Making a Magnetic Board

Until this project, I never really thought that crafting can be dangerous if you don't have the right tools and if you are not careful (more about this later). Back in December, I purchased a magnetic board at Make It Vancouver Craft Fair for my Secret Santa gift exchange with my friends. My friend, Amy, ended up selecting my gift, but a couple of my other friends also liked the magnetic board.  Since I was curious to learn how the board was made and the friends that liked my gift had their birthdays coming up, I was determined to make one.

Making the Magnetic Board

Magnetic board material

Materials:
- Picture frame (Ikea)
- Metal sheet (Home Depot)
- Fabric (Ikea)

1) The picture frame will be the most expensive item you will need to purchase for this project.  If you are on a budget, check out Value Village or a thrift store.  Now comes the most important part - make sure you purchase a picture frame with a detachable glass sheet.  The frame that I purchased at Ikea was glued to the glass sheet.  This glass sheet must be removed in order for this project to work.  Not wearing any gloves and being quite careless, I thought I could remove the glass by applying sufficient pressure to the glass with my bare hands.  Dumb idea... VERY dumb.  The glass cracked and my right hand landed on the glass and it became a bloody mess.  Don't make my mistake!

2) Once you have your picture frame, cut your metal sheet to the appropriate size.  I recommend purchasing your metal sheet from a nearby hardware store.  I found mine at Home Depot for $4.99.

3) With your fabric, cover and wrap the metal sheet.  I used masking tape to tape the ends.

4) Place your now covered metal sheet back into the picture frame, and you're all done!

Making the Magnets

Materials: 

Magnet materials

- Neodymium magnets (Michaels)
- Knickknacks with a flat surface like buttons, door knobs, beads, etc. (Michaels)

These magnetic boards need to use super strong magnets like neodymium magnets.  Your typical refrigerator magnets will not stick to the board.  You can buy neodymium magnets at Michaels or you can purchase some heavy duty cement magnets at Home Depot.

1) With your hot glue gun, simply glue your knickknack to the magnet

Assortment of magnets

Although, this project had been a painful experience for me (someone at work said my hand looked like it got into a fist fight with someone haha), I was quite satisfied with it and the owner of the board was very happy about it :) Now onto making the second magnetic board...





Update:  A second magnetic board I made for a friend :)