Teacher's End of Year Gift

We started out to make some fun fabric covered button magnets for Max's first grade teacher, but before the night was over we added his music teacher, art teacher, librarian, and the nurse.  I asked him why the additions to our list and he told me he was in the craft zone.  That was all he needed to say, we could have been making magnets all night!  I guess it makes it easy that we sell all the supplies on our ETSY supply site to make these and had plenty on hand.  Sorry the pictures don't do them justice, but Max wanted to show Grandma via this blog - so look Grandma what Max made!

This really is a wonderful little project that uses all of your small scraps.  We used size 30 cover buttons, with flat backs.  After covering the buttons with Tonga Batik in fun and vibrant colors, we used E-6000 craft glue to adhere STRONG rare earth magnets.  Max loved this part, before he had a system down, the magnets were flying off the backs of magnets and jumping back together.  We solved the problem by placing them far apart on a divided tray to dry.

It is hard to see in this picture, but the little window tins make this the fun gift it is. It keeps the magnets from bunching up since they are magnatized to the container.  It also just makes for a sweet little presentation.  He will tie a piece of fabric around it and hang a little card off of it.  He also likes to tell the receipient that he has tested the magnets and they will hold up to 10 sheets of paper.  I will be making a lot more of these in all kinds of fabrics to have at our booth at the ZONTA/LARAC show in June in Glens Falls, NY.  They have been really good sellers for us in the past.

We have our Scrabble Tiles made and almost ready for the show and now we are starting to work on our hand stamped sterling items and pearl jewelry.  We will make some various accessories with fabric if time permits.  Hair ponytails, bobby pins and key fobs tend to sell well for us.  I started a batch of key fobs and got them sewn and ready for hardware.  I don't think my love of all things pink, brown and hot pink will fade anytime soon.

We will try at this show some funkier prints on the fobs.  We lots of fun Japanese fabrics and thought it would be fun to see if they are a hit.  In addition lots of preppy stuff that seems to be making a comeback.  It will be a wide range of items at this show, so we can get feedback for the Saratoga Springs summer shows.