Thursday, November 29, 2018

Artsy magnets & bookmarks...

A week and a half ago I started a project where I was using pictures from old art books to make magnets and bookmarks.  

Here is the post I promised showing the end result.  I don't have pictures of every single magnet or bookmark made, but this is a good representation of the variety of pictures I chose to use.  While this is a photo-heavy post, I'll try to keep the verbiage to a minimum. 


First of all, I cut out lots of pictures (narrowing down what pictures to cut out was the hardest part):


Before laminating, I used a glue stick to glue pretty (or coordinating) decorative paper to the backs of the pictures.  When possible, I also cut out and glued on the reference information for the pictures and artists):
Excuse that everything above is already laminated, I didn't think to take photographs before laminating.


After each picture had backing paper, I laminated everything using an inexpensive laminating machine I bought years ago at Aldi, of all places.   
Note:  I was in Walmart yesterday and I noticed that they sell laminating machines that are comparable to this in the price range of $10.00 - $20.00.  Such machines are cheap, but the laminating sheets are moderately expensive.  I used 3mil thickness laminating sheets, which was perfectly fine for my purposes.  While I was in Walmart, though, I picked up some 5mil sheets - more expensive, but I'm curious how much thicker and stiffer they will make items like this.  We'll see.


After laminating the pictures, I cut them out with scissors, and to the backs of what I wanted to make into magnets, I glued a variety of magnets:


I used round as well as strip magnets, and even cut pieces of magnet from a supply of magnets I've saved that come from all sorts of places, most printed with promotional material:
I do suggest testing the strength of these types of magnets.  I'm afraid at least one of the ones above was pretty weak.  I learned this too late.  It still worked, it was just a bit less strong, magnetically, than the others.


I glued the magnets to the backs of the laminated pictures using E6000 adhesive (purchased once upon a time at Hobby Lobby):


And some of the laminated pictures made terrific bookmarks:
 

One could punch a hole in the bookmarks and tie a decorative ribbon on, but I like the simplicity of these.  

And that's all there was to it!  Some made their way into the Advent calendar project I made last week, and some I've saved for myself!

5 comments:

  1. What a project of patience. I used work as an aid at a preschool and worked on prepping lots of art projects besides laminating by hand stuff.
    Thanks for sharing your BuJo experience. I've been a bit on and off with it. I hope to get back into it with December rolling around and with all of my new pens.

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  2. Great bookmarks! I'm not one to put magnets on my fridge which goes back to the days when the kids were little and were bringing home scads of 'art' every single day that of course HAD to be put up on the fridge. Then, every time they shut the fridge door, there was a shower of paper that landed on the floor that Mom was left to pick up. I resolved then that when they were out of that stage of life I would never put anything on my fridge again. Bookmarks, on the other hand, are always welcome!

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  3. Those are awesome! You did a great job and I am filing that idea away for next year for sure and even for birthdays as you could slip them in with a card for a little something extra and personal. You are so creative!

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  4. Becki, thank you so much for showing the finished items. It really gives me some ideas for little extra gifts for next year when we do exchanges. Bookmarks are always welcomed as are magnets for the fridge. You have once again inspired me.

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  5. How crafty!!! :) That's a nice hobby! I especially love those bookmarks!! I make my own too, but I just paint a bunch of cardboard, then "laminate" it with packing tape lol and cut them into bookmark strips...very frugal. I use them for my cookbooks mostly!

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