When I was looking for ways to upcycle my old baby food jars, I came across DIY refrigerator photo magnets and immediately knew I wanted to give making them a go. These magnets are very easy to make and look great! They make wonderful mother’s day gifts or can be wrapped up as small Christmas presents. I made some for my friend with pictures of her and her two-year-old daughter. She couldn’t believe I made them myself. Here is how you make them:
First, of course, you need to collect some jar caps. I have used the caps of baby food jars. I love that this project involves upcycling packaging material. You can use any other jar caps that you like. Furthermore, you will need:
- Cardboard, about 5 mm thick.
- A cutter knife/ utility knife
- Craft Glue
- hot glue gun
- Magnets. I have used 2mm thick ones with a diameter of 10 mm. A bigger diameter would have been useful as well.
- Piece of paper
- Pencil
- Optional: washi tape
- And, of course, a collection of your favorite photos.
Step 1
As a first step, trace the cap outline on a piece of paper and cut it out. You will have a piece of paper with a circular hole in it. You can use this piece of paper to see how exactly you want to frame your photo by laying it over your photo. When you find your frame, put the cap on top of the hole and take the paper away. Trace the outline of the jar directly onto the photo and cut the circle out nicely.
Step 2
Cut out circles of cardboard, again by tracing the outline of your cap and cutting it out with the cutter knife.
Step 3
Push the cardboard into your cap. You might want to fix it with some glue (you can use your hot glue gun for this. I, however, found that mine stayed perfectly in place without any glue.
Put a thin layer of regular glue on the back of your picture and carefully place it on top of your cardboard piece.
Step 4
You can decorate the sides of the cap with some washi tape, which I did because there was a date stamped on the side of the cap.
To do this, use your cutter knife and a ruler to cut the washi tape in the right length and width. You can stick your tape temporarily onto the left-over piece of photo paper to cut it, as the washi tape will peel off easily from photo paper. Then carefully stick it to the side of your cap.
Step 5
Glue the magnet on the back of the cap with a hot glue gun.
There you have it! Your DIY refrigerator photo magnets are already.
I hope you’ll have fun creating your own refrigerator magnets!
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