Quick & Easy Souvenir Magnets

You'll recall, a few months back, the Navy Reserves sent me to San Diego. I brought the kids along with and we had a grand old time. :) Here's a quick rainy day project to keep the kids busy using a paper bag, glue, and bottle caps.  So here we have a bag from the San Diego Zoo Wild Animal Park. You could also recycle theme park ticket stubs, postcards, wrapping paper, photos from all those Christmas cards, or anything else you happen to have laying around the house.

If you are using standard bottle caps, then you should cut out 1 inch circles from the bag to fit into the bottle caps. I happen to have a 1 inch circle punch, so that's what we used. You can also trace circles lightly with a pencil and cut with scissors.  If you are using light or thin paper, you might want to cut out some circles out of plain white paper as a backing, just to be sure you don't end up with something translucent that shows the bottle cap liner.   Since this bag was printed on "kraft paper," I didn't need it for this particular project.

Now, for the fun part. Mod Podge! Mod Podge is the bomb.  It's an adhesive AND seals your paper without that permanent "wet" look.  Get a stick or use your fingers and smear it on the front and back of your circles. Then stick it in the bottle cap and voila!  Well,  you're not quite done, but almost.  Let them dry and go eat lunch or take a nap or something.

Now, you have a choice.  You can leave them the bottle caps the way they are, slap some magnets on the back and call it a day, or you can put something over the paper to help preserve your souvenir.  Typically, folks choose either poured resin (usually found by the jewelry making supplies) or using clear resin stickers (normally found with scrap booking/paper craft supplies).  Since my 2 year old was helping me, I went with the stickers.  (If my 12 year old was the only one around, I would've mixed up some Ice Resin to pour into the bottle caps since that lasts a LOT longer.)

After the kids finish putting the stickers over the paper, I used E6000 and glued rare earth magnets onto the back.  You can pick up E6000 and the magnets at just about any craft store.

You could also use regular magnets and Tacky Glue, but the magnets aren't as strong and Tacky Glue takes longer to set.  Don't use Tacky Glue with the rare earth magnets- if you do, I guarantee that the first time you try to pull the magnet off of the refrigerator door, the bottle cap will come off in your hand and the magnet will be stuck to the fridge. 

There you go!  Ready for the fridge.  Or get an old baking pan and let the kids play with the magnets in the car.  Ta da!


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