Kids Craft Week - magnetic jewelry frame and a giveaway!

Welcome to our Kids Crafts Week!  We have so much fun lined up for you including guests, tutorials, product reviews, and our very first linky party!

My daughter has been spending a lot of time playing with my iPhone lately.  She spends hours changing earrings, necklaces, and headbands with a jewelry application on my phone.  Seeing how much she enjoys playing I was inspired to make a magnetic frame with a picture of my daughter and interchangeable jewels.

I started by taking a picture that would work as the base for the frame.

Then I gathered my supplies -  5" x 7" sheet of galvanized metal (found in the roofing aisle of your hardware store for less than $1), adhesive magnet roll, a "bucket of bling", 5" x 7" frame, and the cropped picture of your cute kid.

Remove the glass from your frame and insert the picture.  Then insert the metal directly behind the picture.

Measure and cut four strips of magnet to fit on the outer edges of your frame.

Make sure your partner is picking out pretty gems while you are working on the frame!

Remove the backing and apply the magnetic strips to each side of the frame.

The frame portion of the project is done.  Next you need to make the interchangeable jewelry pieces.  My daughter picked a great assortment of sparkly gems!

Cut pieces of magnet from the roll and stick them onto each piece of bling.

Now you're ready to have some fun!

My favorite part of this frame is the magnetic sides that hold all your jewels. 

The bling came from a great line of kids crafts products available at Wal-Mart.  The product line has an awesome website full of fun ideas and tutorials.  The site has some great video tutorials too, definitely a place you should bookmark!

Kids Crafts is sponsoring our week and has offered to give one of our readers the Just My Style 10,000 Beads Kit.  I know I have quite a few ideas where this kit would come in handy!

There are a few different ways to enter.

Leave a separate comment for each entry.

Entry #1 (mandatory) - Tell us what you would do with the 10,000 beads kit if you won.

Entry #2 - Like Craft Project Ideas on Facebook.

Entry #3 - Follow Craft Project Ideas on Twitter.

Entry #4 - Like us on Facebook (new and current fans).

Entry #5 - Follow us (new and current followers).

Bonus Entries - Blog, tweet, or share the giveaway.  Come back and leave a comment to let us know you did.  Leave one comment for every place you shared this giveaway.  Example - three bonus entries if you share this link on Twitter, Facebook, and your blog!

Please be sure to leave your email address if it is not linked to your blog (we need to be able to contact you if you win).  

This giveaway is open to US residents only.  Winner will be picked Saturday, January 28 at midnight MST by the random number generator.

Come back tomorrow for more Kids Craft Week fun!


This giveaway is now closed.  Go here to see who won!

Sharing my Magnetic Frame at Sweet Rose Studio today

Yesterday I told you about Katie from Sweet Rose Studio and her awesome photography skills.  Today I'll let you in on another little thing I know about Katie - she's super crafty and has a great blog with so many fun projects.  She has put together some darling parties and offers free printables in addition to kids crafts, home decor ideas, recipes, and tons of DIY tutorials!  Imagine my excitement when she asked if I would participate in her "Holiday Handmade" series. 

I had a lot of fun putting together a handmade gift for women.  The only tricky part about making my magnetic frame was finding the right metal to purchase at the hardware store.  Don't worry, my post gives detailed instructions on what to buy and how to make this darling gift!  Go here for the full tutorial.

The series includes gifts for everyone including boys!  Go see Sweet Rose Studio and get some help with your holiday gift list ideas!

 

Teaching pet responsibility with felt fish magnets

I love felt. I love magnets. I love my glue gun. You all knew that, right? I didn't have anything super amazing to show you today so I am going to share something I made for my daughter last summer.

I started with some fish magnets. I didn't have a pattern...these are all just random things I thought would be appealing to a fish loving sassy little one year old. Each magnet has two pieces of felt hand stitched together with a magnet sandwiched in between the felt pieces. This would have been quicker with a sewing machine but you would have to leave a space large enough to shove in your magnet and then still hand stitch the closure. Plus, the hand stitching makes them cuter! We had a black refrigerator...it made the bright fish stand out!

I had only planned on making magnets but then I got creative and added a big magnetic fish bowl carrying case. I first cut the fish bowl shape out of felt. Then I cut a matching vinyl piece for the front. I cut small squares to cover magnets on the four corners of the back piece. I cut another small vinyl piece to stitch inside for a pouch of sand and shells. I stitched it all together starting with the two vinyl pieces. To insert the sand, I stitched the top and sides of the vinyl together, poured in sand and shells, and stitched it while tilting it upward to avoid any spillage. This part was not easy and I recall making a huge mess! To further reinforce the sand area, I used super glue on a q-tip to seal the edges. The top of the fish bowl is not closed so your fish magnets can live in there or you can use it as a carrying case for road trips! Unfortunately an entire year later, our fish bowl is lost somewhere (my daughter's play room, bedroom, back yard, a friend's house, the car, etc., etc.) so I can't take any pictures to show you more specific instructions. This is the only picture I saved of the completed fish bowl from this project. How did that happen???

It was probably midnight when I was making this and instead of going to bed, I just kept crafting. I made a magnetic board to entertain my daughter on road trips and in restaurants. I covered one side with fish fabric.


I covered the other side with chalkboard fabric.

I made a little carrying case for all the fish too!

My daughter LOVED the surprise she found on the refrigerator the next morning. Her only inquiry about the project was why I forgot to make a whale. He was added later.

I wanted this to be educational for my daughter too so I made a fish food magnet to start teaching her about the responsibilities of having a pet. I'm happy to report that our fish were getting fed daily until we moved and purchased stainless steel appliances (non-magnetic).

She played with these magnets and used the board so frequently that I decided to start making similar sets for gifts. As I made more, there were a few changes made. Due to the all the sand I had stuck to my feet from the kitchen in front of the refrigerator, I didn't make anymore fish bowls with sand! I thought I had done a good job sealing up that vinyl pouch but sand is sneaky...before you know it, you'll have it everywhere! So I started using bright colored beads instead. I also
made the fish bowls smaller so they would fit on the magnetic boards.

Do you know someone that would prefer pet fish that never need their tank cleaned?