too.

You need some old magazines that you don't mind cutting up for the images. I used a Pottery Barn Kids catalog to make some cute Cat in the Hat magnets for Juliet. (I can't stand the thought of cutting up a kids book, but you could do it if you really wanted those images.)

Place the stone on the image you want, and trace around it with the knife. If your blade is sharp, it will cut very easily and you can punch the piece out. Cut as many images as magnets you would like to make.

Next, take some mosaic tile glue (I've had this bottle for about 10 years) and glue the image to the bottom of the tile. Make sure your get glue that dries clear! It will look cloudy when the glue is wet, but once it dries, you can't see it. I used a paint brush to spread the glue thinly and evenly over the tile.

After the image has dried, take a round magnet and glue it to the back. I found these at Wal-Mart that were peel and stick, so I didn't need to use any glue. It was easy and fast, but a little more expensive than plain magnets.

Place the magnet on the back and let it dry for a day before hanging it on your fridge.

Here's an example of a finished one. I made this one for myself.

Here are the Dr. Seuss ones. Juliet was really excited when she saw these. I was kind of surprised actually. It turns out she really likes hanging her artwork on the fridge herself now that she has these fun ones to use. You can see the different sized tiles that I used.

Next time I run across some other children's book images in a magazine, I will make her some more. I still have a ton of tiles and magnets left over!

Obviously, these are not a good toy for younger children, but if your child is old enough to not put things in her mouth, they are quite entertaining.

Have you made these before? Leave a comment or link and let me know!