Christmas on a budget

I'm sure everyone was faced with a smaller Christmas shopping budget this year and we were no exception. Determined to find a way to fill the space beneath the tree, Melissa started researching creative gift ideas online and found something fun and affordable that we simply fell in love with. Using some of our wedding photos and other reminders of Christmas, we made personalized magnets out common craft materials and we'd like to share the secret with you.

We found all of our supplies at Hobby Lobby. Our shopping cart included a bag of 3/4" magnets, one bag of flat clear marbles (two sizes were available), a handful of holiday tins at 50% off, and clear glue. The glue actually proved to be quite the headache in the beginning. Our first attempt was a clear sticky glue that reacted with the ink on the images and left a blurry smudge. We switched to a clear silicone sealant found at Home Depot and that fixed the problem.

Our first step was to pick all of the images and print them off in 3/4" or 1" circles to match our marble size. I have a handy adobe software suite that lets me do this with little effort. I'm sure Microsoft Word will do the same. Step two was to cut out all the tiny little circles which Melissa did in a flash. Step three was to craft an assembly line process to glue the images between the magnets and the marbles. We stumbled across this by accident but found the perfect way to assemble our treasures with speed and accuracy. Using a cookie sheet, we first glued the images to the magnets by placing the images upside down on the cookie sheet. The magnet holds the paper and glue completely together for a seamless bond. After several hours, we then flipped the magnets around and glued the marbles to the top of the image and let the cookie sheet hold everything still while it dried.

The final step was to package our personalized treasures in the holiday tins and Melissa added some chocolates for the finishing touch. On Christmas day, the gifts were a huge success and we didn't go bankrupt in the process. We can't wait till next Christmas when we can find another gift idea to explore!