HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY! How to make magnets

HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY! THANK YOU TO THOSE WHO SERVED OR ARE SERVING!

Hello all, going to start off with another shout out to my readers in the United States, Canada, Russia, Germany and China. Thank you for reading!

Today's "How To" is how I do my magnets. It is a somewhat lengthy process, yet when finally done, very rewarding. So let us begin!

You will need:
the large floral stones
Aleene's Clear Gel Tacky Glue
Craft glue or super glue
inexpensive paint brush
stickers OR a working printer if you want to print your own images
IF you are going to print your images, some photoshop knowledge (future post)
Scrap book paper or color paper
Scissors
rough nail file/emery board
enough magnets for each glass floral stone

MAKE SURE that you get Aleene's clear gel tacky glue. Its fairly cheap, you can use other glues but as I have not used them I cannot vouch for them. Also you nee the clear round floral stones, I have seen the square or odd shaped ones but they need to be the large ones which are about 1 inch in diameter. There are smaller min-stones but unless you want to hunt for tiny stickers avoid the small ones.
You can find the stones in the floral section of most craft or hobby stores, OR some times some dollar stores have them. I found the glue at walmart as well as most craft stores, but for this sake, I get the glue and most of the items here at walmart as they are cheaper. Yes I know, walmart isn't always awesome, however when you are on a budget its all you have for the most part.
The paint brush can be any inexpensive brush, NO WATER color brushes, they will NOT work for this. The same for the nail file or emery board, it can be the cheap kind but needs to be to be rough textured.
A quick note on why these floral stones instead of other items. Because the type I use are cheap and magnify what ever is under them and makes it look neat done the proper way. There are polished stones for specific jewelry bails but those are pricey and require the jewelry bails to go with them.

FIRST THINGS FIRST for this, image gathering. I started with stickers. Later I used some of my bottle cap image print outs.
 This is an example image only for the bottle cap image print outs and below are sticker examples for when i first attempted making magnets.

For me, I am able to find an image online for example ponies as hasbro is ok with most of the fan tribute and use of images within reason. This brings me to the next point. MAKE SURE that you have proper permission if you are going to take online images. Try to avoid using other people's deviant art images without permission. Again there will be a tutorial on how to do this and licensing. (IE best example if you have a sticker you can do whatever you want with it, as long as the copyright symbol and name are present. Online images are a totally different area.)
So we are going to stay with stickers or pre-printed images.
IMPORTANT NOTICE, before laying down any glue make sure the image fits in the area of your stone. Best example is to lay the stone over the image to see if it will fit, if not find a bigger stone or go with another image unless you are willing to lose the part of the image that doesn't make it.

DO NOTE: If you are using stickers that require being stuck to paper go to the second step. If you are using non sticker images this is the first step.

The pictures below are left over images I had done and cut out for bottle caps and magnets. What you do is take your paint brush, take the cap/top off the bottle of glue and dip the brush in and give a thin layer over the stone, then press the image on.

REMINDER the paint brush is used to dip into the glue, the glue IS NOT to be squeezed out of the bottle.  When I do my magnets I do them in batches. If you are doing a batch that is fine, if you are just doing one or two that is fine. HOWEVER, DO NOT FORGET TO WASH/RINSE your paint brush in between batches! THOROUGHLY in hot water! Because this paint brush is now your glue paintbrush. WHY? Because eve if you get all the glue out it will affect your painting later on if you try to paint with it. Also Aleene's glue does wash off and does not damage the brush or wood. Now once you have the image on rub your nail over the back while looking at the image. This is to get air bubbles out and further seal the image to the stone. That way when it dries you don't have those weird streaks caused by air bubbles and from the image not totally being on the stone.

Second, while the glue is drying, pick the kind of paper you want your sticker to go on, be it construction paper, colored paper, scrapbook or pattern paper. I used my patchwork squares and color circles for this batch. IF you are using a pre-cut image this part is the second step, if you are putting a sticker down to the paper this is the first step. And again if you are going to do sticker to paper, test out to see if the image will fit in the boundaries of the stone by laying the stone over the image before placing the sticker down to the paper  of choice.

