Magnetic Gifts

Fridge magnets are always handy little gifts. They are even used as wedding favors and corporate gifts.

I have a friend who uses them to show off new photos of her grandchildren every week. Shopping and to do lists, notices for hubby and the kids, even a sweet love poem or quote can be put up on fridges and kitchen cabinets.

Children can be kept busy for hours rearranging the fridge magnets. My fridge magnets have fascinated my granddaughter of 8 months since the first time she realized that she could move them around.

Here are a few ideas for magnets:

- Faces made from circles - expressions/moods can be changed by drawing (or painting with a fine brush) the eyes and mouths upside down.
- Alphabet letters - (Ruth suggested this one) and numbers
- Animal shapes - why not make collections, for instance, marine life, exotic birds, “Out of Africa”, farm animals, etc.
- Dominoes - easy to make – cut out rectangles and paint the dots onto the shapes after baking or use the tops of whole cloves by pressing it into the salt dough before baking.
- Hobbies - sports, cars, gardening tools, cooking, etc.
- Horoscope characters
-“Gingerbread” families
- Initials or name tags for every member of the family – good for instructions

Tip: You can even use lace, wool, or rope to decorate the fridge magnets.

The baby collection I made can be a great gift for a new mother to remind her to buy milk or nappies for baby or appointments for baby’s next visit to the clinic.

The templates for the big baby and unicorn came out of a children’s coloring book. All the other magnets were made from templates I found in good old Microsoft Word program, except the baby in the shawl. It is made from a ball of dough, a roll of dough and the shawl is a rolled out piece of dough folded and shaped to cover the "baby".

My daughter sent me an e-mail last week asking why I have forgotten to mention the best source of templates, namely the computer. I normally spend 16-18 hours a day in front of my computer and here I am telling you to look for templates in cookbooks and coloring books!!!

After you have painted and sealed the salt dough items, you can glue magnets to the backs with wood glue or any other good quick setting glue. Magnets come in many shapes these day and the magnetic strips are particularly suited for fridge magnets.

Idea: A few years ago I had to buy a new seal for my refrigerator's door and found a long strip of magnets inside the old seal. So maybe you can ask second hand dealers or your local handy man to keep the old seals for you.

Duh::: (I used a marking pen for the fine lines, but it smudged when I applied the sealant, so although you can use colored marking pens as well, it can be a good idea to test it first on an item that you are going to keep for yourself).