DIY Word Magnets

Make your own homemade word magnets to express yourself on your fridge or favorite magnetic chalkboard. It’s easier than you might think!

Did everyone have a wonderful Christmas? Hopefully you had a better time than I did, as I played the role of a snotty boomerang. You see there has been some illness spreading around lately that I thought I managed to avoid. But while cooking dinner on Christmas Eve, the night before I planned to head up to Rochester, I started sneezing a lot and by the end of the night was stuffing tissue up my nose (so hot).But still I set my alarm to depart early the next morning. Upon waking I realized my health had not improved (hence snotty) but told myself I just had to get to Columbus (6 hours away) where I would then carpool the remainder of the trip (another 6 hours). In the end I managed to get a little over 2 hours out before turning right back around and promptly falling into bed again (hence boomerang). I got the flu for Christmas and at the rate I’m going I’m not sure when or if I will make it up to Rochester before the big move to Columbus. Evidently Santa thought I was so bad that he gave me the flu instead of coal.

But I digress. Let’s talk about these word magnets (which would look great with your DIY cookie sheet chalkboard) and how they are easy, yet tedious, to make. To make these I used several different colors of polymer clay (I bought a pack from JoAnn Fabrics but later discovered it’s cheaper at Walmart), ~1/2-inch wide magnetic tape, ~1/4-inch alphabet stamps, rolling pin, craft blade (I used a pizza cutter instead), scissors, cookie sheet, and parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.

1. Preheat oven to 275 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or silicone baking mat, set aside.
2. Warm the clay in your hands, flattening out. Place parchment paper on work surface and roll clay out to 1/8-inch thickness. Using the magnetic tape as a guide, cut out strips of clay.
3. Stamp words into the clay, cutting between each word as you go.
4. Arrange in a single layer on prepared baking sheet then bake for 15 minutes or until hardened. Allow to cool completely.
5. Once cooled, cut magnetic tape to fit the size of each piece of clay and attach to the back.

(Check out A Beautiful Mess for step-by-step directions.)

Sounds easy right? And it is but stamping out every word, one letter at a time, is quite tedious. Other than time, the only trouble I ran into was the magnets curling at the edges due to being rolled up on itself when stored. I tried to flatten it out between heavy books before adhering to the clay, but if that didn’t work I used tiny dots of super glue and then pressed the completed word magnets between heavy books.

Source: A Beautiful Mess

One year ago: Homemade Cinnamon Hot Chocolate Mix

Three years ago: Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate Mix

Four years ago: Bacon and Cheese Egg McMuffin Cups