This is where it gets a little tricky. Since I use my already done images I would use the glue, using the brush to brush the glue and out the image. I then would use my fingernail to run over the image and make sure its glued down. If you don't do this the image can come off during the glue drying process and it also gets out the air bubbles.

 If you can see it, there is glue on the back of this, you don't want it horribly thick but enough that there is a thin coat over the flat side of the stone. Keep in mind when using these it will magnify the image which means it will appear bigger under the stone. Its important to try and center the image as much as possible or if you are using many small images make sure all fit within the boundaries of the stone. The glue will take about an hour to dry.

OR you can lay the sticker down on the area, and glue the stone to that then cut it out, or lay the sticker down, cut out the image and glue it to the stone and do the same as I mentioned above. IT IS OK if the paper is larger than the stone as long as the main image is within the stone. The images shown above were pre-cut with a scrabook one inch diameter paper cutter.

 With this one, I wanted to show an example of what happens if you decide to put the sticker to the paper first then glue the stone down. This is also the colored paper that will be the background if the image leaves along of blank space or doesn't quite make the whole stone, thus why I use paper behind it. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS for the fact that it will be needed later and it gives extra backing and layer for the next layer of glue.
The glue takes about an hour or so to dry but I wait two or more hours as to make sure. Also sometimes the craft area gets hot and it takes longer or I get distracted with other crafts and forget to check until later.

If you glued the image before the back part you will need to apply another thin layer of glue on the back of the image for the paper and let that dry. Thus part of the pictures here. I apologize for the blurred images I was using my back up camera while the main one recharged. The pack of stones with images is usually how many I do for ONE batch.

 I glued the image down, then glued the background paper. 

So if you have already gotten the image down and have waited for the glue to dry on the background paper we move on to the next part.  OR have done both of these and have the background paper already on this is where we get to the next step. See the picture above where its cut out in a square image and the paper sticks out behind the stone? This is where the nail file comes in. You can cut most of the paper off with the scissors but the nail file gets the finer details.

 
 The first image is the trimmed version BEFORE nail file. These are the nail files I have, the square one is rough, the thinner rounded one is softer. The bottom image is what is done after filing. You basically round the excess paper and file it to preference. I know it sounds weird but its almost like filing your nails but not. ALSO if you have excess dried glue either nail file is great for filing it off!
Once this is done, there is ONE FINAL layer of glue. WHY? its to protect the back so the paper doesn't yellow or thin out or wear off.

If you can find other brands of magnets that works as well. The one of the left I found at walmart, the one on the right I found at the local craft store.

This shows its 7 on the magnet strength which is good but be wary when you are doing batches with these. They require a good distance of separation when drying.

This is to show how much glue you want. About this much to be spread around on the stone for EACH layer. NOT so much for the first when you are gluing the image down but YOU WILL need this much if not a bit more for the final layer of glue for protection. You want this much and a little bit around the edges to seal them on. This will be the protective layer to keep the paper from wearing thin or yellowing over time and will thicken the paper as well. If the paper dries and comes off around the edges feel free to use super glue or craft glue to seal it back on OR go another round with more Aleene's glue to seal it back.

The magnets are easy,  I GOOFED and did not get a picture of applying the magnets. As these are strong it was tricky to do so without it distorting the image. HOWEVER I did get this

This is how far apart because any closer and the magnets would pull themselves off the stones.
I used E-6000/Goop on these. YES it takes about an hour or so BUT once its dry those magnets aren't going anywhere. YOU CAN use super glue, but you have to do them one at a time and wait for it to dry and keep it away from the rest of the magnets while the super glue dries. Plus super glue all over your fingers.
So by preference I use the craft glue. So when all is dry and done, they will look something like this!

 With light and without as once they are done, they are very reflective and hard to catch on camera without some light spots obscuring the pictures. And if there is any excess glue during any of this you can wipe it off OR let it dry and file it off. Yes you can file it off. I had to do that with these in particular.

Sorry if this was a bit confusing, please feel free to ask questions or point out steps I may have missed. Thank you!
Enjoy your memorial day in the states!