Story Magnets

http://www.sunhatsandwellieboots.com/2011/05/diy-upcycled-story-magnets.html

We love books in this house - it's official! We often share books with friends, passing on baby books & other books Minnie has duplicates of. It's a great way to recycle, & share pre-loved tales. Some books however have been loved more than others & have ended up with folded/torn pages, & even chewed corners. This craft is great for upcycling books just like this.

Minnie has recently collected a few Charlie & Lola comics, & I hate to throw them out when she has finished with them. The great thing about these comics is that they often come with a selection of character stickers, which are also perfect for this craft.

These story magnets can be made using any favourite comic/book character, we've chosen Charlie & Lola as they are currently Minnie's favourites. The wonderful thing about Lauren Child's Charlie & Lola series is that she combines cartoon style illustrations with pictures of everyday objects. This is why these magnets work so well, you can add any images alongside Charlie & Lola to create the same effect as the illustrations in the books.

Here's how we made them...

We cut around the chosen images from the comic & stuck them onto a sheet of recycled card, along with any stickers from the comic.

Once cut out, we added as many as possible to a laminating sheet. (You could also use contact paper / sticky back plastic.)

After laminating we cut each image out & added an adhesive magnet to the back. We ran out of adhesive magnet tape, so recycled some free magnets that came with some smoothies & attached with some double sided tape. (More recycling - fab!)

Minnie loves spending time outside & gardening, so we gave this set of magnets an outdoor theme. I found a few pictures from a gardening magazine, & printed off a few images of veggies we are growing in our garden, along with some of Minnie's favourite food & activities. Once printed off, cut out & laminated, we again added magnets to the back of the images. (I printed the images on thin card.)


Finally, I found a few 'action' shots of Minnie, printed these off, cut out, laminated & added magnets.

Although these did take a little time to make, they are great to use again & again.
I've stored the magnets in a metal tin, which not only keeps them neat, but also means they are less likely to get lost as they stick to the tin!