Make your own fridge magnets

How to make pretty DIY fridge magnets

We now have a new fridge after the door hinge totally perished on our old one, so it’s a white blank page without any fridge magnets on. But with the old fridge I used to have a few magnets on it holding up N’s pocket money tracker. I discovered my mum’s old buttons jar when I was decluttering so decided I would try to make some pretty DIY magnets to use on the fridge.

Make your own fridge magnets

Magnets are easy to make – generally you just need the magnet, (if the magnets aren’t self adhesive) a glue gun and whatever you want to add to decorate the magnet. The hardest part is finding a suitable magnet because you want it strong enough to hold paper on the fridge, but you don’t want it so strong that when you put it near the metal you find it pulls away from the decoration. (I speak from experience!). So try and find craft magnets of around 8-10mm diameter. There are plenty that are self adhesive, but I prefer to use a glue gun to make sure they stick. If you’re struggling with getting them to stick, gorilla glue or similar should work fine.

Once you have your magnets, you can add what you want to pretty them up. You can buy small floral rosettes to glue on, or make your own.

To make small floral rosette magnets

You need:

Fabric of choice, about 30cm x 3cm
Thread
Needle

To make the rosette magnets

1, Fold your fabric lengthways in half

2. Tack along the open length, gathering as you go. As you gather you’ll see the fabric twisting around

tacking stitches for length of fabric

3. Move the gathered side into a floral shape from the centre of the flower to the outside of it.

gathering tacked stitches on length of fabric

4, Sew through the back to hold the rosette in place. You can glue on a small circle of fabric or card to create a flat back if you want.

5, Glue gun the back of the fabric flower to the top of the magnet and hold in place until well stuck

rosette magnet with magnet on back
rosette magnet with buttons

The alternative which I like is to make button magnets. You can use one or a couple of buttons stuck to each other and then onto the magnet. Choose coordinating colours or clashing for more impact.

buttons and using a glue gun

They’re so simple to make, but look so pretty and are a great way to make use of buttons from old clothes.

pretty DIY magnets

You may as well make fridge magnets look nice, and colour coordinate them with your kitchen or appliances.

Do you have fridge magnets on your fridge?

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