super easy DIY: button magnets

This is seriously so easy that you can hardly call it a craft. (But it would make me feel better if you did.) I think it took me about 15 minutes. Perfect for anyone with a busy life, right? Or even a cute gift idea, maybe.

All you need: wire cutters, small magnets (preferably strong ones, so they hold the buttons and can hold stuff on your fridge), hot glue (high temp works better) and buttons.
**disclaimer: pretty please excuse the terrible photos. Professional photographer I clearly am not. Though it would help to have a camera that works/holds a charge/doesn't make weird clicky noises while turned on.

The buttons can be a bit expensive if you buy them new, but since I have a serious allergy to paying full price for things, I'd recommend shopping around some garage sales and thrift stores. You can score huge bags of them from little old ladies who have been collecting them for years for next to nothing.

Exhibit A

First, select your buttons. (duh) You'll want to make sure they're the right size to cover your magnets, unless of course you prefer to see the ugly charcoal color peeking out from behind, in which case go crazy.
Next, snip the back off the buttons with your wire cutters. You want to get as much off as possible, so it will sit evenly on the magnet.

basically, they should look like this, except in focus

Meanwhile, your glue gun is plugged in and ready to go while you're snipping the back off your buttons. Right? We're all about efficiency over here. So you apply your hot glue (don't burn yourself!) to your magnet and quickly center your button on top. You won't have much time to adjust, as I learned. Luckily, if you choose large enough buttons, you won't be able to tell.

Press the button and magnet together for a few seconds, then you're done. If you're doing more than one, I recommend that you set the magnets far enough apart from each other that they won't stick themselves together before the glue is set. You may have issues pulling the magnets apart while keeping them intact. I'm just saying.

three of the finished products.

And voila! Now you can feel like a crafty queen! I promise they look better in real life. Quit judging me.
Another variation to the ornate ones that I chose is to layer different colors of sweater buttons. It just takes another step of gluing the buttons together, which takes like, 10 whole seconds, tops.


On a completely unrelated note, fellow FUS grads may be interested to know (if it hasn't been blowing up your facebook) that ye olde Fort Steuben bridge is no more.