Inspiration Strikes!

Last night, while thumbing through a magazine inspiration struck.  I became intrigued by a large match box with a photo of a bird on it.  The price was $16 a box.  I thought that was a bit steep for a box of matches, so I decided to make my own.  We keep matches in the bathrooms and kitchen so I figured since they're on display, why not make them cute?  I used small boxes of matches instead of the large boxes (a package of 10 boxes was $1 at the dollar store) and surfed the internet for images I was interested in.  I then printed the images, cut them to fit the boxes, glued them on using Elmer's school glue, and coated each photo with a good covering of shiny Mod Podge ($6 at Michaels) just to seal the picture.  I thought they turned out pretty cute and it only took about 1 hour to do the entire project, from finding the pictures, to taking the photo of the finished product.  If my inspiration doesn't wane, I may make them for holidays as well.  (HINT *Click on each picture to enlarge it to see detail).

I like my photos better than pictures of birds, and while the guitar was cut a little small, it's still cute.

Having recently acquired a metal board, I have been on the hunt for unique and novelty magnets and my magazine had just the right idea I could put into action.  Old pins and earrings with hardware removed and magnets glued in place using E6000.  Use needle nose pliers to remove the pin and earring backs, then simply glue on the magnets.  Allow to dry and voila!

Finished product.  These are old pins and earrings that I turned into magnets.  Here they are on my magnetic board  I purchased a small pack of 10 magnets at Michaels for $1.79 and I think the E6000 was about $4 or so and of course I have a ton left.


While neither of these project is fancy or significantly time consuming, I have to admit, they did provide a bit of satisfaction knowing I had made something myself instead of purchasing someone else's handiwork.