How cute is the idea of doting your fridge with happy memories?
Cute enough, for me to scout for perfect smiles in perfect locales, every chance I got. 🙂
Although I came across plenty of tutorials on making fridge magnets, I found that these usually require material that are difficult to come by in most cities within India.
This project is my attempt at making fridge magnets using material found in neighbourhood book/stationary stores in the city of Hyderabad, India.
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What you need:
– Adhesive backed fridge magnet sheet ( available in Walden stores)
– Chart paper ( I used old calender sheets)
– DIY lamination sheet ( available in Walden stores)
– Glue
– Craft knife ( I used a regular knife)
– Printed photographs in the size of the magnets you want (You can scale down the photo’s yourself if you have any photo editing software like Photoshop)
– Sandpaper
How to put it all together:
1. Glue multiple sheets of chart together ( this will provide a sturdy base for the magnets)
2. Once the glue is completely dry, place these glued sheets under a heavy set of books or even your mattress, for a few hours, to allow it to flatten properly
3. Meanwhile, resize the photos you want to convert to magnets and take a printout on photo paper  (At the end of this tutorial is a Photoshop template that you can download, which will help you with this step)
4. Now, apply glue to the base of your photos and paste onto the chart sheet set that you made in the steps 1 and 2
5. Let the glue dry completely
6. Cut along the photographs leaving slight margins on all sides
7. Sand the edges of the photograph-chart set to even out the edges
8. To protect the photographs, cut and stick the laminate sheet carefully over each photograph (this part is the trickiest and one you need to do carefully)
9. Cut the magnet sheet in the size of the photo-chart tiles you made and attach it to the back of the photo-tiles
10. Trim any uneven edges of the magnet
11. Once again, place the magnets under a heavy set of books or your mattress so they are flattened and appear more compact and well glued together (believe me, this step makes a world of difference)
That is it, your personalised fridge magnets are ready 🙂
To make things easier for you guys, here is a template I made. Click the link below to download a Photoshop file that equals a standard 4*6 photograph size printed in photo studios.
Re-size your pictures and place them on this template ( you can place up-to 12 pictures without losing their detail and clarity) and print it out on a standard 4*6 size photo paper.
Let me know, how your project goes, and if you tried any variation to the above process. 🙂
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Now that this is done, I will allow myself the luxury of capturing moments the old fashioned way – minus a camera, as much as possible. 🙂