A Second Magnet Board Option

Several months ago, I posted about a magnet board that I made for one of my granddaughters from a large, repurposed frame and a sheet of metal from the hardware store. But now we needed a manlier option for a grandson.

I found this amazing frame (with a painting of a chef that our resident two-year-old fell in love with) at my favorite thrift store for a dollar. Using blue painter's tape, I taped around the frame to protect it.

Then, following the directions on the back of the can, I applied three coats of magnetic primer paint--that's the black stuff--re-taping between coats to prevent build-up around the edges:

(Sorry, sometimes I forget about taking pictures until I am in the middle of a project.)

Let me tell you a little about this magical mixture. First, it isn't available everywhere, so check around before you head out. I didn't find it at my usual craft stores, didn't find it at Home Depot, but finally did find it at Lowes. Google says you can get it at Walmart, but I would call them first to be sure. It is also expensive, $20 for a relatively small can. And this project didn't require very much. (So if you are my friend, live nearby, and want to do something like this, just borrow mine.) If you do end up buying it at the hardware store, be sure to have them mix it for you. I opened my can to find a layer of smelly medium floating on top of a quagmire of metallic sludge. I stirred it for a very, very, very long time. (I think it would have been faster to drive back to Lowes and have them mix it for me.)

I really like the look. But in the interest of full disclosure, the magnetic pull is not as strong as I hoped it would be. Could more coats of paint help that? I don't know. Does using stronger magnets make a difference? Not really. So my compromise is to use several magnetic clips, like these, along with regular magnets:

I love your artwork, buddy!

Quiet Book: Magnet Board Page

The four of us are collaborating on making quiet books for our children/grandchildren. It has been fun looking at other people's ideas online as well as trying to come up with creative ideas of our own. Recently, I found a magnetic nativity scene at a thrift store,  and I thought how great it would be to have a magnet board page for our quiet books.

I began by cutting a rectangle of felt about an 1 1/2" smaller than my finished quiet book page would be. I centered it on the page and zigzagged it in place. Since it wouldn't be possible to turn this page right side out once the sheet metal is in place, it is important to either use it as a page by itself at the front or back of your quiet book, or sew it to the page that it will be back to back with at this point--before adding the metal--and turn it inside out.

Not long ago I purchased a thin sheet of metal at Home Depot for something else, and there was plenty left over for this project. But you can also buy smaller, prepackaged sheets at Hobby Lobby or other craft stores. I liked cutting my own because I was able to make it larger:

I cut my metal to size with tin snips--about an inch smaller than the felt--and rounded the corners to minimize poke-age potential:

Using E6000, I glued the metal sheet to the felt I had sewn onto my page. My concern about this project is that the edges of the metal might be hazardous. So I was especially careful to put the glue very near the edge of the metal and then push the edges hard into the felt. I bought magnet letters and numbers at the dollar store and will keep my eye out for other fun magnet sets for future use. (Be sure to keep in mind the age of your user; you don't want your magnets to be a choke hazard.)

I wanted a way to store the magnets that also provides a "skill" page. Here are two zipper options that can help little fingers learn how to zip and unzip while they use their magnets: